Uber used to make it difficult to find out your passenger rating. To find out if you were a 5-star rider, you had to ask a driver (and they would usually tell you, but that’s kind of an awkward conversation) or toggle through some menu options to submit a request to Uber.
As of this week, finding your rating is simple. Super easy. In fact, you can’t miss it. Uber is putting your stars just beneath your name in the top left of the app.
Uber says the change is because riders “forget that their driver is also rating them, too, and things like eating in the car, slamming the door, or trying to pile in more people than seatbelts can impact whether it’s a 5-star experience for drivers.” I don’t know anyone who forgets that drivers rate them, too. Some people are on a quest to be 5-star passengers, while others just want to know if their behavior is costing them stars.
While you won’t be able to see why a driver rated you in a particular way, if you’re constantly trying to squeeze too many people into an UberX when you know you need an UberXL, maybe you’ll cut it out when you see your rating plummet.
UberPool ratings are also changing in the update rolling out worldwide starting today. Now you can specify why you gave your ride less than five stars. Maybe it wasn’t the driver’s fault. Maybe your fellow passengers were wasted and ruined the experience. This extra piece of information will help out your driver, preventing him or her from being docked for a rogue rider’s behavior.
These features likely won’t make much of a difference for people who are deleting Uber en masse over its recent workplace harassment allegations and reports that the company was inappropriately fingerprinting iPhones and hiding the fact from Apple. But for Uber devotees obsessed with their ratings, this update is a long-requested one that has finally arrived.