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Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

nytimes.com

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Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#831

Post by adrianmonk »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

And this actually gave Uber cover to do a lot of stupid stuff.

For one thing, because cabs were so bad, Uber was able to do a lot of stupid and scummy things yet still be way better than cabs.

Also, it had an interesting effect PR-wise. For a long time, whenever I heard something negative about Uber, I just assumed it was taxi industry shills making up ridiculous lies. Because there definitely were taxi industry shills going around (online, newspapers, etc.) and making up ridiculous lies about Uber. Later I understood that some of the negative stuff I was hearing about Uber was a huge lie and some of it was totally true.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#832

Post by nullnilvoid »

davidf18 wrote: post #773
soneca wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why Lyft get none of the protests? I think you are mixing unrelated subjects. Uber final product is good for society. And other companies can provide the same product (in my city, São Paulo, there are other 3 good companies in the same space). Uber practices as a company are toxic for its employees and some of the toxicity leak to society. If such calculation was possible, I believe it would show a net positive im…

Uber is the largest player by far, so they are an easy target for frustrations and for incumbents. "Uber" is almost a generic term for a iPhone hailable vehicle. Generally, there is market competition for drivers. For example, Lyft for those drivers who are unhappy with Uber. You have stated that in your city, São Paulo, there are 3 good companies. If one company mistreats drivers, they would go to a competing firm a…

Uber is the largest in the US, not across the world. Didi provides way more rides than Uber any single day.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#833

Post by CalChris »

soneca wrote: post #774
davidf18 wrote: post #773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber is the largest player by far, so they are an easy target for frustrations and for incumbents. "Uber" is almost a generic term for a iPhone hailable vehicle. Generally, there is market competition for drivers. For example, Lyft for those drivers who are unhappy with Uber. You have stated that in your city, São Paulo, there are 3 good companies. If one company mistreats drivers, they would go to a competing firm a…

That's why I trust capitalism. Its dynamics allowed Uber to create a market, but also keep it in check for bad practices.

Capitalism didn't force Kalanick to resign.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#834

Post by nsxwolf »

gregorymichael wrote: post #760
nsxwolf wrote: post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This mechanism actually works pretty well in Chicago.

It didn't work when I wanted to take a cab from Logan Square to work. Called the dispatcher. The cab showed up somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes later.

"Pretty well". We just tried to get an Uber in the French Quarter and had to cancel 2 different drivers because they couldn't figure out how to route around the barricades.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#835

Post by ajamesm »

davidf18 wrote: post #758
ajamesm wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, real shame that the unmitigated sexual harassment got in the way of their complete avoidance of regulations

The regulations by and large were simply there to protect incumbents that wanted to keep out competition which offered higher customer value (by offering lower cost, more responsive, less greenhouse gas) service. Unlike AirBnB which does break NY City and NY State laws, Uber has been following regulations that are imposed by the NYC Taxi & Limousine commission (e.g., screening drivers, etc.).

Genuinely lmao at the narrative that the taxi unions all got together and conspired against greener rides

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#836

Post by 15thandwhatever »

CPLX wrote: post #812
davidf18 wrote: post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This idea that there "were no taxis" in the boroughs and now there are is ridiculous. The few times I tried to take those services the service was horrible, horrible. Now, thankfully, Uber is available and they have much better service and they have a single identifiable reliable brand and they take credit cards. Uber pool where unrelated riders ride in the same car are going to have less greenhouse gas than riders…

> I actually live there and there are no Yellow Cabs in the outer boroughs. I am writing this from Brooklyn, where I have lived for about 20 years. > Before Uber there was no hailable service. There still isn't. Street hails are only from medallion cabs, plus the green outer borough cabs which came just a little bit before Uber showed up and are still around. There wasn't street hailing before and there isn't now. Th…

Arecibo! I remember them from my time around Park Slope. My personal go-to was Evelyn Car Service from Prospect Heights.

That said, even Manhattan has had phones for black cars. I've routinely called Dial 7, Carmel, and Skyline on different occasions on demand (primarily when it's raining, when it's really hard to get a yellow cab), and had no issues. I still do so when Uber surge pricing is ridiculous for my tastes.

In the LES where yellow cabs can be scarce, you had Allen Car Service and Delancey Car Service (who I'd call for airport runs).

The reliability of these car services was pretty good. They'd call you if they were delayed or were otherwise late. (Drastically different from San Francisco, where the taxis were pretty much a terrible crapshoot experience)

When Uber started to take off in NYC, some of the feedback I heard was "I get to look like a bigwig", when in reality, anyone can get a black car, and if you think it makes you look more important... it doesn't.

My point is, there's a lot of talk of "Uber was revolutionary" and "before Uber there was nothing!", when the sad truth is these folks never bothered to look?

I mean, anyone who's lived in NYC for some time can tell you the numbers for Carmel or Dial 7 in a heartbeat, and some may even be able to recite the jingles from their ads.

Uber was just yet another dispatch car service, but with an app.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#837

Post by antisthenes »

kevinburke wrote: post #676
macspoofing wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Please believe women when they report harassment in the workplace This meme is often repeated in context of sexual harrassment (workplace or otherwise). How do you square that with the fact that women are as capable of laying and misleading as men are? How do you square that with "innocent until proven guilty" when accusation are leveled against another individual or company.

The required burden of proof can and should be much lower in the workplace. Sure everyone is capable of lying but P(harassment occurred | report of harassment) is much greater than P(harassment did not occur | report of harassment).

> The required burden of proof can and should be much lower in the workplace.

Absolutely f-ing not. I'm not even sure what sort of mindset one needs to have to arrive at this conclusion.

Did you even consider the fact how damaging a false accusation can be to the other person?

No. Just no.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#838

Post by dang »

throwawaymanbot wrote: post #519

He can now spend his time Masturbating over Ayn Rand books.

We ban accounts that comment like this because they degrade the community and we're hoping for something better here. Please don't do it again.

If you have a substantive point to make, please make it thoughtfully; otherwise please don't comment until you do.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#839

Post by johnbellone »

perdid0 wrote: post #696
johnbellone wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, I hate having to have multiple apps to do the same thing. That would drive me crazy for every city. I would pay a premium not to do that. Second, none of these apps I have seen thus far even attempts to make it easier for the user to add payment methods. Each time I need to put in my credit card information? Twice if I am on business? Nobody has taken advantage of Apple or Android pay integration. I don't cons…

I agree with the multiple apps and not knowing which ones to use where. However, as an example, when Uber and Lyft left Austin, one of the companies created locally (RideAustin) to replace the gap does allow payments via Apple Pay. Very convenient, and they also give you the option of rounding up to donate to a charity of your choice. I guess it's just up to all the other options to realize what people want.

Ah, I was in Austin last year, but ended up renting a car for autonomy. I vaguely remember seeing signs for RideAustin - is that the only app?

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#840

Post by wgyn »

soneca wrote: post #764
davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

So why Lyft get none of the protests? I think you are mixing unrelated subjects. Uber final product is good for society. And other companies can provide the same product (in my city, São Paulo, there are other 3 good companies in the same space). Uber practices as a company are toxic for its employees and some of the toxicity leak to society. If such calculation was possible, I believe it would show a net positive im…

Actually such a calculation is possible (of consumer surplus), though perhaps some would argue against one or another part of the methodology.

See: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/uber-economists-dream/ or http://www.nber.org/papers/w22627.

> So we found that in 2015, if you extrapolate to the whole U.S., we found that the overall consumer surplus added up to almost $7 billion. So people spent about $4 billion on Ubers, but they actually would have been willing to spend about $11 billion. So for every dollar people spent on Uber, they got about $1.50 worth of extra joy that they would have been willing to pay on average above and beyond what they did pay. And to put it in a context just how big this consumer surplus is, the total amount of money that went to what Uber calls the driver partners, the people who are driving the cars, was something like $2.5 billion. So the consumers got more than twice the benefit of all the money that went to the drivers. And Uber itself only got to keep about $1 billion.

Of course, none of this makes Uber immune to criticism for the way they operate as a company. And there are sufficiently many alternatives that, even without Uber, society is likely to continue reaping benefits from ride-sharing as a technology.

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