Drivers sometimes go to where the live GPS signal tells them you are instead of the pin. Likewise the pin is sometimes required to be in dumb spots (like the airport) even when there's a much more convenient spot 100 feet down the street.

In my experience, the location I choose is often lost in translation between my Uber app and the driver's maps app. Sometimes the difference is egregious.

Uber is nuts for letting drivers use their own maps app.

Yeah no.

The Uber native maps app is almost invariably incorrect, at least here in Brooklyn. It does insane stuff like trying to put you on the BQE (interstate) to go like 800 yards or route you from Brooklyn to Brooklyn by transiting Manhattan and two bridges.

Until they figure out how to fix that they pretty much need to let drivers flip over to Waze or something.

Don't forget the best route for Uber is not necessarily the shortest or quickest.

I was careful not to say "third-party" maps app. They may have been making excuses for their own mistakes, but drivers have told me that sometimes the built-in Uber maps also get the wrong location.

I have no idea if that's true and have always been confused about whether the driver app even has maps built into it.

I had that problem a lot in South Africa. We'd set a pickup spot exactly where we want it, drivers told me the uber app shows them the last location I was at instead.