Twitter bots reveal when Uber and Lyft drivers are offering weed or listening to Hannah Montana
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
There are tweets about drivers allegedly asking about orgies, listening to Hannah Montana, giving riders weed, and lots of farting.
That's just on the Uber account.
On the Lyft side, drivers are also allegedly doing hypnotherapy, complimenting passenger's sneezes and blowing on a breathalyzer while driving. (Lyft customer service at @AskLyft definitely responded to that last one).
Mason, the founder of Fast Forward Labs, created two twitter bots that automatically retweet when someone includes "my uber driver" or "my lyft driver" to the appropriate account: @myuberdriverbot or @mylyftdriverbot.
"The particular demographic of people who use these services are going to say funny things," Mason said. "We all have our own experiences, but here's a little taste of what the world sees."
My #uber driver has "Truly Madly Deeply" on. Should I be holding his hand, or is that weird?
- Chris S (@elcapitanRC) May 25, 2015
Mason's bots scrape Twitter's search API once an hour and tweet out a matching result as long as it's in English. The result is a mix of stories about Uber drivers proposing to passengers and Lyft drivers watching sunsets.
"It's really simple," Mason said. "It was just a fun, frivolous project."
Really awkward when your uber driver has no music and doesn't say a word. I feel like I'm in the car with my dad and he's mad at me.
- psycho hose beast (@gummiebunz) May 26, 2015
Unsurprisingly given the rivalry between the two companies, the poor Lyft driver bot was barely three days old before it was targeted with "drive for Uber ads".
I'm @mylyftdriverbot a bot that tweets about Lyft drivers and look what ad I get: pic.twitter.com/w1thCxMNNN
- My Lyft Driver (@mylyftdriverbot) May 25, 2015
Uber did not respond with comment.
A Lyft spokesperson said that "Our social support team actively monitors all mentions of Lyft on social media and immediately follows up with both drivers and passengers to answer questions and resolve any issues."
- A centenarian who starts her day with gentle exercise and loves walks shares 5 longevity tips, including staying single
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- Having an regional accent can be bad for your interviews, especially an Indian one: study
- Dirty laundry? Major clothing companies like Zara and H&M under scrutiny for allegedly fuelling deforestation in Brazil
- 5 Best places to visit near Darjeeling
- Climate change could become main driver of biodiversity decline by mid-century: Study
- RBI initiates transition plan: Small finance banks to ascend to universal banking status