Thread by @TheFoofinator

My heart rate is through the roof right now out of both panic, but also pure rage. Mara and I just had a really jarring experience with an uber driver who decided he wanted to keep driving to "keep the conversation going"

Started out just talking friendly enough "why you in town?/what do you guys do?" and all that. Said the convention, we worked in publishing.

First red flag was a weird ass statement from him "wow, do you ever believe people are brought together for a reason?"

Didn't think much of it, quirky dude who had a lot of questions about indie publishing for kids books. I'm still in convention mode so I'm all happy to help.

Suddenly he goes "you know what lemme just take this exit instead, don't worry about the charge for the longer ride"

That's when I sat up a little straighter, and realized uber says we "completed" the ride. We were supposed to be 15 min away from our hotel at the start, but we'd been driving for 20.
He's still talking, but I can see him manually putting in an address, not using the app anymore.

I no longer had the page with his license plate. I loudly called up @Nadia_Shammas_ (who left the con earlier and was already back in NYC) to "meet us in the lobby" in 5, and asked him when our ETA was. He said about three different times, our we're just "3 minutes away"

Our 15 min drive was now coming up to 40 minutes, and I kept hearing the GPS go "re-calculating", so wherever he was planning to go wasnt panning out anymore. I think I freaked him out with the phone call, because he did end up dropping us off at a random street corner downtown.

I know that he knew he fucked up because it was only vaguely near our hotel area. Of course we got the fuck out anyways. I could tell he wouldnt dare ask for the address again becuase that woulda meant admitting he replaced our address.

Mara and I are both 110 pounds and 5'4, in a strange city, and it was 10PM at night. I don't believe there was malicious intent, but he saw absolutely no issue with keeping two young women in his backseat just so he could keep having "a fun conversation. I'm absolutely fuming.

If you have a bitch face, good for you. Women don't owe you polite conversation. We don't owe you time. We don't have to be nice. This is the shit that happens and we always have to worry about happening when a stranger decides we are approachable.

Never using @Uber ever again.

I'm still processing this, but I'm still just...furious. At the audacity. It took him 3 clicks with @Uber to remove all accountability, I no longer had any information on this man or the car if the situation became dangerous because he marked the ride as "completed"

Trip Completion must be a 2 step verification from both the driver and the rider. I should not be riding blind with someone when I am still in their car. This is the goddamn fundemental difference between getting a ride from a stranger and a ride sharing service.

Of all the things the happened in this ride that I can give the benefit of the doubt, "accidentally ending the trip early" is not one of them. He very clearly told us that he wanted to keep driving and to "not worry about the cost". That's when I saw he ended the trip on the app

Stop telling me what I should have done to find the info. When you're wondering if it is worth it to get out of a car the next time it slows down in a city you've spent 3 days in, you're not gonna sit around fiddling with the settings on the uber app

What the uber app shows our trip was like, what google maps shows it was supposed to be. You see the exact moment he decided to "keep the conversation going"

Wanna thank friends and the art community on here who I can always rely on to help make good trouble and noise.
@Uber is being incredibly vague and unresponsive on the private support chat, but is happy to publicly tweet at me everytime a verified account shares the thread.

Funnily enough, I was telling that driver how supportive and wonderful the local illustration and comics community was before that shit was pulled. Karma is real.

Spoke w/ a woman who is safety + community rep at Uber. My story adds up with their GPS info on the trip, that there's a clear violation of safety guidelines. So far only a suspension on Uber, and they'll sort out if he gets reinstated.

Got commended for my "creativity". Great.

Muting this thread, as the replies are just turning into noise. I got their focus, said my bit, and filing this whole thing away in the back of my brain.

Back to art and dumb jokes.