Uber passenger says he was forced to drive because driver was too drunk
By Mike Moffitt, SFGATE
An Uber passenger in India claims that his driver was so drunk, he had to take the wheel and drive himself home.
Surya Oruganti tweeted about the incident, which occurred in the city of Bengaluru, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka. He said that when he boarded the Uber vehicle at Kempegowda International Airport, he immediately realized that the driver was a different person from the one indicated in the app and that he was about-to-pass-out drunk.
Rather than allow the inebriated driver to continue, Oruganti had him move over to the passenger seat, and he designated himself driver for the trip.
Oruganti also shot video of the Uber driver, whom — according to Oruganti — was not aware that he was being recorded.
In the tweet, Oruganti calls out ride-share service, saying, "You need to fix this, @Uber."
Uber did call him back after about 20 hours, Oruganti said in follow-up tweet: "They said I shouldn't drive a cab because that's a safety issue. And that they'll educate the driver, whatever that means, and might terminate the driver if there's recurrence."
Uber later informed Oruganti via Twitter that it had barred the driver from access to the app.
