The User, Uber-Ola & others never designed for
Who is the user? The one who uses the product or the one surrounded by it or Both?
Let me start with a reference of Law of Thermodynamics, which talks about a System and Surroundings and how both have an effect on each other. I strongly feel something similar is what happens on the roads where lot of people are driving; each vehicle is a system, surrounded by other systems. For the traffic to be smooth there needs to be an equilibrium.
​
The focus of my article are the “Cab Aggregators” in the Indian Scenario. Many praise these car hailing and pooling apps for their service and experience they provide over your phone and over the journey. I was one of them till the time I started driving to work.
Background
I am based in Delhi and now work in Gurgaon (the IT hub for North India). I was a student of design till a year back and that was the exact time when these cab renting services were becoming popular amongst commoners. I have 2 family cars at my disposal to take care of my travel within the city and my beloved motorcycle (rudra) for my regular outstation roadtrips. I started using Ola for auto-rickshaws while I was in College as I wanted to save money over a cab to go home. Later I shifted to Uber once I started working (how Uber hijacked me from Ola is a story for another day). The only time I take a cab now is when I am out for some drinks or partying at a friends place knowing I would have to get back home the same night.
​
So YES!! I can actually count the number of times I have taken a cab, my ola count is 10 and my Uber count is somewhere 35 rides till date (with a 5 star rating, many of my friends hate this fact) I absolutely like the service, the app design, efficiency and most importantly the conversation I have had with the cab drivers. I took a pool and an Uber moto just once till date, on that Uber-moto ride I ended up pushing the motorcycle for 300 meters for fuel, well it was his 3rd day as a Uber Moto Rider, so no complaints there.
The Problem
Now that you have an idea of my experience with the service, let me tell you why I have a problem. For the last couple of months I have been driving to work and I have understood pretty clearly that all these apps were designed perfectly with high priorities on the Users, Drivers, Service, Location, Geo-Fencing, Driver Fraud but one major thing they all skipped was “OTHER ROAD USERS”. I wont be surprised if none of the aggregators had other motorists on their drawing boards.
Problems:
1) Use of the app while driving (specially in case of Pool):
We all know in India and many countries its an offence to use phones while driving, but somehow these cab aggregators get away with this rule. It surprises me that no one is pointing at this major flaw not even the authorities.
​
Most of the drivers are constantly on their phones- either accepting rides, calling the customers for their exact location, accepting pool rides on the go, checking and accepting incoming next-ride request while the current ride is in progress all this while they are driving.
This not only takes away their attention from driving but also slows them down, causing problems for other drives around him. Resulting in inconvenience for others, chaos and traffic buildup.
​
Uber’s new trick in the Hat: Facial Recognition of driver on accepting a ride. Recently I came across an article which talks about Uber’s plans to implement Facial Recognition for drivers accepting rides, link to the story here.
Again this will lead to extensive usage of the phone while on the go, adding further complication to the already existing problem of using phones while driving.
​
In the same article they also talk about integrating IoT sensors, now that is something I look forward to.
2) Pick up & Drop points:
I have experienced customers stopping cabs in middle of the road to board and de-board causing jams and delays for other road users. Many a times I have observed the customer is on one side of the road and the cab is on the other side, what people do is cross the road halfway and the cab driver stops on the right lane to make it easy for the customer, as a result the entire traffic is held causing a jam.
​
In a perfect scenario the driver is supposed to take the closest U-turn and reach the customer, but in peak hours where a U-turn can add another 30min to your travel time, both the driver and customer retort to shortcuts which cause problems to other road users.
This was just one example, it is also irresponsible on the part of the users of the service to board and de-board at intersections or to even push the drivers to go against traffic rules.
​
One possible solution can be to allot cabs to the customer which are on their side of the road. Yes! this might increase waiting times for customer, decrease rides for the drivers but might result in better road sense and eventually cause less nuisance for other road users.
3) No seat belts for rear passengers
This comes for a personal experience, back in 2012 I met with an accident while traveling in a private cab. I was seated in the rear where seat belts are usually tucked away under the seat to accommodate the third passenger in better comforts (no poking seatbelt buckles you see). The accident left me with a paralysed hand for 6 months followed by an year of physiotherapy to get back to normal.
Today when I see these cabs be it Ola, Uber, private cabs or any other, all of them have the seat belts tucked away under the rear seats just to carry that extra person in comfort. Sadly even the Indian Motor Vehicle Laws don’t make it mandatory for rear passengers to wear the seatbelt.
The app based aggregators promise so much in the name of safety of the customers but the most basic ones are just ignored completely, for that extra passenger, cost saving and profit making.
4) In Car Entertainment — Large Screens in the back
The idea of placing massive screens hooked to the front seat headrests such that passengers get an amazing experience on the go with all possible entertainment and connectivity sounds perfect.
​
Ola you get brownie points for Ola Play over Uber, But… But for once lets think through the perspective of other road users, for who it can be a big distraction while driving. Knowingly-Unknowingly, Intentionally-Unintentionally other road users tend to look away from the road ahead to see whats playing on those screens. The problem is not the facility but the positioning of those screens which hamper concentration of others outside and around the cab. A better thought on the possible audience would have helped in a better integration.
5) Drivers Education (Driving, Rules, Business Model-how it works…):
I absolutely understand that the responsibility of a drivers driving capabilities rests on the licensing authority, but these driver are the same people who represent you. That owes cab aggregators some responsibility.
​
Basic training of lane driving, speed check, how to use the app and more importantly how the business runs is something that needs to be explained to the drivers.
​
Many drivers I had a conversation with don’t understand the business model or how the system works, how they are allotted rides, why the incentives have gone down. All they know is how to accept and end a ride. The situation gets worse in case of a pool where multiple pick-up and drops happen. I haven’t personally used the Drivers Version of the app, but for the brief moment I experienced it while helping my driver with his next pickup, all I can say is its quite a task.
​
Moreover news of cabs involved in wrongdoings have been on a rise in India and worldwide. With such incidents happening its high time Cab Aggregators take responsibility of educating their drivers and more importantly employing drivers with a good background check of driving capabilities and behaviour.
​
Just search for incidents involving cab aggregators on the internet and you would find many of them in the news.
The Future of Cabs and Personal Vehicles:
It is being said time and again that no one would prefer to own a personal vehicle in the future and the app based car rentals / car hiring are the way forward, but one thing you cannot ignore are people like me who are a still a larger number on the roads and prefer to drive which in an amazing experience on its own.
We need a system design that addresses everybody in the system and around it. Road safety is the need of the hour and sadly one of the most neglected problems in our country and elsewhere. I strongly feel companies venturing into such domains need to take responsibility in shaping the overall infrastructure and deliver successful products to everyone involved and not just the direct users.