I think there are two issues: 1) Evaluation inflation/simplification. Happens with grades, happens with reviews. 4 stars becomes the new 'adequate'. If you're

I think there are two issues: 1) Evaluation inflation/simplification. Happens with grades, happens with reviews. 4 stars becomes the new 'adequate'. If you're under 4 stars, you're bad. Everyone subconsciously knows this, hence the thinking 'if I don't give them a 5 star review they might get fired.' A more meaningful, diverse group of metrics is likely the answer to this. Get rid of 'overall' ratings. Rate drivers on their friendliness, safety, timeliness, etc. Uber can decide on some algorithm for determining when to let drivers go, and users feel less bad about negative reviews: 'Well, I gave him a 2 on safety but he was really friendly so at least I gave him a 5 on that." 2) Not enough separation between reviews and individuals. If I leave a review on amazon, I don't want that being tied to my account. At all. I don't want to see the seller's replies to my reviews. If someone finds out my amazon account name, they should not be able to tie individual reviews back to me. Batch reviews up in groups of 5, randomize them, and post them all at once. Don't let there be any possibility of tying reviews back to individuals. The fear of someone seeing a mean review I wrote and forever thinking I'm an asshole is a serious barrier to negative feedback (barring extraordinary circumstances).