SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Seattle driver’s ‘Uber conversation menu’ goes viral
Mar 8, 2019, 5:32 AM | Updated: 12:32 pm
Rideshare giant Uber continues its push for congestion tolling in Seattle. (AP)
(AP)
You’ll get more than just a ride if you end up in George Ure’s Uber — you may find yourself with a free comedy show, a therapy session, or even an encounter with your high school nemesis.
Ure created his own ‘Uber menu’ so that passengers can hand-pick what they want him to talk about, how much they want him to talk, or even if they want him to talk at all during the ride. If you’ve ever been that chatty person who is disappointed to find a quiet Uber driver, or an introvert annoyed by a driver’s attempts to talk, Ure’s Uber menu is your chance to design your own custom rideshare experience.
“I had the idea, and it was a joke, it started out as a complete joke, to just kind of break the ice, make passengers laugh,” Ure told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.
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Finding himself with some downtime during the Seattle Snowpocalypse, Ure — who coincidentally once ended up on the same skydiving plane as Dori — made the menus just for the heck of it.
He gave Dori a quick rundown of the selections he offers his riders:
– The Stand-Up Ride: “If people want to be entertained and laugh, I definitely can provide that option for them.”
– The Silent Ride: “It’s just silence.”
– The Therapy Ride: “If you’ve got something on your mind, I want to help take it off.”
– The Creepy Ride: “I say things like, ‘You smell so much different when you’re awake,’ and [give] weird looks in the rear-view mirror.”
– The Rude Ride: “It’s kind of an assessment process to identify past traumas and bullying from high school, and then you just pretty much become their drunk bad stepfather and really just crush their soul.”
Luis, a rider from Kirkland, was so amused by the Uber menu that he posted it on Twitter, where it exploded.
last night my uber gave me a menu on what kind of ride i wanted , pic.twitter.com/SMBBV4kVpu
— Łuí (@LuisLovesGoats) February 25, 2019
There are now over half a million likes and 120,000 retweets on Luis’s original Twitter post. It was also “tearing it up on Instagram,” according to Ure, and making the rounds on Facebook.
“It’s weird being internet-famous,” Ure said. “I don’t think there’s been one passenger I’ve had since who hasn’t recognized me … this is like, whoa man, this is crazy.”
While he looks forward to “get[ting] back to [his] usual grind,” he is enjoying the chance to bring some joy to people’s lives while on a routine rideshare drive.
“It’s definitely fun for now,” he said. “What I do love about it is, I’ve made so many people laugh.”
