Rideshare services - Uber, Lyft, Hailo, etc.

Also from seeing someone I know repeatedly posting on fb about the difficulty of working late and getting a yellow cab in Manhattan to pick her up to get home from work at like 10pm (lol marketing art direction) bc she's Black and taxis won't stop for her at night. And she could call an Uber car but she'd have to be willing to pay more just to mitigate the negative effect of racism, and how that's only available to the moneyed. I mean, nothing new here, just seeing it again in a new context.

― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Monday, November 24, 2014 12:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/10/21/357645869/apps-makes-googly-eyes-at-riders-tired-of-being-snubbed-by-cabbies

This pretty much sums up the #1 policy problem with Uber-type services imo:

In fact, it's traditional taxis that are now claiming discrimination — that they're being treated unfairly because they can't compete with services like Uber and Lyft, which aren't subject to the same government regulations and can thus charge riders less.

"You don't give advantages to one industry and oppress, take other people's livelihoods or jobs by regulating them and deregulating their competitors," Hailu Asrhu, a 30-year veteran of the cab industry, told The Huffington Post. "We're not at a position for competition. Competition has to play a fair game," Asrhu added. "I want regulation or deregulation for everybody — equality and equally for everyone."

It's very much like the charter school movement, or what happened with deregulation of the telecoms, where instead of outright dismantling a public-sanctioned monopoly, they give private players unfair advantages and erode the public-sanctioned monopoly.

http://www.autostraddle.com/why-lyft-and-uber-endanger-both-passengers-and-drivers-a-former-lyft-driver-speaks-out-261279/

The stuff about drivers not being able to cancel rides without penalty is troubling.

argh, friend now works for uber, keeps approvingly posting uber propaganda, started to gently argue with him in one thread but it's obviously pointless, not like he's going to hear me out while fully bought in. Just posted this:

http://blog.uber.com/ride-ahead

with this as the pull-quote

"In 2015 alone, Uber will generate over 1mm jobs in cities around the world and with that millions of people may decide that they no longer need to own a car because using Uber will be cheaper than owning one. Parking could become less strained in our biggest cities, and city congestion may actually start to ease due to uberPOOL’s expansion and success."

"You don't give advantages to one industry and oppress, take other people's livelihoods or jobs by regulating them and deregulating their competitors," Hailu Asrhu, a 30-year veteran of the cab industry, told The Huffington Post. "We're not at a position for competition. Competition has to play a fair game," Asrhu added. "I want regulation or deregulation for everybody — equality and equally for everyone."

but you're not going to get the taxi industry to actually support this kind of deregulation, at least not anywhere w/ medallion systems.

you should send your friend that uber ceo's quote about self-driving cars xp

The congestion part is particularly lulzy -- we're going to alleviate road congestion...by providing a service that drives people around in cars!

eh it's not totally nonsensical, in a world where people actually give up their personal vehicle they're likely to make fewer trips overall

In NYC it seems like people only own cars if they (1) need them on a regular basis, (2) go out of town a lot or (3) have money to burn. None of these seem likely to change with Uber, maybe it's different in other cities. Like my wife drives to her job because where we live to her job takes a ridiculous amount of time by subway, and she's not going to save money if we give up the car and she Ubers it to work every day.

upper middle class people who live in dense-for-america-but-shitty-transit areas could give up their cars. so like, it's not absurd to suggest that it could happen in the bay area, dc, even LA.

http://gawker.com/uber-turned-on-surge-pricing-for-people-fleeing-sydney-1671193132

What what raging buttholes

"fares have increased" kind of makes me think it is an automatic thing and they don't have people tweaking stuff, meaning in dire situations fares will be really high and only the rich will make it out alive once uber takes over the whole ride industry

Did you even read the article

article sucks balls on most levels

yeah? the cited tweet saying that it was intentional is this one, which has the phrasing I mentioned:
https://twitter.com/Uber_Sydney/status/544319760809222144

I think Uber is managed by malicious libertarian motherfuckers, but I also think they would be lazy enough to program surge pricing into the system without having an override mechanism, because they think surge pricing is always appropriate

it sounds like that's almost definitely what happened, but I agree with your assessment of the company

I think Uber is managed by malicious libertarian motherfuckers, but I also think they would be lazy enough to program surge pricing into the system without having an override mechanism, because they think surge pricing is always appropriate

You say this like being malicious libertarian motherfuckers didn't lead to automatic surge pricing without an override mechanism.

oh, no, they are lazy malicious libertarian motherfuckers

You know they then backed down and offered free rides out of the CBD after the backlash, right.

yes, that also was a headline

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/12/insider-series-what-uber-drivers-know-about-passengers/

Found this article weird and unsettling

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Uber-driver-accused-in-sexual-assault-due-in-court-5977119.php

So far I'm unsettled by this bit of nonsense: "Just like a good marriage, both an Uber driver and a client have access to their own halves of the Uber app."

haha yeah that is totally creepy

like, that is a bizarre image of both a marriage and the relationship between a hired driver and a rider

Right???

"Uber isn’t concerned with lowering their prices, because many drivers manage to show up at clients’ pick-up locations with their own SUVs, Cadillacs or Mercedes sedans."

What the...

I didn't understand what that meant.

FWIW the few times I have used Uber the cars seemed unnecessarily nice. The one time I took it home from work I got some oversized super-luxury SUV, and my 5'9" self felt kind of ridiculous riding in the backseat of it, alone, across the 59th street bridge.

I would probably be more inclined to use it if it were 30% cheaper for cars that were less nice, instead of the same price as a cab.

asymmetric warfare, just like marriage

Based in part on that article, I'm still happy to continue not using any of these damn services

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/12/insider-series-what-uber-drivers-know-about-passengers/

Found this article weird and unsettling

― 龜, Wednesday, December 24, 2014 11:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this article

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick smugly jokes that his extremely profitable company has garnered him so much tail that he now refers to it as “Boob-er,” so nobody exactly expected Uber to be particularly sensitive towards women. All the same, the whole Avions de Chasse catastrophe really takes the cake. As soon as BuzzFeed News got ahold of the story, Uber quietly pulled the promotion from their website, and later described it as a “clear misjudgment.” Avions’ co-founder Pierre Garonnaire described the situation as a cultural misunderstanding, explaining that “They didn’t anticipate the reaction of Uber US. In the US, you are more Puritan. For me and most of the people of France, it was a good idea. It was fun.” Sarah Lacy hit the nail on the head when she explained in her op-ed “The Horrific Trickle-Down Of Asshole Culture: Why I’ve Just Deleted Uber From My Phone” that Uber “…posted an ad that encouraged, played on, and celebrated treating women who may choose to drive cars to make extra money like hookers.”

Jeez

how idiotic can you be?

it's so puritanical to find mysogyny disgusting

you know, the Puritans, those bastions of female empowerment

I am scared to contemplate the answer to that question xxp

in France, the driving, it is sexy

lol

You know, where there is regulation and public ownership you may well get some bureaucracy problems - problems with many people working in committee - but they strike me as preferable to a situation where one person and their business sweeping in, getting rid of the competition and installing their particular brand of personal shitness so that it becomes inescapable

http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/5822.html

Uber capping NYC fare multiplier at 2.8x

Recent usage in LA. Cab to downtown hotel - $65 with tip. UberX back to the airport $23.

hey look i got an entire chicken for $2

it's disruptive poultry

Uber capping NYC fare multiplier at 2.8x

― 龜, Monday, January 26, 2015 1:27 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

On account of the storm, I mean

I'm a $2 chicken kind of guy.

i dont want to google it but pretend i posted a giant picture of super gross factory mega cage chicken hell on earth shit here

http://i.imgur.com/9EYyU5x.png

ffffuuuuuuuuu!

Uber does seem pretty sketchy but at the same time I don't know if I want to defend the medallion system