A New York woman says she was “trying to go to work” in Manhattan when her Lyft app showed her driver just 1 mile away. Instead of finding the driver at her pickup location, she says she walked to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts and found him inside.
The encounter appeared in an August 2026 TikTok posted by @chosenonexone. In the video, the woman says her Lyft ride showed as one minute away while she waited for the driver.
She then confronts the driver, asking why he was inside Dunkin’ Donuts while she was waiting for the ride. She says she needed to get to work and tells him to cancel the trip.
The exchange grows heated as she explains that she walked to the location where the driver appeared to be.
The creator later provided additional context in a comment on her original post. She said she had ordered a PRIORITY PICKUP Lyft because she was in a rush to get to her job in Manhattan from Queens. According to her, the Lyft app showed the driver was 1 minute away, but his vehicle remained in one location that she estimated was about a 1-minute drive but a 5-minute walk from her home.
She said she walked to the location and found the driver inside Dunkin’ Donuts while his car remained parked outside.“If he wanted breakfast, he should’ve never picked up my PRIORITY PICKUP ride,” she commented.
One commenter said they had a similar experience with a rideshare driver who accepted their trip, then parked at a Wendy’s across the street. The commenter said they walked over to confront the driver, but he turned off his phone and drove away when he saw them approaching.
They said they could not immediately request another Uber because canceling the original ride would have resulted in a fee. According to the commenter, the driver kept the trip active for more than 20 minutes before the commenter eventually took the bus and reported the driver.
Canceling a rideshare isn’t as easy as it seems. In a separate incident, Uber allegedly tried to charge a rider $6 to cancel a ride even though the passenger said his driver had disappeared.
PRIORITY PICKUP: Faster pickup, slightly higher price.
Lyft describes PRIORITY PICKUP as an option that provides a faster pickup at a slightly higher price. The company currently calls it its fastest pickup option. Lyft also says it strives to ensure riders can get a ride when they want one.
In its 2026 annual report, the company said it uses its proprietary dispatch platform and data to help drivers and riders connect efficiently and reduce wait times. Lyft separately offers an on-time pickup promise for scheduled airport rides in qualifying markets. The company says riders can receive up to $100 in Lyft credits if their driver arrives more than 10 minutes late.
That promise does not appear to apply to the woman’s reported Priority Pickup ride, which she described as a regular trip from Queens to Manhattan rather than a scheduled airport ride. The video does not establish why the driver was inside Dunkin’ Donuts, whether he had a meal-related stop planned before accepting the ride, or whether Lyft took any action following the incident.
In other rideshare news, Seattle officials warned rideshare customers to confirm their driver knows their name amid incidents of alleged kidnapping at the airport.
Published: Aug 24, 2026 04:51 pm