The Newest Uber Features Let You Communicate with Your Driver Without Saying a Word

Uber has really made traveling around your city or town a heck of a lot easier. Gone are the days of forgetting cash for your taxi or awkwardly trying to hail down a cab.

Not only were cabs and taxis hard to come by, but prices were always way more expensive than we would’ve liked. Uber has made things easier by syncing your cash to your phone, and keeping prices with a completely reasonable range.

There’s only one small problem with riding in an Uber: The driver always wants to talk to you! And while we have nothing against a chatty chaffier (which is essentially what they are), let’s face it: sometimes we just really don’t feel like talking.

Perhaps we had a long day at a work event and just want to get home and go to sleep, or maybe your car just broke down and that’s why you’re even getting an Uber in the first place. You could also just be a quiet person by nature and hate conserving with strangers. Whatever the reason is, convenient as it is, it can make getting an Uber kind of uncomfortable.

Well guess what? It’s like Uber has read our minds. The company has just came out with an awesome new feature made just for people who share the struggle of not wanting to talk to their drivers. The new feature allows you to choose whether or not you feel like having a conversation that day!

While ithe new feature only available for drivers who have Uber Black, one of Uber’s premium services that costs a little extra, we sill think it’s pretty awesome.

If you have Uber Black, here’s how the new feature works: You just go about ordering and confirming your ride as you normally would. But now, you’ll be able to choose your preference for “conversation.” The choices you can select will be “quiet preferred” or “happy to chat.” You can also leave it blank and not state any preference at all.

When you hit “quiet preferred,” your driver will know that you’re not looking to chat with him or her, and they will keep to themselves for the duration of your ride—so you can keep to yourself too and enjoy a nice quiet ride.’

As for “happy to chat,” you don’t need to feel obligated to speak or stay quiet—the option is there to let your driver know that you wouldn’t mind speaking to them, but they also don’t have to either.

On Uber Black, there’s even an option to call a live agent if your driver isn’t complying with your preferences (except that would probably make the ride pretty awkward, so hopefully the driver just stays quiet!).

There’s more good news: That’s not the only new feature! For other new features rolling out for Uber Black, check out the video below.

Are you a big Uber user? What do you think of the option to tell your driver you’d rather not speak? Do you find this helpful for the customer, or rude towards the driver?