Some anecdata related to this – discussing with colleagues today, one mentioned that she had got into an Uber where the driver was clearly not the person registered with Uber, and the car was not the one she was told would pick her up. She mentioned another case she knew of where a driver was sharing the Uber registration with his cousin to earn more money.
This sort of activity severely impacts the safety and security of passengers, and makes Uber's job of helping the police that much more difficult as well. As far as I can tell, Uber doesn't care about these practices, or turns a blind eye to them.
Surely when a car arrives with a different licence plate and a different driver, you don't get in? Moreover, you report the driver?
I'm not strictly pro-Uber but in any system there will be people who try to break the rules.
I would gladly wait another 20 minutes, and warn the driver of calling the police (were they to harass me) to get another Uber. Even fronting the £7 cancellation or w/e is worth it to me for the peace of mind to not have to deal with something shady like that.
I would under normal circumstances, but if you're alone/in a place you don't know/drunk/woman/at 2am, or even all of those, that's a tough decision on whether it's safer to get in or stay out, and we're socially conditioned to not question these sorts of situations as much as we probably should.
Unless you called a cab to escape a particularly dangerous situation, I can't imagine it ever being a good idea getting into a car with a different driver and registration. You're not getting into a taxi, you're getting into a stranger's car.
I'm not sure that's true. Black cabs are highly regulated and others in the comments have written about very low numbers of rapes/etc from black cab drivers. As for private taxi companies, they are subject to the same regulations as Uber, and I'd imagine most have their licences renewed or not for the same reasons.
This sort of activity severely impacts the safety and security of passengers, and makes Uber's job of helping the police that much more difficult as well. As far as I can tell, Uber doesn't care about these practices, or turns a blind eye to them.