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L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

latimes.com

111–120 of 208 posts

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#111
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But Uber is offering a service that by its very nature requires that you expose the service provider to information you may wish to keep private. Uber's ride hailing service, sure. But the same is not true for the scooter and bike services, which have no need for such information.

Huh? They have to know where the scooters and bikes are so they can be collected to be recharged.

And also to be rented, if the user doesn't happen to have one in sight.

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never heard of a liquor board that required stores to deliver to the government a real time feed of who’s buying what liquor. If such a policy were created, and BevMo announced they refuse to comply, I’d be fully in support of that despite my normal concerns about companies ignoring regulations. It’s not about the general principle here. If Uber’s claim about deanonymization is accurate, this specific policy is…

If you honestly can't see the difference between a liquor store and a company that changed the face of every major cities in the world and how their inhabitants move around in less than 10 years* I don't think anyone can argue against your point. edit: *while using every loopholes, sketchy and sometimes straight up illegal ways to do it and killing someone as a result.

I'm very comfortable saying alcohol affects the world as much as Uber does. Liquor stores regularly use sketchy loopholes to dodge regulation, and the entire reason they're so tightly regulated is that we believe unrestricted liquor sales will kill people.

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Uber a Retail Store? Does the Store leave their merchandise all over the neighborhood with GPS micro controllers on them? This analogy is absurd. As municipalities get more technically advanced, why shouldn't they have access to the same type of data or where these scooters are? How hard is it to open up an API? This seems to be, how dare citizens impose a cost of doing business in their neighborhoods!

> why shouldn't they have access to the same type of data or where these scooters are? How hard is it to open up an API? They don't have the right to know where I go.

You as an individual I agree; there should be no disclosure of customers themselves. However, I do think the city deserves to know in real time where all the 30 pound lithium ion battery and motor, pieces of litter are.

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#114
post #63
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Uber is offering a service that by its very nature requires that you expose the service provider to information you may wish to keep private. How is this the service provider's fault? It's not like they're going out of their way to add tracking into something that doesn't require it. Like this is a little nuts, if you buy one of those GPS trackers for your kids you don't get to act shocked when you find out the c…

> But Uber is offering a service that by its very nature requires that you expose the service provider to information you may wish to keep private. Uber's ride hailing service, sure. But the same is not true for the scooter and bike services, which have no need for such information.

How are they going to display the bikes and scooters on a map inside of the app without GPS coordinates?

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never heard of a liquor board that required stores to deliver to the government a real time feed of who’s buying what liquor. If such a policy were created, and BevMo announced they refuse to comply, I’d be fully in support of that despite my normal concerns about companies ignoring regulations. It’s not about the general principle here. If Uber’s claim about deanonymization is accurate, this specific policy is…

Your analogy makes no sense. Liquor stores don't physically move around and violate regulations on where they should operate. That is why LA is asking for this information. To regulate them since Uber can't be trusted.

On where they should operate, maybe not. But liquor stores definitely do violate regulations on how they should operate, and a real-time feed of sales would surely help catch things like Amazon's clearly fake retail outlets (https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2019/11/amazon-still-mocking...).

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Uber a Retail Store? Does the Store leave their merchandise all over the neighborhood with GPS micro controllers on them? This analogy is absurd. As municipalities get more technically advanced, why shouldn't they have access to the same type of data or where these scooters are? How hard is it to open up an API? This seems to be, how dare citizens impose a cost of doing business in their neighborhoods!

Because a private company having access to GPS data and the government having access to GPS data are two different threat models with different concerns.

The "elected representatives by the citizens of Los Angeles" (Government) are accessing GPS Data about a companies property in its jurisdiction because the companies are not regulating their own behavior and property.

This is where citizens need to advocate in their own neighborhoods and get involved and vote if that is what they want.

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you honestly can't see the difference between a liquor store and a company that changed the face of every major cities in the world and how their inhabitants move around in less than 10 years* I don't think anyone can argue against your point. edit: *while using every loopholes, sketchy and sometimes straight up illegal ways to do it and killing someone as a result.

I'm very comfortable saying alcohol affects the world as much as Uber does. Liquor stores regularly use sketchy loopholes to dodge regulation, and the entire reason they're so tightly regulated is that we believe unrestricted liquor sales will kill people.

Liquor is tightly regulated for tax enforcement.

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The software doesn't issue you a ticket, so there's nothing to contest. It simple slows the scooter down in the restricted zone. And if the software is wrong, you stop using the system, and move to a vendor that makes it work. Anyway, not claiming this is ideal. Just sounds (without much thought) like a better solution than traffic cops.

Maybe if we're going to go down this route, we should have these systems in our cars, too.

No one wants to go there because freedom but I (reluctantly) agree. There might be safety considerations, too, but I'm guessing they are mostly edge case type issues

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you honestly can't see the difference between a liquor store and a company that changed the face of every major cities in the world and how their inhabitants move around in less than 10 years* I don't think anyone can argue against your point. edit: *while using every loopholes, sketchy and sometimes straight up illegal ways to do it and killing someone as a result.

I'm very comfortable saying alcohol affects the world as much as Uber does. Liquor stores regularly use sketchy loopholes to dodge regulation, and the entire reason they're so tightly regulated is that we believe unrestricted liquor sales will kill people.

I'm very comfortable saying alcohol would never be approved/legal if it started being marketed 10 years ago.

Re: L.A. temporarily suspends Uber’s permit to rent out electric scooters and bikes

#120

This is preposterous. Imagine government requiring any business to delivery real time data on customer behavior, from doctors to restaurants, Walmart to dispensaries. The Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution is about privacy FROM GOVERNMENT INTRUSION, which is precisely what this is, an intrusive act on the part of government. Why don't they devote their time and effort to actually fixing the crumbling infrastruct…

Fourth amendment deals with "unreasonable" search and seizure. It could be argued that municipalities requesting data on usage of infrastructure they must maintain, fund and plan for is not unreasonable.
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