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SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

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Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone raping anyone is horrendous and a tragic atrocity. It should never be allowed to happen! Yet it can be somewhat prevented with background checks.

It happens with regular cab companies too: http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/18/11680790/ http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-broo... http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/07/former_yellow_ca... AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US.

> AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US.

They do a cheaper less effective version than is required for cab drivers in many areas (e.g. Houston)

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#222
post #212
post #195

There are a lot of comments in this thread about the problems Uber solves. I'd like to pose a different question: which of those problems is not solved by Flywheel? For those who don't know, Flywheel is an app that lets you call a regular taxi cab with an Uber-like dispatch system. You watch the cab arrive with GPS and pay on your phone. It is some small fixed cost over the cost of a cab, no surging obviously. And yo…

I think there's an element of principle to it. I certainly feel that way, and it appears the majority does as well. App GPS, app payment, star ratings... these are not new things. And yet the taxi industry couldn't be bothered to better itself until a higher quality service came through and gutted their profits. Consumers suffered some universally abhorrent treatment for years because taxis flat out don't give a fuck…

That is the biggest point in favor of Uber, their threat made some taxi operators attempt to get their act together.

I think that in a few years Uber will learn to give as few fucks (to borrow your phrasing) as taxi companies do today. Most of the current taxi drivers will become Uber drivers, Uber will have too many riders to do reasonable customer service, and there will be no incentive to go the extra mile for customers when there is no entrenched competition to outshine.

The only reason I bother playing the devil's advocate in pro-Uber threads is because I don't like how they got here. They used VC money to barrel into ever major city and actively ignore the law. It's just one more symptom of the problem that having a billion dollars in America makes you above the law.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens with regular cab companies too: http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/18/11680790/ http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-broo... http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/07/former_yellow_ca... AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US.

> AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US. They do a cheaper less effective version than is required for cab drivers in many areas (e.g. Houston)

And there are still problems, right?

http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/11/11254424/

Overall, I wonder if the crime rate among Uber rides is more or less than the crime rate among Taxi rides?

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#224
post #195

There are a lot of comments in this thread about the problems Uber solves. I'd like to pose a different question: which of those problems is not solved by Flywheel? For those who don't know, Flywheel is an app that lets you call a regular taxi cab with an Uber-like dispatch system. You watch the cab arrive with GPS and pay on your phone. It is some small fixed cost over the cost of a cab, no surging obviously. And yo…

Sounds like it does most of what ride-share services do. Does Flywheel allow you to rate individual drivers/cars (and prevent being matched to creepy drivers or dirty cars on future rides)? I think that's actually one of the biggest value-adds of Uber/Lyft/Sidecar--direct feedback about drivers which tends to retain good drivers and reject bad ones.

You can rate your ride, I have no idea what happens to the feedback.

The uber/lyft rating system is a little broken these days since many drivers will ask you to exchange 5-star ratings with them (you have a rating too). When a bad driver is a 4.8 and a good driver is a 4.9 it's hard for me to tell what I am getting into.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#225
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like it does most of what ride-share services do. Does Flywheel allow you to rate individual drivers/cars (and prevent being matched to creepy drivers or dirty cars on future rides)? I think that's actually one of the biggest value-adds of Uber/Lyft/Sidecar--direct feedback about drivers which tends to retain good drivers and reject bad ones.

You can rate your ride, I have no idea what happens to the feedback. The uber/lyft rating system is a little broken these days since many drivers will ask you to exchange 5-star ratings with them (you have a rating too). When a bad driver is a 4.8 and a good driver is a 4.9 it's hard for me to tell what I am getting into.

Huh. I haven't ever run into that, and I've been using uber twice a week for more than a year. Maybe it just comes down to which city you're in?

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#226

Too bad, so sad... If they hadn't allowed their service to get so horrible, with nasty old cars, drivers that don't speak English and drive around in circles to increase fares, drivers claiming their card readers are "broken" so you have to pay cash, taking an hour to show up when called, passing by black people, etc., then this wouldn't be happening. From the article: "Cab drivers, on the other hand, maintain that t…

Every time I've taken an Uber in San Francisco I've ended up having to tell the driver how to get where I was going. Their GPS consistently tells them to take routes that technically work but are not the most efficient. For example, they always want to take California Street or Geary (stoplights at every intersection) instead of Bush/Pine (one way and with timed lights). As a native San Franciscan driving in the city for 20 years I know these are better routes. Most of the drivers I've had seem to not live in the city. I even had one driver who was in town for the week from LA and had never been to SF before.

Of course it's just a problem with the GPS algorithms, but that sort of hyper-local knowledge seems to be really hard to encode in algorithms. I wonder how many GPS systems could pass "the knowledge" in london for example? I think we on HN tend to have too much faith in the superiority of software.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, because its a good idea to put them in a position of power right after they are out of jail. Did you not bother to read the link to the drunk girl who stupidly got into a car with one of these guys? Wow. Bro. A couple of things: Humans who would launch unjustifiable assaults against other humans come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are convicted felons. Most of them are not. A proper background check [0]…

> A proper background check [0] discovers with a relatively high degree of certainty whether or not one is likely to assault another (among many other things). ...yet you don't want Uber to do proper background checks. Okay. That makes no sense and you basically admit I'm correct then go on and on about something else. > From what I can tell (and from what I've read in the Uber driver recruitment letters I've been ge…

> ...yet you don't want Uber to do proper background checks. Okay.

Heh. When did I say that? I bet you can't provide a quote... because I neither said it, nor implied it. :)

From the sound of it, it's you who's interested in forgoing proper background checks, and just blackballing everyone who's been convicted of a felony:

> In other words, "Hey, Uber hires known felons and its okay because I can think of a scenario where background checks fail."

Think through your statement:

* You -obviously- strongly disagree with Grishnakh's assertion that background checks are frequently going to be insufficient to root out everyone who would harm another human while driving them around... especially when they've recently arrived in the country.

* You express that disagreement by rephrasing his statement as (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Because background checks fail, it's okay to hire convicted felons who've served their time and are now out of jail.".

* This implies that you feel that blanket prohibitions on employing people who've been previously convicted of a felony are acceptable.

If one wants to perform a more-thorough-than-usual background check on folks convicted of a felony, charge them more to perform the check. [0] Do that, rather than instituting a policy that ends up being -at best- dramatically classist, -at worst- dramatically racist, and -at all times- dramatically damaging to the folks who've reformed themselves and are now decent, honest, useful people.

> You are saying "Well, yes the burden is shifted to drivers and that is okay."

Sure, but that wasn't the core of your argument. Your argument's core was that Uber et. al. were being dishonest and/or intentionally deceptive about the limits of their coverage.

> You clearly don't understand what I've written at all...

No, I do. I can read both the text and the subtext of what you've written. :)

[0] But, frankly, the same level of scrutiny should be applied to everyone... you never know who's an antisocial scumbag that just hasn't been caught yet.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A proper background check [0] discovers with a relatively high degree of certainty whether or not one is likely to assault another (among many other things). ...yet you don't want Uber to do proper background checks. Okay. That makes no sense and you basically admit I'm correct then go on and on about something else. > From what I can tell (and from what I've read in the Uber driver recruitment letters I've been ge…

> ...yet you don't want Uber to do proper background checks. Okay. Heh. When did I say that? I bet you can't provide a quote... because I neither said it, nor implied it. :) From the sound of it, it's you who's interested in forgoing proper background checks, and just blackballing everyone who's been convicted of a felony: > In other words, "Hey, Uber hires known felons and its okay because I can think of a scenario…

> You -obviously- strongly disagree with Grishnakh's assertion that background checks are frequently going to be insufficient to root out everyone who would harm another human while driving them around... especially when they've recently arrived in the country.

I literally said otherwise:

> In other words, "Hey, Uber hires known felons and its okay because I can think of a scenario where background checks fail."

Aka "We should continue to use background checks as prescribed by the locally democratically elected authority even tho they can fail in some scenarios."

That isn't a statement on the accuracy of those background checks and only a complete idiot would come to that conclusion.

> * You express that disagreement by rephrasing his statement as (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Because background checks fail, it's okay to hire convicted felons who've served their time and are now out of jail.".

> Yes, because its a good idea to put them in a position of power right after they are out of jail. [Sarcasm]

Its a specific discussion of people who are in positions of power.

> * This implies that you feel that blanket prohibitions on employing people who've been previously convicted of a felony are acceptable.

1) People who fail standard and normal background checks because of felonies when attempting to get a job that places them in a position of power.

2) You keep re-stating what I say to make it apply to a broader context than what I actually say which is simply arguing with a strawman, yet again.

> If one wants to perform a more-thorough-than-usual background check on folks convicted of a felony, charge them more to perform the check.

It is usual and standard to have a background check performed by fingerprinting to the standards of the city of Houston when engaging in services regulated by the city of Houston.

Once again, you seem to argue against a strawman for no apparent reason.

> Sure, but that wasn't the core of your argument. Your argument's core was that Uber et. al. were being dishonest and/or intentionally deceptive about the limits of their coverage.

That has nothing to do with what I said.

> There are some pretty significant gaps in that coverage that shift the burden to drivers, depending on the state.

That was the argument. The context was in relation to Taxi companies. Yes, the insurance burden is shifted and you just agreed with it.

Congratulations.

> No, I do. I can read both the text and the subtext of what you've written. :)

1) You've admitted my argument that part of the cost savings is by shifting the some of the burden from Uber/Taxi company to drivers for insurance.

2) You admit I'm correct that they should use normal and customary background checks used by the local democratically elected authority.

3) You've basically agreed my argument is fundamentally sound and 100% correct. Or you are lying in your most recent post.

4) Your entire attack on my argument is from the angle of re-writing my argument to attack a strawman.

> Heh. When did I say that? I bet you can't provide a quote... because I neither said it, nor implied it. :)

Actually, you did even in your most recent post.

Given "proper" background checks in the context of skirting local regulations is determined by the locally democratically elected authority (the city of Houston) by arguing against that position, you literally said:

> Do that, rather than instituting a policy that ends up being -at best- dramatically classist, -at worst- dramatically racist, and -at all times- dramatically damaging to the folks who've reformed themselves and are now decent, honest, useful people.

1) You can't actually invalidate how Houston is handling this without accusing Uber of being racist, classist, and dramatically damage to felons who have reformed.

2) This is due to the main difference is the fact Houston wants people fingerprinted and Uber didn't comply.

3) You ignored the actual flaw in my argument (Houston would have cleared the driver I used as an example in their background check) to accuse me of being racist, classist, etc.

Congratulations. I just proved it using standards of evidence you are.

applauds

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#229

This is not surprising at all. Traveling around the world, cab drivers are often times some of my favorite people. I like the profession, generally finding cab drivers to be interesting and knowledgeable of local areas. In San Francisco, I try to take regular cabs when I can just to meet people and support the old profession and working class folks. Bay Area, about a week ago. It was dark, cold, and raining around 5:…

  Traveling around the world, cab drivers are often
  times some of my favorite people.
There is a film called "Night on Earth" (1991) with great stories in cab rides in 5 different cities.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102536/

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll be super funny when self-driving cars are seen following the at-times-ridiculous GPS directions. For the foreseeable future, I wouldn't want to be in a car without a steering wheel.

You know how in Google maps you can drag and modify routes and it'd modify the route? Id imagine self driving cars will support that.

self driving cars that we still have to drive, sounds awesome
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