Bengaluru: Customers see red as Uber insists on GPS

Bengaluru: Are Uber drivers being instructed to take circuitous routes by the company? Uber drivers in the city are insisting on sticking to routes guided by their GPS, even if a customer knows shorter routes.

On Monday, Abhinav decided to take an Uber to head to St. John’s hospital near Koramangala. Having been picked up at Banaswadi early morning, he decided to close his eyes for a while. After five minutes when he opened his eyes he noticed the car was heading towards the Outer Ring Road via Ramamurthy Nagar.

 Abhinav instructed the driver to take the shorter route via Byappanahalli, which would save him time and money. However the driver insisted that he had been instructed to follow the GPS by the Uber staff and he would have to speak to them.

“I was told that he had been instructed to strictly follow the instructions which were to follow the company provided GPS . I made him call the staff at Uber and spoke to them. The person who spoke to me on the phone insisted that GPS was to be followed as it was company policy and it was a matter of safety,” said Abhinav.

“When I asked why this was necessary especially when I knew the route, the helpline operator tried to haggle for five minutes before giving up and instructing the driver to take the route I wanted,” added Abhinav. Deccan Chronicle spoke to a couple of Uber drivers, who under condition of anonymity, attested to the fact that Uber staff had insisted on following GPS routes. “I was asked by the company to adhere to the GPS and convince the customer,” an Uber driver, who did not want to be named, added.