Uber taxis: they may be luxurious, but not everyone's hailing them
Complaints about late pick-ups and lost drivers mar launch of Uber's private driver-style service
Luxury taxi service Uber launched in Hong Kong yesterday to a tepid reception amid complaints about late pick-ups and drivers getting lost.
A senior executive of the private driver-style service, which allows users to call and pay for taxis through a mobile phone app, said it was working to get its drivers up to speed.
Uber has pledged to offer more choice for customers and shake up competition in a market where 18,000 taxis serve a million passengers a day.
But Logistics executive Phillip Forsyth, 50, said he was picked up by Uber's "worst driver" for a journey from Tsim Sha Tsui to Ho Man Tin. He waited 24 minutes for the pick-up rather than the advertised 10 minutes and the journey took twice as long as expected when the driver got lost.
Forsyth, who had given the address, next to Kowloon City police regional headquarters on Argyle Street, in Cantonese, said he had to give further instructions after "a few wrong turns".
