Rideshare services - Uber, Lyft, Hailo, etc.

Haha I like the photo, just the idea that it illustrates this article is...er.

FAKE NEWS?

I can't tell whether that piece is really making the rounds as they say or whether I just get all my stories from a bubble predisposed to stab at uber whenever the opportunity presents itself

I'm really not in this bubble and like 10 copies of this came across my twitter feed

Ya it's a shame because i guess there are times when hr/rest of upper mgmt don't believe the victim because ...

are you kidding me? there are functional workplaces and i would like to think most of us are in them, but in a lot of them (especially in the service industry or others with a significant management/worker gap in status, like salaried versus hourly) it's not that "there are times", it's that no one gives any shit whatsoever and favoritism or seniority wins every time

man, this is a juicy read

xp

sounds quite diff from

and no, HR in any competent place isn't going to do some shell game bullshit when it's obvious coworkers are going to talk and realize a "first incident" is anything but

― mh 😏, Sunday, February 19, 2017 5:07 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you mean where I said "in any competent place" and also referred to "functional workplaces" in the other?

I guess it depends on whether you judge competence by their ability to shield management or their ability to act justly

I have a friend and former coworker who works at Uber and is friends with Susan; he corroborrated all of this, but also told me that there was a large HR shakeup several months ago (before she left) partially as a result of all of this already; and the two principals she mentioned (the one who did the whole thing with the jackets, and the one who propositioned her) were both gone; the latter fired, the former quit and is not director of eng at google, and is apparently a massive shithead. He defended the company to a degree, because he still drinks their kool aid, and also thinks that this situation isn't that abnormal (and drew comparisons to his former place of work, where I am now a manager; but, though the place I work has some ethical issues w/r/t who is in HR and how they've responded to, like, two things, it's absolutely not even close to being the same kind of thing where it seems like systematic workplace wide harrassment is covered up)

"and is NOW at google,"

http://jalopnik.com/uber-is-doomed-1792634203

binladenthumbsup.gif

are you kidding me? there are functional workplaces and i would like to think most of us are in them, but in a lot of them (especially in the service industry or others with a significant management/worker gap in status, like salaried versus hourly) it's not that "there are times", it's that no one gives any shit whatsoever and favoritism or seniority wins every time

― mh 😏, Monday, February 20, 2017 2:58 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm - I was ranting about Lasership once and a friend of mine PMed me to confide she'd worked for them, and spent the next half hour telling her story of employment there, which involved lots of management encouraging rulebreaking, retaliating against her for reporting it, and even physically handling her the moment before she quit. it sounded v much like the Uber story.

Power plays are a definite thing in many corporate environments, particularly places where the pay is so abysmal and the employees are paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to be without one long enough or have the financial means to fight the company if they are taken advantage of.

https://newsroom.uber.com/a-profound-apology/

can i just say, i'm having a lovely time

Believe it when you see it, for at least a few years straight.

love too see a company that is hemorrhaging billions quarterly, has never made money, and has no clear idea how to do so valued at $70b

i mean john galt at least made some quality steel

you want to apologize for real? commit hari-kari and we'll all be impressed.

who is this "we"

Aimless is trapped in Ayn Rand's "Anthem" again

How Uber Used Secret Greyball Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html

omg

insane

why does this company still exist

their whole thing was "why can't I hail a cab w my phone" and now that every cab company has enabled that, why would anybody choose this shitty company with their shitty politics and policies instead of a cab idgi

unbelievable

Ride sharing used to be cool. It used to be just drunk millennials all the time. But now it's just old smelly people who just want to save a few bucks.

and children

drunk children

who want to save a few bucks

their whole thing was "why can't I hail a cab w my phone"
um

i'm with Οὖτις, idgi

suspect there's subtle racism behind it

(flees thread)

is über just for rich ppl who don't want middle eastern cabbies or is my impression off?

― k3vin k., Sunday, November 23, 2014 8:57 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm with Οὖτις, idgi

suspect there's subtle racism behind it

(flees thread)

― a but (brimstead), Friday, March 10, 2017

if you live in suburban Miami and want to drink, Uber was a joy. Cabs don't simply drive around or show up when you phone. It's that simple.

it might be cheaper than a cab, because of vc support? (i dunno, i've never used it). and i think there's also a trendiness because uber was maybe first with the app? but . . . yeah

big city snobbery going on here. Many parts of western Miami-Dade County have condo developments and no SIDEWALKS.

I've switched to Lyft in the last couple weeks, but for two years the relief Uber brought was incalculable.

Uber makes travel effortless for me if i don't drive the trip

Yeah, anyone who doesn't "get" the massive success of these services is living in a city with decent public transport and/or cab services. This shit has made things significantly easier and safer for me and everyone I know. No more calling a cab and maybe they'll be there in 15 minutes, or 45, or maybe not at all. Or they'll straight up just ask you how much you're going to pay them before they take you to your destination knowing you're desperate. I get the gross capitalistic shark tank this all is, but the system in some cities needed a kick in the ass.

Like knowing i can go to a strange town and not have to figure out their local cabs and reliably get a cheap ride has made me travel three times as much

its 'massive success' is only because unsustainably low costs are being propped up by venture capital. it has never made anything close to a profit, nor does it have a clear path to making one in the future. its only hopes are a) driverless cars or b) driving every other form of transportation out of business

neither is likely to happen soon. and yeah, taxi cabs are a total racket, but the fact is that personal transportation is fucking expensive. stop drinking and buy a car, you'll do fine. if you can't manage either then you're stuck

In Melbourne this has caused a big shitstorm because the taxi companies here had a weird monopoly semi-supported by state government, that involved a taxi plate (badge? Im not sure the proper term) being something of an investment for a driver. So they'd pay maybe $100k - but a lot more in recent years for complex reasons - to own one and be able to drive cabs/hire subdrivers.

Now the govt have conceded to Uber and said "ok we'll let you operate in our city but we have to compensate taxi plate owners". Except the payback ceiling is only $100k I think, and a lot of drivers are furious because they claim this was basically their retirement fund and it is being taken from them.

I'm struggling to find sympathy, as I see it as an investment like stock, but I prob dont know enough.

"stop drinking and buy a car"

Awesome, excellent advice. Problem solved.

oh, i've done neither. i'm just saying that uber isn't likely to be a long-term solution

its 'massive success' is only because unsustainably low costs are being propped up by venture capital

This is something I only discovered recently and this is pretty key. The dotcom crash happened for shit like this. Have techbros learned nothing?

I at least see it as something to kickstart a change in a system that's total fucking garbage in a lot of cities. I'm not championing how they operate, but having things like ordering a car on an app and seeing their ETA are enough for me. I guess some cabs are doing that now, but not here.

xp

tbh cab companies here have had apps for some years but yeah I see the diff is big city v towns

I mean Baltimore isn't necessarily a small town, but...

If there's a functional alternative here, anyone, let me know.

heh https://danielcompton.net/2017/03/14/uber-bombshell

below a surge factor of ~1.5 uber is significantly cheaper here (montreal), there's also no alternative (Lyft or Juno) here yet, so I use cabs when uber is over 1.5, which is about half the time.

so is there any way Levandowski could be facing criminal charges? What a dumb mess to get yourself into, if all that stuff in the filing is true.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7DfFtXV0AAlhsN.jpg