A car full of strangers whose addresses you can learn if you pay attention to where they get dropped of sounds like a great place to pick up dates! Or apparently not, according to the official guidelines for UberPool passengers guidelines the company released last week, which tell you to stop treating your shared ride like a captive audience for your pick-up lines.
“It’s OK to chat with other people in the car. But please don’t comment on someone’s appearance or ask whether they are single,” the rules say. They also tell you not to “touch or flirt with other people in the car. Because apparently that’s a thing you need to explicitly state these days (h/t DNAinfo).
I have taken precisely one car-hailing app pool ride in my life. It was with Lyft last May when there was no affordable/under two-hour way home from Bushwick, and my legs were too beat from running a race to use my bike. I said hi to the two other people in the car who did not lift their eyes from their phones once the whole ride, so then I did too.
So I don’t really understand car-sharing culture, but late-night-post-bar-trapped-in-a-car-with-strangers-on-the-way-home sounds like a dicey situation to be in to anyone who feels vulnerable. So let this be another opportunity to remember not to touch strangers, ever, under any circumstance. Also that Uber is bad and the subway is good. Read more on the rules here.