Ridesharing services have revolutionized how we commute, making it easier for passengers to get from Point A to Point B, and providing drivers with a way to earn a little extra income. But every now and then, things go awry.
An Iowa man was recently arrested after being accused of frantically masturbating in the front seat of an Uber.
“Do you want to touch it?” 27-year-old Christopher Wayne Jensen allegedly asked the horrified male driver, who quickly pulled over and insisted he exit vehicle.
Jensen turned himself in to police after learning there was a warrant out for his arrest. He told the Iowa City Press-Citizen this week that he has absolutely no recollection of the incident.
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“I drank heavily and remember very little from that night,” he said, “but I know what kind of person I am, and wouldn’t do something like this.”
Jensen believes his Uber driver is lying, though he admits he was too trashed to actually remember. But he’s hardly the first person to be accused of behaving badly while using the app.
Scroll down for more stories of Uber rides gone wrong…
The backseat blowie
When Matthew Martson requested an Uber in Orlando last month, his driver responded by offering him a free ride… with one pretty big caveat.
“Hey, I’ll give you a free ride if you let me (commit a sexual act),” he texted.
Martson was mortified and quickly canceled the ride, only to be hit with a fee from the ride sharing app.
Rude!
“I was shocked,” he told his local news station. “It felt uncomfortable.”
Martson eventually contacted Uber and was refunded his $5. Meanwhile, the driver maintains a perfect 5-star rating.
He must be good.
The “fatal” drunk driving crash that never happened
In April, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 queen Robbie Turner (aka Jeremy Baird) claimed he was involved in a drunk driving accident that resulted in his Uber driver being killed.
Turner tweeted: “Last night on my way home my Uber was struck by a drunk driver. I closed my eyes briefly & it happened,” and “My driver did not survive.”
Everyone was very sad for Turner and the dead Uber driver. Until it was discovered the accident never happened.
Turner later told Entertainment Weekly that he was confused. Apparently, he had had too much to drink the night before, bumped his head in the shower, had a “vivid dream” about being in a drunk driving accident, and then woke up and tweeted about it.
“I had a mild mental break,” he said, “and it was triggered by slipping in the shower.”
Related: Fellow ‘Drag Race’ queens are reading Robbie Turner hard for that “fatal” “Uber” “crash”
The drivers revolt in Philadelphia
A group of antigay white supremacists staged an alt-right rally in downtown Philadelphia last month. After the event was over, they attempted to leave by hailing cabs and Ubers.
Unfortunately for them, as soon as the drivers learned who they were and what they had been doing, they wouldn’t let any of them into their vehicles. Some politely declined to drive them. Others just sped off, quite literally leaving the homophobic hate-mongers out in the cold.
We love seeing karma unfold in real time.
This is completely surreal. Fascists are trying to take taxis , but the drivers keep leaving whenever they realize what’s happening. pic.twitter.com/lcwPucpSPf
— Tess Owen (@misstessowen) November 17, 2018
The parking lot proposition
Jordan Pavlovski said he felt totally “gross” after an awkward Uber ride earlier this year.
“I noticed that the Uber driver kept looking back at me in his rear-view mirror, but I didn’t think much of it at the time,” the 33-year-old hair stylist recalled to local media at the time.
It wasn’t until he got home that Pavlovski noticed the text message from his driver, who will still parked outside his house.
“If you like giving blow jobs,” it read, along with the man’s cellphone number.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Pavlovski said. “The whole thing was really creepy. The worst part is that he knows where I live now, which makes me feel really uncomfortable.”
BONUS: The classist, classless CEO
Who can forget that time former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick berated a driver in San Francisco for not working harder in life?
The incident happened back in February 2017. In a video obtained by Bloomberg, driver Fawze Kamel is seen confronting Kalanick about how his company has been dropping its fares so much that it has become nearly impossible to earn a decent a living as an Uber driver.
Kalanick responds by becoming aggressive, saying that people like Kamel “don’t like to take responsibility for their own sh*t” and instead blame others for their problems.
Watch below (their conversation begins at the 3:56 mark):
Vince
Shit people if you have a problem with Uber find another ride sharing app. Uber is scum anyways. Run by a republican who’s up trumps ass.
Bob LaBlah
I know this is a dumb question but what ever happened to the local cab company? I don’t get what makes all of these new fangled ride companies jump ahead of the old, reliable local cab company. The rates they charge are competitive with these companies whose drivers appear more and more to have bought a car they can ill afford and need to moonlight as a personal chauffeur, which too many are ill equipped mentally to handle. But yet these queens just flock to them.
Mack
I personally prefer Cab companies. They’re licensed so they’ve been check out for convictions and so forth. The Ubers and Lyfts can be any one with a car and you take your life in your hands when you ride one of those. Too many reports of problems with Uber and Lyft drivers.
Juanjo
The short answer is easy, at least in San Francisco. Taxi drivers only want to do tourist runs and back when I traveled a lot, I often had taxis turn me down at the airport when they found out I was going “short” instead of the big hotels downtown. Also many refused to do pick-ups or drop-offs in my neighborhood because they considered it too close to Hunters Point, a “Black” area. Unlike the cabbies 30 years ago, many of them have no idea where anything is other than the main attractions in town. They will also try to use the long way around the block to rack up mileage n the meter.
Uber and Lyft have their own issues. Drivers often are new immigrants and their English skills are not great. Many people come into SF from out of town to works conventions and weekends and really do not know where anything is. But they had their map app and they are willing to take directions. Unlike taxi drivers who will lead you all over creation to drive up the rate, Uber drivers do not have a financial incentive to do that.
You are right about one thing, both the taxi companies and Uber/Lyft need to screen their people better. Because now that taxi drivers are independent contractors, they’re not above letting a friend or relative drive a shift for them. All of them can also drive horribly. One thing is that at least the Uber/Lyft vehicles are clear. Taxis, not so much.
Bob LaBlah
I just did a google search for information regarding uber/lyft drivers and their pay. What I read was not pretty and it explains why many of their drivers arrive as frustrated as they do. I was right about many of those people having cars whose monthly payments and insurance add up to more than they are paying in rent and house note. They are desperate to get the bills paid some how and have to deal with long waits in between calls on most nights and on the hot nights they have to deal with tons of other drivers competing for the same fares. I think I’d pass on this career and just buy a good used car and call it a day.
Kangol
@Bob, in almost every place I’ve traveled in the US, cabs are more expensive, they’re less reliable, they’re often late, the cabs themselves are often less clean and comfortable, and they still have issues picking up non-white customers, especially black riders. Uber (a horrible company) and Lyft are much better on all accounts. For example, take a taxi from LaGuardia, JFK or Newark Liberty to Manhattan vs. a cab, and it’s not even comparable in terms of costs or comfort.
Bob LaBlah
@Kangol……When I lived in NYC I always chose the Dominicans and their big clean Lincoln Town Cars. Thats one thing I do miss about NYC. The Dominican cab drivers. To hell with Uber, Lyft and those now Matchbox (surely you had one of those as a kid) sized Yellow Taxis out on the streets nowadays up there.
justyouandi
Kalanick made a good point. The job pays what it pays. If it doesn’t work for you, do something else.
Vince
That’s not what his point was.
How is it that you have a company that’s valued in billions while their drivers can’t even pay the proper insurance and maintenance for their cars. Uber is extremely greedy and it should concern everyone.
Curtispsf
That complaint about the hairdresser getting upset about the UBER driver texting him about giving the driver head was ridiculous. I mean what hairdresser DOESN’T like sucking dick? Please, girl. [Attention: this is a joke, people].
Ukin Blome
Thank you! Now if I can just find that driver.
HereIAm
Sure, a bad and distasteful joke that resorts to stereotypes to humiliate people from that profession.
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Chrisk
Queerty where the eff are the monitors? The spamming is getting way out of hand.