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The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

theguardian.com

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Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#31

Post by dahdum »

abirch wrote: post #11
yupper32 wrote: post #6

It's also important to realize that the reason Uber and Lyft were able to crush the taxi industry is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers. The simple act of being able to know what I'm going to be charged beforehand, and know that the driver has little ability to scam me out of as much money as they can extract from me at my destination made Uber and Lyft SO much better. That should…

I'm old enough to remember calling a taxi company the day before a flight to arrange a pickup at my place for 5:30. Then calling them again 5:00 the day of the flight and them telling me that the one guy didn't come in so now they couldn't pick me up until 7 -- My flight departure time! Then me frantically calling other taxi companies. I had to skip my shower. They seemed to hate their customers

I had the same issues with airport trips and taxis, frequently having to build in an extra 1-2 hours on top of the typical airport buffer to make sure I'd get there. So many no-shows, empty promises, and lies by dispatch. So many scams, fare spiking, outright hostility, and shenanigans from drivers.

I signed up for Uber after a panicked morning in Denver with 2 no-showing taxis. Never looked back after that, though I use Lyft 90% of the time now.

I have no tears at all for anyone involved in the taxi industry.

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#32

Post by throwyawayyyy »

nostromo wrote: post #14
yupper32 wrote: post #6

It's also important to realize that the reason Uber and Lyft were able to crush the taxi industry is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers. The simple act of being able to know what I'm going to be charged beforehand, and know that the driver has little ability to scam me out of as much money as they can extract from me at my destination made Uber and Lyft SO much better. That should…

It's funny though: cabs have gotten better and Uber has gotten worse. I've switched back to taking cabs from the airport. Ubers are slower (cabs are sitting there just waiting) and much, much expensive now (like 2x the cost of a cab). The product isn't any better anymore. The cars are rundown and often smelly. It is nice to be able to put in an address and not deal with a credit card payment at the destination -- but…

I didn't realise this until going through JFK recently. Cabs: no wait, fixed price, professional driver. Uber: long wait, twice as expensive, driver and car a complete crap-shoot.

Feels like the economies of scale only work when you own the taxi fleet itself. I.e. you have dedicated mechanics etc etc. As soon as the consumer has to pay the true price of a taxi ride, Uber crumbles. There's another world in which Uber was a whitelabel app for cab firms, making millions but certainly not worth billions (so, making millions rather than losing billions!).

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#33

Post by germandiago »

gernb wrote: post #17
ciguy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken cabs all over the world in the pre Uber days (Literally, like 60+ countries on 5 continents). I can count the number of normal or pleasant experiences I had in a cab on one hand, out of HUNDREDS of rides. Not all cab drivers are/were asshole scammers but I have a decent sample size and can confidently say at least 95% or more were. I have zero sympathy for any of them. The cab industry as it was pre Uber n…

I've had zero trouble with taxis in Japan and Singapore. In Singapore they even had hailing apps long before Uber and they worked just fine. I believe London taxis also have a good rep but haven't use them. On the other hand I've had criminal experiences in Istanbul and Rome and non-pleasent experiences in LA and SF.

Yes, same here for Japan and Singapore. Drivers super polite and never, ever tried to cheat me. I cannot say that from almost anywhere else, at least ocassionally or more than that tried to cheat.

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#34

Post by agumonkey »

mulmen wrote: post #21
abirch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm old enough to remember calling a taxi company the day before a flight to arrange a pickup at my place for 5:30. Then calling them again 5:00 the day of the flight and them telling me that the one guy didn't come in so now they couldn't pick me up until 7 -- My flight departure time! Then me frantically calling other taxi companies. I had to skip my shower. They seemed to hate their customers

Uber did exactly this to a friend of mine just a couple months ago. Except they didn't even offer the 7am pickup. They just cancelled the ride 15 minutes before the pickup.

Uber, once the taxi killer, soon the exact swap-in replacement :)

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#35

Post by gernb »

yupper32 wrote: post #9
_ktx2 wrote: post #5

> They include Travis Kalanick, Uber’s combative co-founder and then chief executive, David Plouffe, a former Barack Obama campaign aide who became a senior vice-president at Uber, and Rachel Whetstone, a British PR executive who has also held senior roles at Google, Facebook and now Netflix. Why is this so common and acceptable? You have these towering technological firms who already possess vast amounts of power wh…

> if a person has just gotten done working for a candidate or someone in office, they should be barred from private industry until they are politically irrelevant. Wait why? There's already such little incentive to get into public service. The pay is certainly garbage. Hell, the top position in the US government only pays $400k. Who is going to want to work in government if we get rid of the ability for them to trans…

While it's true that you can make more money elsewhere, lots of people take jobs for reasons other than money. As one example, nearly every game programmer I know could be making a ton more outside games but they don't leave game dev.

The reason you're supposedly supposed to get into public service is because you want to serve the public.

I know it's being naive on top of being fiction but it reminds me of this ep from West Wing where they recruit a press secretary who's making $550k a year in Hollywood and tell her the press secretary job pays $31k a year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsM_eeUyOBs

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#36

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

Completely unrelated to Uber but I wish I could hear a similar confession from Bill Gates before I die. The amount of greyish and plain bad things in the 90s and early 20s he is responsible for is enormous. Still, no single "I'm sorry, what we did at that time was wrong."

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#37

Post by ciguy »

Fatnino wrote: post #16
ciguy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am glad the taxi industry worked for you as a driver for a while. But it was unbelievably bad for consumers for so long, I have no sympathy for anyone related to the industry pre Uber at all. You might have been a good driver but most were not and frankly the odds aren't in your favor either. I am sincerely glad that the taxi industry got fucked as hard as it did, it forced them to at least think a little bit about…

Quoted post unavailable.

You're not exactly wrong but your comment isn't really reflective of anything meaningful. Correlation does not always equal causation. And I know a LOT of people with the same experiences. The commonality of these experiences leads me to believe it's a cab thing and not just a me thing.

In all other aspects of my life I tend to be pretty easy to get along with and generally have reasonable expectations. I don't have any reason to think my expectations of the cab industry are out of line with my expectations for everything else.

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#38

Post by registeredcorn »

treis wrote: post #3

I don't think this guy deserves the title whistleblower. A whistleblower leaks the crimes as they're happening in order to stop them. Not 6 years after participating in the crimes to settle a grudge.

That's actually an interesting point!

Other than the term "informant" or "insider" I can't really think of how you would describe this type of thing. There's whistleblowers, and death bed confessions.

I suppose someone could simply be called a "tattle tale" or a "former employee", but neither really describes the act of revealing knowledge that was not publicly available.

"Leaker" might fit, but that seems to be more for someone who is a current employee, who is trying to disclose information in a secretive manner. Advocate has an equally weird meaning, too.

Can anyone else think of a better term?

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#39

Post by mulmen »

_ktx2 wrote: post #5

> They include Travis Kalanick, Uber’s combative co-founder and then chief executive, David Plouffe, a former Barack Obama campaign aide who became a senior vice-president at Uber, and Rachel Whetstone, a British PR executive who has also held senior roles at Google, Facebook and now Netflix. Why is this so common and acceptable? You have these towering technological firms who already possess vast amounts of power wh…

> if a person has just gotten done working for a candidate or someone in office, they should be barred from private industry until they are politically irrelevant.

That's not how democracy works. You'd be creating a second class of people who are ineligible to participate in their own society. And you'd be selecting along the dimension of those who actually do participate.

I am a data engineer. If my state representative calls me to advise in a technical capacity on data legislation should I resign from my day job? Do we want our lawmakers to be well informed?

What's the line to be barred from private industry? If I have to resign from private industry to advise my representatives then won't I simply become a career lobbyist?

Re: The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie

#40

Post by dahdum »

gernb wrote: post #17
ciguy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken cabs all over the world in the pre Uber days (Literally, like 60+ countries on 5 continents). I can count the number of normal or pleasant experiences I had in a cab on one hand, out of HUNDREDS of rides. Not all cab drivers are/were asshole scammers but I have a decent sample size and can confidently say at least 95% or more were. I have zero sympathy for any of them. The cab industry as it was pre Uber n…

I've had zero trouble with taxis in Japan and Singapore. In Singapore they even had hailing apps long before Uber and they worked just fine. I believe London taxis also have a good rep but haven't use them. On the other hand I've had criminal experiences in Istanbul and Rome and non-pleasent experiences in LA and SF.

> I've had zero trouble with taxis in Japan

Japan was the first (only?) place I've been where the taxi experience was comparable to Uber/Lyft. Every payment method accepted, apps, GPS routes, non-hostile drivers, and clean vehicles. It's no wonder why ridesharing companies have failed to gain much market share there.

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