Ride-sharing services can save you a fortune when getting from the airport to the hotel or around town, but if you’re looking for a quiet ride, they’re often not the best option.
Lyft, though, is considering a mode for people looking to get from point A to point B without the chitchat.
Taggart Matthiesen, Lyft‘s head of product for autonomous driving, said the company has considered the idea when he was a guest on the The Verge’s Converge podcast.
Dubbed “zen mode,” it’s meant to signal to drivers that passengers who don’t make small talk aren’t trying to be rude; they just want a little peace and quiet.
“We have thought about it,” said Matthiesen. “I think it’s interesting. At some point, we may play around with that idea, but that’s unfortunately not a feature at this point.”
Will zen mode make it beyond the contemplation phase? Hard to say. Matthiesen noted, for instance, that Lyft’s push to bring self-driving cars into its fleet could make that feature obsolete.
“The autonomous car is going to know a lot more [about you],” he said. “It’s going to know your temperature that you’re going to want. It’s probably also going to know that it’s early in the morning, and so it’s going to have a dark-lit cabin to let you sleep. Maybe you can even relax in the seat, and the back will extend into some sort of lie-flat mode. Maybe not complete lie-flat, just based on the area, but a good recline.”
Still, judging by social media, the idea of a driver who focuses on the road and not the passenger’s life story is a pretty appealing one.
You know what I appreciate more than anything? A quiet Lyft driver.
— Dylan Park-Pettiford (@dyllyp) February 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/MinaLopez24/status/1022314957168238592
https://twitter.com/victoriachantel/status/1021447474605682689
I hate getting into an Uber’s, Lyft, or shuttle where the driver wants to talk to you…… Please, just drive and let me have my quiet time 😩
— Daph ✨ (@_itsdaph) July 23, 2018
Hi @lyft, I need driver quiet hours, where at a certain time they gotta not be trying to hold a whole conversation. Please give us the option. We sleepy.
— Xavier Omär 🍯🌙🏔️ (@XvrOmar) June 28, 2018
It seems bonkers that both Uber and Lyft don’t have a “Quiet” option you can select so both driver and passenger know when conversation is not preferred.
— Emerson Collins (@ActuallyEmerson) June 24, 2018
The call for quiet drivers isn’t limited to Lyft. Uber passengers are just as vocal in their pleas for silence.
