Customers complain about the disappearance of some resources and the drop in performance of others. To clarify the issue, we spoke with JoĂŁo Costa, who leads the product development. He responded to criticism and informed deadlines for the tools to return to normal operation. Check the following lines.
99 got a new look in January – Photo: Thássius Veloso / dnetc
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Perhaps the main complaint of users, the application 99 started to err more when an address is entered. When writing “Avenida Atlântica 75”, for example, the car could reach the same address, but at number 115.
Costa explains that 99 changed the algorithm that processes information about house numbers and buildings. “Before, we mapped this almost manually. Now the process is carried out by computers ”, he explains. He says that the team responsible for digital maps has spent sleepless nights to solve the problem.
According to the executive, the frequent mistakes should end in the next few days.
Consumers in large cities, such as SĂŁo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, noticed the disappearance of the option to pay the taxi mode with a debit card. The product manager acknowledges the flaw and promises that the feature will return to the app in a matter of days, but only for the capitals mentioned above, in addition to Porto Alegre. Belo Horizonte is still a doubt.
Costa blames taxi drivers for the problem. He says that each professional decides, in the software dedicated to drivers, if he wants to work with this form of payment, and that some of the associates released payment with a machine even without having it. “It was damaging the experience, especially for customers in the Northeast and Midwest,” he says of regions that were left without the resource.
The incident is related to the merging of 99 and 99Pop applications. Until then, software coexisted in Google and Apple stores. With the change in January, the apps officially called 99 (on the Rio-SĂŁo Paulo axis) and Novo 99 (in the rest of the country) started to work.
Users made complaints in app stores – Photo: Thássius Veloso / dnetc
Users also complained about the amount of permissions that 99 requests to work properly on smartphones. From reading the photos in the device’s gallery to consulting SMS messages, the requests caused outrage among customers.
“We never use information for evil. The system itself [Android ou iOS, no caso] requires these permissions to record minimal information ”, says Costa. He cites as an example the access to the photographs, necessary to register the passenger profile image, which is associated with the registration in the app. “We want to increase security, which is why we encourage the sending of photographs”, he adds.
He points out that app 99 “asks for almost all the same information [do celular] than Uber ”, signaling that the conduct is the same among the main transportation services in the country.
Despite defending the technical nature of requesting multiple permissions, the product leader promises a complete overhaul of the application code to cut unnecessary requests.
Public relations manager Gladys de Paula reinforces the company’s commitment to transparency, which makes it display warnings about all necessary permissions. As a personal example, she cites a spending control application that asks for the bank’s password to work fully: “I chose not to use it”. She points out that, in the case of 99, most users order the car very urgently.
