Uber and Lyft drivers with Teslas don't want to talk about Elon Musk

Jacob Zinkula

Fri, Mar 7, 2025, 1:01 AM 4 min read

• Uber and Lyft drivers with Teslas said passengers privation to cognize what they deliberation of Elon Musk.

• Drivers said they don't similar talking politics due to the fact that they fearfulness it could wounded their tips.

• They shared however they navigate these conversations and effort to support riders happy.

Some Uber and Lyft drivers with Teslas don't privation to speech with riders astir Elon Musk — but they'll play on due to the fact that it's bully for business.

Wesley Johnson said his passengers regularly notation Musk and that the comments person skewed much negatively successful caller months. Johnson said helium doesn't hold with each of Musk's governmental views but is simply a large instrumentality of Tesla cars — and helium keeps those opinions to himself.

"When they bring up Elon, I conscionable rotation with the rider," said Johnson, who's successful his 60s and drives successful the San Francisco area. "I conscionable privation to support them happy."

Three rideshare drivers told Business Insider that, successful caller months, Musk has go a blistery taxable of speech during their trips due to the fact that of their car. Musk, the cofounder and CEO of Tesla, has been successful the spotlight lately arsenic helium works alongside President Donald Trump arsenic the de facto person of the Department of Government Efficiency.

The drivers said that their passengers — who tally the gamut from Musk haters to superfans — regularly inquire them what they deliberation astir Musk and stock their opinions. The drivers said they've cautiously navigated these conversations due to the fact that they don't privation to jeopardize the tips and ratings they person from customers — making a challenging earnings environment adjacent much difficult.

Rideshare drivers get fewer tips than drivers for platforms similar DoorDash and Grubhub, and respective drivers antecedently told BI that poor lawsuit tipping successful caller years has made it considerably harder to turn their incomes.

Additionally, a debased operator standing could marque it harder for a operator to get passengers and go eligible for rewards programs. It could besides pb to their relationship being deactivated.

Uber, Lyft, and Tesla did not respond to a petition for remark from BI.

Uber and Lyft drivers aren't the lone radical who are hesitant to speech astir authorities during their enactment hours. Fifty-seven percent of US adults said they person astatine times avoided voicing their governmental views due to the fact that of fearfulness of mediocre attraction oregon harassment, per a Gallup poll of 9,894 Americans conducted successful May. Additionally, immoderate employers person asked unit to refrain from discussing politics astatine enactment oregon barred them from doing so.

Trent T, who's based successful South Florida, said his riders' feelings astir Musk person trended much affirmative successful caller months. When idiosyncratic brings up Musk, Trent said helium replies with a neutral comment, like, "He's truly astute adjacent though I don't ever hold with worldly that he's doing." He past waits for the rider to uncover their sentiment and adjusts accordingly.