Falling asleep on the subway or a bus is never good. You end up miles away from your intended stop, and the last thing you want to do at 2 a.m. is spend another two hours (wideawake, no less) on public transportation to get home.
Falling asleep in an Uber, though, sounds far better. You're in the backseat of an air-conditioned car and, so long as you gave the driver the correct address, he will wake you up when you've safely arrived at your doorstep. Right?
Wrong.
One woman in London discovered the harm that can come of taking a quick snooze in an Uber. Hannah Warman tweeted about her fateful ride home last night, including a screenshot of the GPS route that her driver took. What should have been a five-minute ride home turned into a 35 mile, hour-and-30-minute-long trip — all while Warman slept in the backseat.
When u think "It's only a 5 min walk but f**k it, I'll get an uber!"
— Hannah Warman (@hannahwarman) August 29, 2016
& u fall asleep #LookAtTheRouteHeTook! @uber pic.twitter.com/xsELKpsgjF
This was incredibly shady on her driver's part. He clearly noticed Warman was asleep and took advantage of the situation to earn more money.
Uber replied to Warman's tweet asking her to message them with her email address. In response to request for comment, however, it seems like Warman may have changed her story slightly. An Uber spokesperson said:
“We have given the rider a full refund, and are speaking to the licensed driver to establish exactly what happened. However, our systems show that the requested destination changed three times during the trip. Unlike other transport options, Uber's technology records every trip and sends riders a receipt with a map of the route taken. This transparency and accountability means, if there is an issue it can be quickly resolved."
Whether or not Warman's story was an altered version of the truth or not, it's clear that it was not an isolated incident: Others replied to her tweet with similar stories of ridiculously long, unnecessary detours. If this does ever happen to you, make sure to immediately file a report with Uber here. And, of course, give your driver a poor rating so that this same issue doesn't happen to anyone else. More from Refinery29 Tech: Here's How I Fixed My Uber Rating
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“We have given the rider a full refund, and are speaking to the licensed driver to establish exactly what happened. However, our systems show that the requested destination changed three times during the trip. Unlike other transport options, Uber's technology records every trip and sends riders a receipt with a map of the route taken. This transparency and accountability means, if there is an issue it can be quickly resolved."
Whether or not Warman's story was an altered version of the truth or not, it's clear that it was not an isolated incident: Others replied to her tweet with similar stories of ridiculously long, unnecessary detours. If this does ever happen to you, make sure to immediately file a report with Uber here. And, of course, give your driver a poor rating so that this same issue doesn't happen to anyone else. More from Refinery29 Tech: Here's How I Fixed My Uber Rating
Why Your Next Uber Could Cost More
Uber Is About To Get Super Sneaky With Its Surge Prices