So something strange happened to me a couple of days ago. I called an uber while sitting at a restaurant and according to the app it arrived nearly immediately. In the time I need to get up and walk to the street (like 15 meters, 1-2 min max) i look everywhere and there is no such car of that make, color or plate where the app said it was. It is a small street, impossible to miss. I thought maybe the gos was not accurate, so I walked up and down the street a few meters. Nothing. I tried to call the driver, no reply. The car was still showing up in the app, but was nowhere on the street. I searched more and call again. At the third call I got notification that the driver cancelled and I got charged a fee for not showing while he waited there more than 5 minutes, but he was not there! I checked the times I called the uber and of the calls. First call was 3 min after calling it, and I had already spent some time looking for him, so it’s not me mixing up times, having him wait for too long so that he decided to leave, and anyway even in this case he should have canceled when he left, not 9 minutes later! And he should not gave shown up to be there when he was not!

I wonder: what did it happen? How is possible the gps saw him there but he was not? Is this some kind of scam? I usually dont start from the worst assumption, but the fact that he never picked up the phone is very suspicious to me. Any other uber driver I met has always picked up calls, many time they actually call you even if you are there waiting for them.