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Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#121

Post by sliverstorm »

abandonliberty wrote: post #115
mikeash wrote: post #5

Obvious in hindsight. This sort of thing is inevitable any time you have dumb software on one side and humans on the other side. I'm mostly a fan of these non-taxi "taxi" services, but it seems like they are slowly and painfully rediscovering why taxis ended up so regulated in the first place.

There's a lot I don't understand about Uber. What's the Uber business case? Is there enough profit in taxi services around the world to justify their valuation and financial losses? Do they hope to recoup through a future monopoly? Tracking Data? Self-driving vehicle fleets?

Originally it was the idea that an on-demand app was going to revolutionize taxis.

Now it seems to be, avoiding regulation for fun & profit.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#122

Post by paulcole »

RonanTheGrey wrote: post #114
exhilaration wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think a Whatsapp group should be sufficient.

I have personally watched Uber drivers (Not in the USA) do exactly this - lots of them in a Whatsapp group all agreeing when to disconnect their apps and turn them back on again. In front of me. During the ride. They definitely do this and it happens all the time. I sent my complaint about it to Uber, to only get ignored. The drivers are gaming the system and the customers get hurt. Right now, Uber is still better th…

>I sent my complaint about it to Uber, to only get ignored.

Doesn't sound like the Uber I've been reading about. Sad.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#123

Post by wenc »

bbarn wrote: post #10
mikeash wrote: post #5

Obvious in hindsight. This sort of thing is inevitable any time you have dumb software on one side and humans on the other side. I'm mostly a fan of these non-taxi "taxi" services, but it seems like they are slowly and painfully rediscovering why taxis ended up so regulated in the first place.

Yeah, I'm mostly not a fan, now that we're a few years in. Waves of people inexperienced, untrained in shuttling people around a major metro have resulted in downtown Chicago being an utter mess compared to only a few years ago. Chicago forced cab drivers to go through a training and certification course that at least forced them to understand the major routes and grid system we're on, and every time I've been in an…

I live in Chicago, and my experience with rideshare drivers has been uniformly good. Many of them genuinely enjoy driving. Some can be opportunistic but I guess my baseline for city driving was shaped in cities where the traffic is much worse than Chicago's (try Sao Paulo). I actually think Chicago drivers are ok.

The worst drivers are cab drivers in the Loop during rush hour who will honk at the slightest provocation, who don't use turn signals, and will suddenly stop in front of you. If Chicago cab drivers are trained, that training certainly isn't evident.

On the other hand, Lyft drivers have stars docked if they exhibit unsafe driving behaviors, and they are deactivated if their rating gets too low (4.6 stars is the threshold I believe).

Many non-casual Lyft drivers actually try not to crash their ratings. https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-real-reason-Uber-and-Lyft-us...

Cabs don't have this feedback loop. Only accidents will get them off the road.

Edit: I speak as a driver and a passenger. I imagine things have gotten worse for bicyclists. Also, I don't use Uber, only Lyft. I've heard Uber drivers are worse because Uber is more liberal with their rating system.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#124

Post by arstin »

bbarn wrote: post #10
mikeash wrote: post #5

Obvious in hindsight. This sort of thing is inevitable any time you have dumb software on one side and humans on the other side. I'm mostly a fan of these non-taxi "taxi" services, but it seems like they are slowly and painfully rediscovering why taxis ended up so regulated in the first place.

Yeah, I'm mostly not a fan, now that we're a few years in. Waves of people inexperienced, untrained in shuttling people around a major metro have resulted in downtown Chicago being an utter mess compared to only a few years ago. Chicago forced cab drivers to go through a training and certification course that at least forced them to understand the major routes and grid system we're on, and every time I've been in an…

Yea my experience with biking in Chicago is that at least cabs are clearly marked as such so you know they might cut you off at any moment and you'll cuss at each other. Uber drivers will just stealthily swerve into your lane and full stop.

Plus the GPS systems here will take you down these speed bump residential roads and do crazy contortions to drop off on a one-way road.

On the flip side though, when I first moved here a cab was like $20 each way just from like Broadway to Kimball. Now it's...$4.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#125

Post by whipoodle »

exhilaration wrote: post #98
whipoodle wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be pretty easy to build a service to coordinate this. (And of course Uber would whine about it even though that's exactly the kind of thing they do all the time)

I would think a Whatsapp group should be sufficient.

Ha, good point.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#126

Post by smsm42 »

bbarn wrote: post #10
mikeash wrote: post #5

Obvious in hindsight. This sort of thing is inevitable any time you have dumb software on one side and humans on the other side. I'm mostly a fan of these non-taxi "taxi" services, but it seems like they are slowly and painfully rediscovering why taxis ended up so regulated in the first place.

Yeah, I'm mostly not a fan, now that we're a few years in. Waves of people inexperienced, untrained in shuttling people around a major metro have resulted in downtown Chicago being an utter mess compared to only a few years ago. Chicago forced cab drivers to go through a training and certification course that at least forced them to understand the major routes and grid system we're on, and every time I've been in an…

I'd think making a nav system work properly with given map once is more efficient than making hundreds of drivers to constantly learn it over and over.

> It makes for an unpleasant experience whether you're on a bike, driving you car, or sometimes just walking across the street.

How drivers guided by a nav system is worse for streetwalkers than any other drivers? And, from my experience, long-term commercial driving doesn't always make a driver a model road citizen - in fact, in many places taxi drivers are kinda notorious for being less than model co-roaders.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#127

Post by wenc »

jdauriemma wrote: post #81
bbarn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm mostly not a fan, now that we're a few years in. Waves of people inexperienced, untrained in shuttling people around a major metro have resulted in downtown Chicago being an utter mess compared to only a few years ago. Chicago forced cab drivers to go through a training and certification course that at least forced them to understand the major routes and grid system we're on, and every time I've been in an…

So true. Good luck getting a driver to pick you up around Wacker. Upper/lower confuses the heck out of the uninitiated.

I would normally assume Upper. Where would one pick up passengers on Lower Wacker? (genuinely curious, not being snarky).

Apart from the fact GPSes don't really work on Lower Wacker, so it's hard to nail down the pickup location on the app.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#128

Post by smsm42 »

8ytecoder wrote: post #84
mikeash wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. I wonder if this is a regional thing, or just different personal experiences. For me, I've never had a particularly bad Uber driver, but I've had incredibly bad taxi drivers. (My favorite was the guy who decided that driving down I-395 in Arlington was a good time to catch up on some paperwork. He kept the cab on the road, but only by using all three lanes. Thankfully it was about 2AM and nobody e…

There's also the other side of the problem that you don't get to see as a passenger. Uber/Lyft drivers in a rush to get to their pickups drive like maniacs here in SF. I'm from a developing country and I'm used to drivers who disregard rules but even those pay attention to the surroundings - you can read them and know if they are going to yield or not. But having gotten used to the polite driving of SF a few years ag…

Never had an Uber driver driving like maniac. To be sure, I live to the south of SF and try to never drive into SF unless I absolutely have to, and when I do, I pretty much expect developing-country-type driving environment. But I may just be spoiled by suburbia-type traffic patterns. In any case, even SF Uber drivers has always been excellent for me. I realize that's anecdata, so I wonder if somebody did any kind of robust survey of this.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#129

Post by lsiebert »

mtl_usr wrote: post #111
copperx wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they could, you know, give them fair wages.

Uber drivers have fair wages, considering they are working in a saturated market and competing with people with the qualifications of a 16 years old teen. There are a lot of people with these qualifications.

I believe you have to be 18 to be an uber driver.

Re: Uber drivers gang up to cause surge pricing, research says

#130

Post by smsm42 »

Paul-ish wrote: post #97
sokoloff wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've literally had cab drivers on airport pickups ask me "Do you know the best way?" I can only assume that's an overt sizing up to determine whether I know anything about the city or whether they can take me for a figurative ride. Those cab drivers can't get starved out of business fast enough as far as I'm concerned.

I am so naive. I've been asked that before by a Taxi driver in NYC I believe on my way to the airport and just said "Uh, shouldn't you?" I never realized what they were up to.

In many places there are fixed prices for rides between major points, like city center->airport, etc. Not the case in NYC?
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