These Are The Cars You Love Getting As Ubers And Lyfts
You really never know what you're going to get when you call an Uber or a Lyft (or whatever other rideshare app you prefer), especially when it comes to the sort of vehicle you will be shuttled around in. Sometimes you might be stuck in something truly horrible like a Tesla Model Y, but maybe you get lucky and you're in a Lexus ES, my personal favorite car to get as an Uber. Earlier this week I asked our readers to share what their favorite rideshare cars are, and only a couple annoying people said they don't use rideshare services. Keep scrolling to read the best answers.
Read more: What's The Stereotypical Old Person's New Car?
It sounds boring, but i like when i get a Camry or an Accord. Both are roomy and comfortable and 9 times out of 10 the driver is the owner of the car, so the cars are usually cleaner and better maintained than a fleet rental Versa or Corolla.
My best ever Uber was a Lucid Air (no kidding!) The rear seat was like a limousine compared to 99% of the Lyft/Ubers I get. The driver called me to let me know she was stuck in traffic and she would understand if i wanted to cancel the ride. I waited an extra 20 minutes just for the chance to ride in a Lucid.
Suggested by: Earthbound Misfit I
The Lucid's back seat really is excellent. I see a handful of them being used as livery vehicles in LA!
My wife and I go to Guadalajara pretty often, so Uber is our main transportation method when we're there. I love having a chance to experience all the different Euro market and Southeast Asian cars we don't get from the US. I think my favorite one from our last trip was the Toyota Avanza, which is a 3 row MPV that's bigger than a Mazda5, but smaller than a traditional minivan.
Suggested by: MrMcGeeIn3D
A few years ago I went to Mexico City with a bunch of friends, enough of us that at least one of our two Ubers needed to be an XL each time, and almost every car we got was an Avanza. What a horrible car to be in as a passenger, especially if you needed to be in the third row as they use a rear-wheel-drive ladder frame chassis. At least the newest generation, which came out after I was in CDMX, looks a lot better and is now a FWD unibody crossover.
A Van instead of any 3-row SUV with the 3rd row down when I request an XL for six adults
If it's a large group of us getting cross town I prefer any minivan to the Suburban's that typically show up since its far easier to climb in/out of them.
Minivans that are clean with someone that pays atleast some attention
For once the answer is NOT Miata! It's a minivan in good condition. Plenty of room, easy to get in and out. As long as it hasn't been driven to the edge of death and the goldfish crumbs were vacuumed out of the seats there's no better ride.
Suggested by: Buttercup, monstrodiavel, er404, DCnative
I will always wish for a minivan over almost any three-row SUV
I'm considering buying a Telluride to upsize with our growing family and had the lucky chance of a 45 min Uber trip to the airport in one, so I got to pay attention to the road noise, 2nd row comfort / space, and interviewed my driver on its reliability - no deal breakers!
Suggested by: CyrilFiggis
Even though it's pretty old at this point, the Telluride (and Hyundai Palisade) are still at the top of the class.
I like getting EVs. I've Uber'd in an Ionic 5, a Kia EV6, a Tesla Model X... I don't have one myself and getting to ride in them has really shaped the direction I'd go if I bought an EV.
Suggested by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy
As long as your driver knows how to smoothly use regenerative braking, EVs are a delight to be a passenger in
A banged up 2nd-gen Prius.
with someone who isnt afraid to run a red light to save 10 seconds
Suggested by: Greg, Buttercup
It's gonna be a no from me, dog.
XU70 Highlander. Very roomy, comfortable enough for wherever I'm going and, for some reason, the drivers of Highlanders never talk to me which is an automatic 5 stars so there's that.
Suggested by: Kei
Jalopnik's own Amber DaSilva says she loves talking to her Uber drivers, so I'll tell her to avoid Highlanders.
As a German, the only correct answer is a Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Suggested by: Nico
One time in Munich I had an E-Class wagon Uber that was only a few years old but had well over 200,000 miles on the clock, and it was still very comfortable with seemingly no quality issues.
Anything I haven't actually been in before. I got to go to Peru a few months ago, and they get so many weird cars we don't get in the USA. I saw so many EVs from China with nonsensical names that I'm convinced Chinese EV companies are named by cats stepping on keyboards.
And they're all pretty good. We'd all do well to take notice of that last fact.
Suggested by: Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death
This I totally agree with. I didn't fly around the world to just be in the back seat of a Camry!
Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox...
Read the original article on Jalopnik.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
Elon Musk just dropped a tentative date for Tesla's robotaxi launch
Musk said on Tuesday evening, in response to a user on X, that Tesla will begin offering rides to the public "Tentatively, June 22." However, he noted that it's not a date set in stone. "We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift," Musk wrote. "First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28." Musk previously said that the initial rollout would include 10 to 20 driverless Model Y vehicles and would remain within geo-fenced areas of Austin, meaning the vehicles wouldn't be able to travel through every corner of the city. While Musk set June as a target month for the launch, the CEO has never specified a day until now. Earlier today, Musk appeared to confirm one of the first sightings of a Tesla robotaxi in Austin by responding to a video floating around on X. The video showed a Tesla Model Y carrying a passenger without a human behind the wheel. The car was emblazoned with the "Robotaxi" logo on the right door panel. "These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory, meaning that every Tesla coming out of our factories is capable of unsupervised self-driving," Musk said on X. In a follow-up post on X, Musk suggested Austin was a better city than Los Angeles to start out a robotaxi service, writing: "Austin > > LA for robotaxi launch lol." The CEO didn't specify yet why Austin is more preferable, but, in general, Texas has fewer regulations around autonomous vehicles, and is far less dense than Los Angeles, with about a quarter of the population of the southern California city. A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. With Tesla tentatively set to offer driverless rides to the public later this month, Austin has become a sort of battleground for robotaxis. Since March, Waymo has been offering autonomous rides through the Uber platform. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the first-quarter earnings call in May that the fleet of about 100 Waymo robotaxis is "now busier than over 99% of all drivers in Austin in terms of complete trips per day." In California, humans were quick to adopt robotaxis, as Waymo increased the number of paid rides from about 12,000 in August 2023 to 708,180 rides in March 2025. In total, Waymo provided more than 5 million rides in three years, according to data from the California Public Utilities Commission. A Waymo spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Musk said that the ramp-up for Tesla's robotaxi service will be quick. In an interview with CNBC, the CEO said that there will "probably" be 1,000 robotaxis within a few months. By the end of 2026, Musk predicted there could be more than one million self-driving Teslas in the US. Musk often misses his own deadlines. Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein previously told BI that Musk's 2026 guidance is "a bit optimistic." "I think they'll get there, but I think the software is going to take more iterations than they're anticipating once they start testing a real robotaxi service," he said.


Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Uber, SoftBank-Backed Wayve Plan Trial of Driverless Cars in UK
Uber Technologies Inc. and self-driving technology firm Wayve Technologies Ltd. plan to run their first trial of fully autonomous vehicles in London, paving the way for the two companies to launch commercial robotaxi services in the UK and beyond. The companies didn't name an auto manufacturer partner, but said in a joint statement Tuesday that they would share details on the global car company and trial time line 'in the coming months.' An accelerated framework announced by the UK government on Tuesday allows for such commercial self-driving pilots to begin in the spring of 2026.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk just dropped a tentative date for Tesla's robotaxi launch
Elon Musk announced a tentative launch date for Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin: June 22. Tesla's robotaxi will compete with Alphabet's Waymo. "We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift," Musk wrote. Elon Musk just dropped a tentative launch date for Tesla's highly anticipated robotaxi service, which will compete with Alphabet's Waymo in Austin. Musk said on Tuesday evening, in response to a user on X, that Tesla will begin offering rides to the public "Tentatively, June 22." However, he noted that it's not a date set in stone. "We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift," Musk wrote. "First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28." Musk previously said that the initial rollout would include 10 to 20 driverless Model Y vehicles and would remain within geo-fenced areas of Austin, meaning the vehicles wouldn't be able to travel through every corner of the city. While Musk set June as a target month for the launch, the CEO has never specified a day until now. Earlier today, Musk appeared to confirm one of the first sightings of a Tesla robotaxi in Austin by responding to a video floating around on X. The video showed a Tesla Model Y carrying a passenger without a human behind the wheel. The car was emblazoned with the "Robotaxi" logo on the right door panel. "These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory, meaning that every Tesla coming out of our factories is capable of unsupervised self-driving," Musk said on X. In a follow-up post on X, Musk suggested Austin was a better city than Los Angeles to start out a robotaxi service, writing: "Austin > > LA for robotaxi launch lol." The CEO didn't specify yet why Austin is more preferable, but, in general, Texas has fewer regulations around autonomous vehicles, and is far less dense than Los Angeles, with about a quarter of the population of the southern California city. A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. With Tesla tentatively set to offer driverless rides to the public later this month, Austin has become a sort of battleground for robotaxis. Since March, Waymo has been offering autonomous rides through the Uber platform. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during the first-quarter earnings call in May that the fleet of about 100 Waymo robotaxis is "now busier than over 99% of all drivers in Austin in terms of complete trips per day." In California, humans were quick to adopt robotaxis, as Waymo increased the number of paid rides from about 12,000 in August 2023 to 708,180 rides in March 2025. In total, Waymo provided more than 5 million rides in three years, according to data from the California Public Utilities Commission. A Waymo spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Musk said that the ramp-up for Tesla's robotaxi service will be quick. In an interview with CNBC, the CEO said that there will "probably" be 1,000 robotaxis within a few months. By the end of 2026, Musk predicted there could be more than one million self-driving Teslas in the US. Musk often misses his own deadlines. Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein previously told BI that Musk's 2026 guidance is "a bit optimistic." "I think they'll get there, but I think the software is going to take more iterations than they're anticipating once they start testing a real robotaxi service," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider