Uber To Ban Riders With Four-Star or Lower Ratings in Australia and New Zealand (bbc.co.uk)

Uber is to block customers in Australia and New Zealand from its ride service if they have a low passenger rating. Riders rated four-out-of-five stars or lower will be banned for six months. Ratings are based on feedback left by drivers after each journey. BBC: The move is aimed at improving passenger behaviour, the company said. Uber told the BBC that Australia and New Zealand had been identified as a place to bring in the rule after feedback from drivers. The same policy was introduced in Brazil earlier this this year, Uber said, but it's the first time the control has been rolled out in an English-speaking market. An Uber spokeswoman declined to be drawn on exactly how many of its 2.8 million users in Australia and New Zealand currently had ratings of below 4.0 -- but conceded it was only "a few thousand." The "vast majority" -- believed to be more than 90% -- had ratings of at least 4.5, the company said. The policy will kick in on 19 September and passengers will receive several warnings before they are banned.

Comments

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

now male uber drivers can threaten females with low stars if they won't kiss em.

What could possibly go wrong

[alvinrod]

I can't see how telling everyone this could result in any forms of bad behavior to harm legitimate riders. Not at all.

Also, how skewed is the rating system if anyone below 4 is considered bad. They need a new system if it's 5 stars or bust.

Re:What could possibly go wrong

[Ichijo]

This is why we need a contextual ranking system. Instead of giving the driver 1-5 stars, you mark that you prefer them either more or less than the previous driver. Then the software would use the Condorcet method to rank all drivers in order from least to most preferred, and assign each driver a percentile rank from 1% to 99%. This flattens the distribution curve and provides more granularity into how well each driver is liked.

It's like California's restaurant inspection grading system. Everyone's an "A" so it's tough to compare.

That's certainly innovation.

[bistromath007]

I didn't think it was possible for them to find a way for internet businesses to double down on how badly they've fucked up the star rating system, but here we are.

Re:That's certainly innovation.

[Man On Pink Corner]

Someone should point out to them that 'Black Mirror' is a screenplay, not a business plan.

Re:No tip, low rating

[agm]

NZ and Australia are first world countries, we don't tip here.