UberSPOT
What is Uber Spot?
Uber Spot is a program designed to help Uber passengers find & identify their rides more easily.
Uber began testing UberSPOT in Seattle, Washington in late 2015, in response to criticism that it was sometimes confusing or difficult for Uber riders to identify which vehicle was theirs, especially on crowded or busy streets.
How does UberSPOT work?
The system uses a simple set of ‘color-coded’ dots to help Uber riders identify their incoming vehicle.
After requesting an Uber ride on the Uber App, a passenger will simply select one of 6 dot colors while they await their vehicle.
When their driver arrives, an in-vehicle LED light will glow in the selected color. In other words, passengers will be able to easily identify their car when it appears nearby.
Another useful SPOT feature is passenger identification — riders are able to press (and hold down) a color button on their phone to make their screen light up. They can then raise their phone in the air, thereby helping an arriving Uber driver to identify them, as well.
Uber already has a series of identifying information for passengers and drivers (plate numbers; driver photos; car model info; phone numbers, etc) — but UberSPOT is just an added (and simple) feature to make the process even faster.
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As a driver, I have the opposite problem: finding the person I’m supposed to pick up. Outside a hotel or restaurant, it is difficult at times to find your driver in a crowd of people waiting for rides, etc. This is especially true if you call them. They’ll tell you “I’m standing by such-and-such a place”, but if you’re not familiar with the place, it means nothing to you. I usually try to ask them what they’re wearing and tell them a landmark that I’m near. If they’re familiar with the landmark, then they’ll tell you something like “just a little bit west of there” or something like that.
This happens a lot when you’re at a large mall with a lot of restaurants in the same area (like Aventura Mall in Miami). You literally need to know where each restaurant is located because the only thing the Uber app will tell you is the address for the ENTIRE mall.
And using the PIN on the Uber app is not always accurate.