A sample SCP-3525 manifestation, with identifying location information redacted.
The identity of the driver pictured is currently unknown.
Item #: SCP-3525
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Total containment for SCP-3525 has not yet been achieved; accordingly, these procedures are still being developed and are subject to further modification as more information is gathered.
Foundation technicians have installed backdoors in all major rideshare application servers allowing them to intercept any ride pickup confirmations from perfectly-rated drivers who do not appear in those applications' servers. These drivers should be re-routed to available Foundation personnel for testing purposes if available and otherwise simply canceled. The same safeguards should be installed in any new rideshare applications developed, although where possible their parent companies should be acquired and shut down in order to avoid spreading Foundation technical resources too thinly.
D-class personnel assigned to test SCP-3525 should be fitted with standard exploding-bolt collars and tracking devices to ensure they do not avoid re-containment after their ride completes.
Description: SCP-3525 is an anomalous phenomenon linked to all major rideshare applications1 that manifests when the app assigns a driver with a perfect 5-star rating to pick up a rider. Upon entering into these drivers' cars, riders uniformly report a sense of vague unease without being able to pinpoint the cause. After a few minutes, the driver then asks the rider a number of personal questions, starting from innocuous questions about personal well-being and progressing to interrogating them about their secrets, desires, and fears alongside detailed questions about their home lives and work responsibilities. Riders report a growing certainty that the driver will cause them physical harm if they refuse to answer these questions, although this does not appear to be a strict compulsion effect and riders can choose not to answer. In no case thus far has an SCP-3525 driver caused physical harm to any rider.
While in the car, riders describe the scenery as becoming surreal and unfamiliar. Common descriptions include buildings bending at alien angles, people outside becoming blurry and indistinguishable, and all physical landmarks disappearing entirely. However, external monitoring only shows the car moving along the most efficient route to its destination. Ridesharing carpools affected by SCP-3525 terminate in one of two ways: either the driver successfully delivers the rider to their intended destination or they stop at a midway point and ask the rider to leave, refusing to keep driving until the rider exits. Riders who successfully reach their intended destination have been observed to exhibit erratic behavior following their exposure to SCP-3525, including memory loss, personality shifts, and general confusion. Riders who stop short of their destination do not display these symptoms. Riders additionally report that the time spent in the car feels significantly longer than the apparent elapsed time; this temporal discrepancy has been confirmed via testing (see test log below).
No information about SCP-3525 drivers can be found in the databases of the apps in question and the mechanism by which they are assigned is currently unknown. In addition, they share no apparent commonalities apart from their 5-star rating, varying on race, gender, age, appearance, and make and model of car; similarly, the riders who get these drivers appear to be randomly-selected. SCP-3525 cars additionally appear to block all transmissions; GPS signals, telephonic communication, and radio contact all cease the moment a rider steps into the car and closes the door, although they do resume once the car door is opened again.
While many of the SCP-3525 riders contacted the app companies to complain, these complaints appear to have largely been ignored. Accordingly, the Foundation only became aware of the phenomenon several years after it had been in effect when a Foundation agent happened to experience an SCP-3525 manifestation firsthand as a rider, at which point the anomaly was reported, verified, and contained.
Addendum 3525-a: Partial Test Log
Note: Given the wide geological range of this phenomenon and the sudden nature of its manifestation, many of these tests were performed in a somewhat ad-hoc manner, taking advantage of whatever D-class personnel that were at hand and with test plans invented on the spot. Dedicated testing protocols are still a work in progress.
Addendum 3525-b: Transcript of audio recording, Experiment 3525-170
Note: The following is a transcript of the second encounter with a pedestrian during an SCP-3525 manifestation. For the purposes of this transcript the driver is referred to as SCP-3525-1, the pedestrian as SCP-3525-2, and the rider by his designation, D-17214.
