5 ms·

While I feel sympathy for the writer, there are few items of note before applying this beyond Singapore: - Believe all drivers for hire in the US are required

While I feel sympathy for the writer, there are few items of note before applying this beyond Singapore: - Believe all drivers for hire in the US are required to have mandatory liability insurance; that would address at least part of the financial consequences of the accident. - Don't the market leading US ride-share apps track driver performance and post ratings? - Driver ride ratings are likely a poor predictor of severe events; you probably need something more along the lines of hard breaking incidents per mile (used to predict issues for trucks and service vehicles). IOT can get you this. I think more importantly, the driver already had a legally issued cab license... if he wasn't driving for a ride-share company, he would have been driving a regular cab. The risk management failure was at the state level not the company.

tejohnso 8y ago
I was looking for some type of uber vs traditional cab comparison and couldn't find any justification for the headline. The quote on your last point is: > I asked him how he’d passed Grab’s driver-screening process. He said there was no issue, because he already had a taxi driver’s license. Well, that's pretty much the end of the story then. At least, the story that I thought it was based on the headline. Driving is dangerous. The fact that an accident occurred in a car hired via app vs traditional street side hailing or telephone call doesn't seem very relevant.
Zigurd 8y ago
Re hard braking: Smooth driving may be a nice-to-have, rather than an clear indicator. Or, to put it another way, if there is a useful signal in apps that score driving smoothness and lack of distraction from phone calls and texts, extracting that signal from the noise of whether the driver frequents dangerous roads, drives at night, drives fatigued, intoxicated, is using a second mobile device, in bad weather, etc. isn't easy. Or, to put it yet another way, the real signal isn't in the score provided to the driver, it may be something the driver would consider unfair and outside their control in many cases. These apps influence drivers to drive more smoothly, which is useful for ride hailing since it improves the perceived quality of the ride, but that's much less directly connected to safety.
- vonseel 8y ago
  is using a second mobile device Initially I was like “versus using a single mobile device? What?” But I see what you’re saying here... the apps should be able to prevent or detect use by drivers while in motion. On the other hand, this prompted some thought about how distracting in-car entertainment systems can be. The late 2000s early touch-screen and some of the non-touch screen systems are particularly horrible, like the early BMW iDrive and its predecessor. Changing the air conditioning settings in those cars is a UX nightmare.
mcguire 8y ago
How are hard braking incidents used in the other industries? Too many and the driver is canned?
- sixtypoundhound 8y ago
  For the use case I saw, it was one of several variables fed into a statistical modeling engine that predicted various forms of trouble. Mostly safety and employee retention. If I recall correctly, the absolute value was less predictive than watching for changes and relative performance vs. peers. It's a good signal that things aren't going smoothly behind the wheel; sometimes is may just be the time and place, in other situations you could have a driver issue. The usual intervention was to trigger someone back at dispatch to get the driver on the horn and ask them if everything was ok... "whoa cowboy, you all right?" Long haul trucking is an interesting place; everyone hates it, pretty much, since you're away from the family for weeks at a time. Turnover rates approach 100%. Bad driving metrics often can be linked to other forms of stress which prompt an unsafe attitude behind the wheel.... I think they wove sentiment analysis into the product as well, looking at what the driver said. Recommended intervention is to get the driver on the horn and ask them if they needed a little help; apparently that tended to cure a good share of the problems...
  - mcguire 8y ago
    Damn, that sounds like a good response.

tejohnso 8y ago

I was looking for some type of uber vs traditional cab comparison and couldn't find any justification for the headline. The quote on your last point is: > I asked him how he’d passed Grab’s driver-screening process. He said there was no issue, because he already had a taxi driver’s license. Well, that's pretty much the end of the story then. At least, the story that I thought it was based on the headline. Driving is dangerous. The fact that an accident occurred in a car hired via app vs traditional street side hailing or telephone call doesn't seem very relevant.

Zigurd 8y ago

Re hard braking: Smooth driving may be a nice-to-have, rather than an clear indicator. Or, to put it another way, if there is a useful signal in apps that score driving smoothness and lack of distraction from phone calls and texts, extracting that signal from the noise of whether the driver frequents dangerous roads, drives at night, drives fatigued, intoxicated, is using a second mobile device, in bad weather, etc. isn't easy. Or, to put it yet another way, the real signal isn't in the score provided to the driver, it may be something the driver would consider unfair and outside their control in many cases. These apps influence drivers to drive more smoothly, which is useful for ride hailing since it improves the perceived quality of the ride, but that's much less directly connected to safety.

vonseel 8y ago
is using a second mobile device Initially I was like “versus using a single mobile device? What?” But I see what you’re saying here... the apps should be able to prevent or detect use by drivers while in motion. On the other hand, this prompted some thought about how distracting in-car entertainment systems can be. The late 2000s early touch-screen and some of the non-touch screen systems are particularly horrible, like the early BMW iDrive and its predecessor. Changing the air conditioning settings in those cars is a UX nightmare.

mcguire 8y ago

How are hard braking incidents used in the other industries? Too many and the driver is canned?

sixtypoundhound 8y ago
For the use case I saw, it was one of several variables fed into a statistical modeling engine that predicted various forms of trouble. Mostly safety and employee retention. If I recall correctly, the absolute value was less predictive than watching for changes and relative performance vs. peers. It's a good signal that things aren't going smoothly behind the wheel; sometimes is may just be the time and place, in other situations you could have a driver issue. The usual intervention was to trigger someone back at dispatch to get the driver on the horn and ask them if everything was ok... "whoa cowboy, you all right?" Long haul trucking is an interesting place; everyone hates it, pretty much, since you're away from the family for weeks at a time. Turnover rates approach 100%. Bad driving metrics often can be linked to other forms of stress which prompt an unsafe attitude behind the wheel.... I think they wove sentiment analysis into the product as well, looking at what the driver said. Recommended intervention is to get the driver on the horn and ask them if they needed a little help; apparently that tended to cure a good share of the problems...
- mcguire 8y ago
  Damn, that sounds like a good response.