Do Uber and Grab Thai drivers use the GPS from the app for guidance when you put the destination on the map manually while ordering it?

[alexlm]

I found out that it's always hard to explain to normal classic taxis where you want to go. I mean they have no idea what the GPS is, don't they? And even when you put the map under their eyes, they still don't understand it.

But I have never tried Uber and Grab Taxi yet.

With those apps, you can open the map and select a point, just like gps coordinates (you know, when you are booking the ride, instead of putting an address in, you can "select a location" directly on the map, anywhere, so it's very precise).

When you do it like that, will they use their GPS from Uber or Grab for guidance or will they still ask and do troubles?

Thanks...

 

PS: Because I guess those apps facilitate the work of the driver and provide them with automatic GPS map and voices? Right? Actually, I have never used any of those services yet so I don't know - but I guess it works like that - so that the driver is guided by the app voice to go pick the client up, and once in the ride, the app change the destination to the client' destination??

[Peterw42]

Just as you get the car location, ETA and destination on your app, so does the driver. I would say its a requirement to be an uber driver, a smartphone with GPS etc.

[johnnybangkok]

I use Uber all the time and you don't even need to speak to the driver. He finds you by GPS and since you've already put your destination in when you book, he is guided to where you want to go.

100 times easier than hailing a cab and trying to explain your destination.

 

[alexlm]

22 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

I use Uber all the time and you don't even need to speak to the driver. He finds you by GPS and since you've already put your destination in when you book, he is guided to where you want to go.

100 times easier than hailing a cab and trying to explain your destination.

 

In Thailand?

[VocalNeal]

I think the OP's original problem maybe that he doesn't really know where he wants to go in the first place or is too lazy to find out. Instead of having a street or soi name he only has a series of numbers. If you put those numbers in Google maps it usually gives you an address which you then convey to the taxi driver or you look at on Google maps to give you a general location. Thai not so good, like mine, or driver doesn't understand you? Go the BigC or Tesco-Lotus nearest you required destination and get a local taxi from there.  Too far out of town, late at night and taxi driver doesn't want to go that far? Just puddle jump from BigC to BigC until you get home.

 

Where did you go for your holiday? Oh I had a wonderful two weeks in -8.487971, 115.0626035 or was it S 8 29.278, E 115 3.756 or S 8 29 16.7, E 115 3 45.4

 

Tip: It helps to be on the correct side of the street for the direction you wish the taxi to take you.

 

 

 

 

[MuuDaeng]

Used Uber few times in Bangkok, works almost perfectly. They use GPS to pick you up and to show the route to destination. 

Tomorrow will try grabtaxi, my first time in Pattaya, hope it will be same experience...

[richard_smith237]

While most UBER and Grab drivers can and do use the GPS location, there are also many who it would appear are unable to read a map. 

 

Equally so there is a significant number of 'clients' who also cannot use a map and place in the wrong pick up location so the drivers never quite trust the 'pin'.

 

Then there are some younger UBER and Grab drivers who have no idea where they are and can only drive following the GPS which is not always accurate with regards to the best directions. 

 

In summary, not all passengers and drivers are switched on enough to make something as simple as using a GPS location seamless. As such there are always one or two hiccups when dealing with the 'spectrum of humanity'. 

[alexlm]

17 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

I think the OP's original problem maybe that he doesn't really know where he wants to go in the first place or is too lazy to find out. Instead of having a street or soi name he only has a series of numbers. If you put those numbers in Google maps it usually gives you an address which you then convey to the taxi driver or you look at on Google maps to give you a general location. Thai not so good, like mine, or driver doesn't understand you? Go the BigC or Tesco-Lotus nearest you required destination and get a local taxi from there.  Too far out of town, late at night and taxi driver doesn't want to go that far? Just puddle jump from BigC to BigC until you get home.

 

Where did you go for your holiday? Oh I had a wonderful two weeks in -8.487971, 115.0626035 or was it S 8 29.278, E 115 3.756 or S 8 29 16.7, E 115 3 45.4

 

Tip: It helps to be on the correct side of the street for the direction you wish the taxi to take you.

 

 

 

 

I actually always use coordinates when I'm traveling and driving myself when I planned the holidays of my parents in Thailand. I almost chose the parking places in advance, lol... so you are right ^^ the traveling plan were full of coordinates, next to the name of the places though...

 

In this case here, I want to choose on the map of Uber where I have to be picked up, and where I want to go. Precisely, with a few meters of accuracy.

 

So I want to know if they will respect it or if it will just be trouble if they don't follow the GPS.

The thing is also is that there are no taxi where I'm so I need those services.

I know where I want to go. EXACTLY where, actually.

[alexlm]

12 minutes ago, MuuDaeng said:

Used Uber few times in Bangkok, works almost perfectly. They use GPS to pick you up and to show the route to destination. 

Tomorrow will try grabtaxi, my first time in Pattaya, hope it will be same experience...

Thanks - hope you can be back here tomorrow and share your experience?

[VocalNeal]

5 minutes ago, alexlm said:

The thing is also is that there are no taxi where I'm so I need those services.

Well you don't have much of a choice except to try UBER. My dig was about people whose phones are smarter than they are :-)

 

A word of caution. Some businesses cannot tell you verbally how to get to them and some have the wrong coordinates listed.

 

Sometimes it is literally a jungle out there.

[GLewis]

1 hour ago, alexlm said:

In Thailand?

 

Are you really that negative? No here in Thailand Uber and Grab ask people on the street how to get there. Your post was very negative from the beginning.  If you havent tried or are afraid to try something new please dont knock it.

[alexlm]

3 minutes ago, GLewis said:

 

Are you really that negative? No here in Thailand Uber and Grab ask people on the street how to get there. Your post was very negative from the beginning.  If you havent tried or are afraid to try something new please dont knock it.

What's your problem?

What's the problem?

[wump]

You don't need to be able to read a map with GPS coordinates. The app simply tells the driver "Turn left in 100 meters" etc. and "you have reached your destination". Why would you need to be able to read a map for that?

[cacahootie]

90% of the time the driver uses the map and there's no problems.  10% of the time the driver can't understand how to use GPS, and in my experience 100% of the drivers that can't understand the GPS also don't understand English.  I had one particularly bad one where he spent 20 minutes talking to an AirBnB host trying to get directions, got frustrated and just started driving in the general direction, and I had to guide him using my GPS for the rest of the way, but he didn't trust my instructions while also not knowing where he was going... that one was a major headache.  Overall I've had good luck and prefer Uber when I can't fully explain where I want to go.  Otherwise, taxis are cheaper and more convenient most of the time.  For instance, going to the airport I always use a taxi, but returning home is always Uber because I live on a short Thanon in the boonies, so saying my Thanon and Soi usually just elicits confused stares.

[MuuDaeng]

19 hours ago, alexlm said:

Thanks - hope you can be back here tomorrow and share your experience?

First ride done with Pattaya grabcar, from Jomtien to Sukhumvit a little further from North Road. Worked fine, fee 200 baht as app said in advance. No, didn't use GPS this time, probably because of straight route by main road.

[NancyL]

In Chiang Mai, Uber has most restaurants, business, hospitals, big condos, etc on their map, so it's very easy to "pin" your location and to input your destination by typing the name of your destination, as in McCormick Hospital, or whatever.  The app can save your common destinations.  I

 

Some drivers seem to follow the Uber map, yes they are "reading the map" others rely on the verbal instructions from the Uber app, like "in 100 meters turn left".   

 

I go to McKean Rehabilitation Center/Dok Kaew Assisted Living Center a couple times a week and the Uber app is just plain wrong in its directions for the final kilometer or so from my home to McKean.  And once a driver gets to McKean, they are befuddled by the many buildings on the large island and have no idea which is "the hospital", despite a few signs on the island.  I've written to Uber several times about this problem, never receiving a response.  Often, when waiting for a pick-up at McKean, I watch the little car on the app drive around the island, obviously lost.  Some stubbornly refuse to call me, probably because I send a message in English, even though I promise to produce a Thai speaker  (one of the nurses) if they call.

 

Other than this problem, Uber is brilliant in my experience.  Much better than what I had to do in the past -- pay a tuk-tuk or song thaew a small fortune to drive me to McKean and wait a couple hours while I visit my friends.

[Scott]

One post reported and removed.  

[idman]

In my own personal experiances with both Uber and Grab here in Chaing Mai the service has been very good for the most part.  However lately my trips have been more misses than hits.  I attribute that to the increased number of new Uber and Grab drivers who simply are incapable of reading or following directions on their GPS.  Most have no clue that you can have the directions spoken to you in Thai to help with the pickup point and destination.  On my last two attempts with Uber to go Honda Bigwing near Tae Pae Gate the Uber drivers called me, asked where I was and where I was going.  Excuse me you eff....ing moron your in car GPS tells you where the pickup is and where I am going then it's up to you to accept the fare or not.  I just cancelled with those two and lucked out with Grab drivers instead.  God forbid I should ask some of new drivers if they can even read or even have a proper drivers license, regardless of all this I will continue to use both as they sure as hell beat the rotten service by the taxi and red bus mafia.

[radiochaser]

3 hours ago, idman said:

In my own personal experiances with both Uber and Grab here in Chaing Mai the service has been very good for the most part.  However lately my trips have been more misses than hits.  I attribute that to the increased number of new Uber and Grab drivers who simply are incapable of reading or following directions on their GPS.  Most have no clue that you can have the directions spoken to you in Thai to help with the pickup point and destination.  On my last two attempts with Uber to go Honda Bigwing near Tae Pae Gate the Uber drivers called me, asked where I was and where I was going.  Excuse me you eff....ing moron your in car GPS tells you where the pickup is and where I am going then it's up to you to accept the fare or not.  I just cancelled with those two and lucked out with Grab drivers instead.  God forbid I should ask some of new drivers if they can even read or even have a proper drivers license, regardless of all this I will continue to use both as they sure as hell beat the rotten service by the taxi and red bus mafia.

I stayed in Chiang Mai about three weeks earlier this year.  Friends of the family picked me up at the airport.  One of them showed me the Grab app and told me that I should download the app and use it while in Chiang Mai. 

I had a good experience with Grab while there.  I stayed at a hotel and would enter the hotel name into the app, then where I wanted to go.  Based on my experience with the red truck taxi on my visit to Chiang Mai the last year, the cost was very reasonable.  My biggest problem was figuring out where I was in Chiang Mai sometimes.  I used Grab after watching a movie at a nice mall outside of the down town area, after the mall had closed.  No problem.  

On the afternoon of the day I was to leave, I asked the taxi in front of the hotel how much to go to the airport.  The driver referred me to a red truck behind it.  The red truck driver wanted 200 or 400 baht.  I told them I would call a friend and ask for a ride to the airport.    The Grab taxi app charged me 80 baht.  

[NancyL]

3 hours ago, idman said:

In my own personal experiances with both Uber and Grab here in Chaing Mai the service has been very good for the most part.  However lately my trips have been more misses than hits.  I attribute that to the increased number of new Uber and Grab drivers who simply are incapable of reading or following directions on their GPS.  Most have no clue that you can have the directions spoken to you in Thai to help with the pickup point and destination.  On my last two attempts with Uber to go Honda Bigwing near Tae Pae Gate the Uber drivers called me, asked where I was and where I was going.  Excuse me you eff....ing moron your in car GPS tells you where the pickup is and where I am going then it's up to you to accept the fare or not.  I just cancelled with those two and lucked out with Grab drivers instead.  God forbid I should ask some of new drivers if they can even read or even have a proper drivers license, regardless of all this I will continue to use both as they sure as hell beat the rotten service by the taxi and red bus mafia.

One Uber driver told me that the destination isn't revealed to them until they pick up the passenger, which is why they sometimes call someone and ask where they are going, to see if they really want to accept the passenger.  It was obviously a "pet peeve" of his -- that they can't decide to accept or reject a fare if the even if the final destination is going to put them out in the sticks.

 

Also, sometimes people input their location incorrectly, so they call to confirm.  I know that I input my location incorrectly once and watched in horror on the app as the Uber driver drove off to the wrong side of town to pick me up.  Finally I realized I'd input my location incorrectly.  The fault was entirely mine.

[MuuDaeng]

Used über several times, so far in Bangkok and Tallinn only, and grab just once, in Pattaya. Had not any bad experience.

Also, once über charged a little too much, don't remember details but talking about 30 baht or something. Reporting is made easy, so did it, and they fixed that without delay before charging my card.