The case of the silent passengers VIPLANE

This was funny. I picked up a couple for a twenty minute trip into the boonies. After a short greeting the couple buckled up and fell dead silent. I mean not so much as a peep out of them.

It of course is not unusual to have a quiet single rider. And even couples may minimize their conversation. But these two were so quiet the silence was deafening. I started to theorize they had simply had a fight, but my finely tuned Jedi senses soon discarded the hypothesis. Hmm. I couldn’t let this cone of silence continue the entire ride. 10 minutes into the drive I broke radio silence…

Tron: “Have you folks used Uber much?”
Lady: “Yes, we have used Uber for years”

(so much for my second theory)

Tron: “So you do know it’s ok to talk, right?”
Lady: “The app said ‘No conversation’ “

Bingo! Turns out they had never seen the “No conversation” button that allows riders to request a quiet car. The compliant couple had mistakenly assumed it meant the driver was asking for a quiet car! The lady said “We didn’t want to make any trouble so we did what it said”.

After that clearing of the air splendid conversation commenced, which resulted in a 20% tip upon completion of the ride.

Mystery solved.