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Uber revolution will not last

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Uber revolution will not last

#31

Post by JoshTriplett »

hkmurakami wrote: post #22
jrockway wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One wonders if driving for Uber could compete with basic income. The Internet keeps telling me that all Uber drivers are unhappy. I use Uber from time to time, and about 90% of the time, the driver seems super happy to be driving for Uber. They seem happy with their compensation. Maybe all the drivers are new, this is their first week, and it all sounds good on paper. But maybe they actually like the job. I don't kno…

I'd be afraid of a bad review if I told a passenger I'm not happy driving for Uber. What do I have to gain from sharing this info? At best I'm where I was before and at worst maybe an Uber employee is testing me for fidelity and I could be punished. The truth is somewhere in between, and a non zero number of passengers would rate me a non-5 star if I complained about my condition. So take the info with a grain of sal…

I don't mind a driver mentioning they're not happy driving for Uber and Lyft, or that the rates have gone down in the area, or that they've had a lot of short trips today. That alone wouldn't cause me to rate a driver poorly, though I can imagine that it might for some people.

I do mind when I get a 20-minute rant for the duration of the trip, though. I've had that happen once or twice, once accompanied with a less than subtle "it's possible to tip in cash".

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#32

Post by ezzaf »

xg15 wrote: post #21
prostoalex wrote: post #4

The "labor-exploiting" argument seems a bit disingenious to me. It's not like someone sees an ad for Uber and tells their boss to shove it, as they're quitting their full-time job, forfeiting all the benefits and 401(k) matching to start a brand new career as an Uber driver. The alternative for many drivers is simply unemployment. While there's zero possibility of labor exploitation, it reminds me of Flight of the Co…

Except they're "disrupting" the taxi industry to get to that point. So they're destroying jobs and replacing them with less secure, less paid ones. (Wether or not that disruption has a positive effect for society in the big picture is another debate - but in terms of labor you can't ignore it)

Taxi drivers are actually employees in some places? I had assumed most drivers were already under some non-employee structure in most jurisdictions pre-uber.

That's certainly the case here in Australia where taxi drivers were making under minimum wage with working conditions that would not be allowed were they employees. It's hard to see Uber as any worse than what existed before.

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#33

Post by mweibel »

prostoalex wrote: post #4

The "labor-exploiting" argument seems a bit disingenious to me. It's not like someone sees an ad for Uber and tells their boss to shove it, as they're quitting their full-time job, forfeiting all the benefits and 401(k) matching to start a brand new career as an Uber driver. The alternative for many drivers is simply unemployment. While there's zero possibility of labor exploitation, it reminds me of Flight of the Co…

Of course having a job is better than no job. That doesn't excuse Uber from having good working conditions, though.

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#34

Post by lambda »

prostoalex wrote: post #4

The "labor-exploiting" argument seems a bit disingenious to me. It's not like someone sees an ad for Uber and tells their boss to shove it, as they're quitting their full-time job, forfeiting all the benefits and 401(k) matching to start a brand new career as an Uber driver. The alternative for many drivers is simply unemployment. While there's zero possibility of labor exploitation, it reminds me of Flight of the Co…

Several of the Uber/Lyft drivers I've talked to are actually former small business owners; they owned bakeries and pizza shops, and are now retiring from that by driving for Uber or Lyft, which over much better and more flexible hours than having to work 12 to 16 hour days that they do running their former businesses.

Others are people with seasonal or part time work; they work in real estate or as relationship therapists, but use driving for Uber and Lyft to cover for the times when they're less busy.

Some more are people who are just bored during the day, and want to give people rides.

A few are college students, trying to make ends meet as they pay their way through school.

And a few more are doing this full time; some are former cabbies, who find they get a lot more business this way, some are people who never would have been cabbies, but are able to find some income from Uber or Lyft.

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#36

Post by intrasight »

EpicEng wrote: post #14
okonomiyaki3000 wrote: post #5

The points the article makes about Uber's drivers are kind of meaningless anyway since Uber won't even have drivers in a few years.

>in a few years I think you're vastly overestimating the sophistication of driverless systems.

But it may very well be a few years before a majority of riders would ride in a driverless car

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#38

Post by ezzaf »

quanticle wrote: post #15

I don't understand the point he's making about traffic congestion. He's claiming that "Uber is putting more cars on the street". More compared to what? Compared to everyone driving themselves? If Uber wasn't around, the alternative would not be people taking public transport. The alternative wouldn't be people waiting 35 minutes for taxis. The alternative would be people driving in themselves, causing greater congest…

That's an interesting question. I know I've tried to get a cab during a busy time and just given up and caught public transit home. Generally this is Friday and Saturday nights, when most people are in no condition to be driving themselves.

I also find Uber fares are about price comparable to public transit when travelling with multiple people, and so for that reason I could see it displacing trips previously taken with public transit.

Are you aware on any data on what transit modes the increased ridership of uber is displacing?

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#39

Post by necessity »

barney54 wrote: post #25

From the title I hoped it the article would make an interesting argument, but most of it was the same complaints about Uber that we have heard for years including that Uber evades livery laws. Well, livery laws are terrible and unjust, as are taxi medallions. Complaining about Iner drivers not being professional also misses the mark because they are much better than regular taxi drivers in my experience. Has this guy…

The whole article sounds like a PR piece, I'm surprised it was so well received here.

Re: Uber revolution will not last

#40

Post by mkagenius »

stepanhruda wrote: post #20
mc32 wrote: post #18

This is gold... "So, yeah, it’s great: you hit the app, and the car shows up now in 10 minutes instead of a 35-minute wait. But now the traffic congestion is so bad that you’re sitting in that car for 20 minutes longer to get anywhere... cities now are starting to discuss and deal with: traffic congestion. The traffic congestion is so much worse. Now, is it all because of Uber? Not it’s not...you suddenly have a new…

Exactly the part where I stopped reading

I still went ahead and stopped at the following:

> having a few self-driving cars on the public streets of Pittsburgh looks to me like an act of desperation — come on, what a joke: a few cars driving around Pittsburgh, and the human “non-drivers” still have to be sitting in the drivers seat? This is supposed to be a sign of progress?

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