Some of us prefer to just sit quietly at the back during our e-hailing ride and prefer to keep the small talk with the driver to a minimum. Soon, Grab Malaysia will actually offer that to customers through an option called Quiet Ride.
How it works is rather simple: all you need to do is just reply “Quiet Ride” when you receive the auto-generated message in the GrabChat after you secured your Grab booking. This way, the driver would be aware that you prefer not to chat much during the ride.
Lowyat.NET Forumer PeopleOfPerlis has shared a screenshot from the Grab Driver app which said that the feature will go on trial on 7 October. It is rather interesting though because we have actually experienced the Quiet Ride ourselves way back in June, which is how we ended up with the first picture above.
Furthermore, several e-hailing and Grab-oriented Facebook pages as well as a YouTube channel have highlighted that the feature went on trial back in April. Hence, the October trial that was mentioned in the PeopleOfPerlis screenshot is likely happening in a different area.
Grab has since confirmed to Lowyat.NET that Quiet Ride is indeed on trial in Malaysia at the moment. It has expanded the trial to additional users within Klang Valley and Penang while has initiated similar testing in Ipoh, Johor Bharu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, and Melaka for selected Grab users.
Choosing Quiet Ride does not mean that driver can’t speak to you at all though. Grab has pointed out that passengers should continue to anticipate essential questions from drivers such as routing preferences, air-conditioning settings, or music playback even after they choose that option.
However, Grab was also quick to point out that it is still assessing the feature and has yet to set a date to roll out Quiet Ride to the mass market in Malaysia. Aside from our market, the company has also tested the feature in the Philippines and Vietnam.
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