[Concerned Passenger] There needs to be a limit on how many hours drivers can work without stop

I was in Minneapolis a week ago, and my travels within the city required a lot of ubering. The first Uber I took was from the airport to my airbnb. The driver was pretty quiet during the ride, besides some patches of small talk and the constant drumming of his fingers on the steering wheel. When we talked, I clocked him as a little weird and on edge, but nothing out of the ordinary with drivers I’ve had. For example, when I asked how he was, he said “Good, man. Good good good good, man.” Like I said, I’ve had weirder experiences.

My next uber was 3 hours later, from my Airbnb to the hotel my friend was staying at. When the Uber pulled up out front, I noticed it was the same car and, sure enough, the same driver as before. As I entered the car, I laughed and made a comment about how I had never had the same driver twice in a row before. He didn’t even acknowledge my joke. This ride was more of the same, except he was silent the entire time and he was hunched over and ultra-focused on the road ahead. His drumming had also gotten more intense.

The next couple Ubers I had were different people. But two days later, I got this dude again. He looked wretched. His hunch looked wretched and his head was trembling really badly. Most concerning of all, he was wearing the same shirt and pants as he had two days ago.

I said he seemed to be a very active driver, to which he replied “I don’t stop, man. No, never never never stop. Gotta keep going going going.” His eyes in the rear view mirror looked baggy and lifeless. I nervously laughed and said “except for when you’re asleep or eating, right?” He didn’t seem to understand and responded to nothing else for the entire ride.

I got him one more time on my last day, two days after that ride and he was still wearing the same clothes. At that point, he literally looked like Gollum and sort of spoke like him too. He was playing some weird podcast about the planets and every time the host mentioned earth he turned back to face me (which concerned me greatly) and said “that’s our home turf.”

I seriously believe he had been driving for Uber nonstop since I got to Minneapolis— and maybe he still is. And he was definitely on some sort of upper. Admittedly, the last three times I rode with him I knew in advance that it was him because the app tells you your drivers name, so one could say I did it to myself. However, I was in disbelief and couldn’t help but witness his madness. But there is no way this should be allowed. Pilots can only work a limited number of hours a day for a reason. Why hasn’t Uber implemented a cap?