William Hargrave’s nose filed the first complaint. The 25-year-old took an Uber (UBER) to the airport and hit a smell so overwhelming he felt carsick, and he doesn’t get motion sickness. He looked up and found the culprit: seven tree-shaped air fresheners, all smelling of bargain cologne. Not one tree. Seven. At that point, it’s less a car than a cologne counter with a steering wheel.
The Scent Arms Race
And trees are just the opening act. Scented cans hide under seats, and vent clips blow cherry and Hawaiian-themed scents straight at riders. The menu keeps growing: body spray, coffee-shop latte, fabric softener. Jacque Keener, who works in tech near Houston, saw his driver’s tangle of red, blue and green trees before he smelled it. His estimate: 20 to 30.
For some riders, this isn’t just unpleasant. Strong fragrance can bring on headaches, coughs or dizziness, so Katherine Sharpe, a social-media manager in Washington, D.C., masks up with an N95 before rides. Hargrave wanted to tell his driver that seven was overkill, but the app offered only prewritten reviews, so he picked the one about smell. His prediction: “That man will probably see that and get an eighth tree.”
The Front-Seat View
The complaints reached the corner office. Asked on a podcast in May about a fragrance-free filter, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he was sure the company could work on it. Jenny McCarthy followed with a social-media campaign. Lyft (LYFT) offers its pricier Extra Comfort as fragrance-free, but Sharpe found a tree in one ride and three in another.
Drivers have a case. Chris Gerace, who has driven for Uber and Lyft for a decade, says riders leave behind smoke, vomit, alcohol and heavy perfume. His routine is a spritz of Febreze after each passenger, windows down. “A neutral smell is the best,” he said. Trouble is, a nose parked in fragrance long enough tunes it out, so drivers may not notice how strong theirs has gotten.
Allison Anderman, 48, got so queasy on one Lyft ride that she now books a car service. She can’t wait for Waymo’s driverless cars: no driver, no dangling trees. Any side hustle has its own seven-tree problem. Small supplies feel cheap, but the customer decides what’s too much, so track the little costs and ask whether each one brings people back. Keep an umbrella handy, not an eighth tree; fifteen minutes and a recent statement will show what your side gig really nets.