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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

#41

Post by klyrs »

tensor wrote: post #7
fatjokes wrote: post #4

I have zero sympathy for the yellow cab industry. None. I have a lot of negative feelings about Uber, and I would never work there myself as a SWE, but these feelings pale in comparison to my experiences with yellow cabs (NYC bias here). I've had my partner be threatened (the usual pay cash/credit card machine broken or "better be a good tip"), cabs drive right pass after asking where you're going, scammed. I've had…

Man, if you think cabs in NYC are bad, try Toronto some time. Our cabs are beyond awful. At least you have credit card machines in the back of your cabs! Our cabs are probably twice as expensive as NYC cabs, and there is no credit card machine in the back. 90% of the time the driver lies and says "it's broken" to try and force you to pay cash. They'll even drive you to an ATM sometimes to get cash, just don't leave y…

> 90% of the time the driver lies and says "it's broken" to try and force you to pay cash

Two can play at that game. Despite the practice being illegal, cabbies in the Vancouver area ask if you've got cash before you get in. I always say yes. But, I never carry cash. When we get to the destination, I play dumb, and ask if they've got a machine. They do, because they're required to by law. Or, on the off chance I do have cash, I'll say "oh, but I only have a $10" and sometimes they'd rather knock $5 off my fare than take a card.

Also, I live in a burb, so I've taken to lying about where I'm headed until the car's in motion. Since they always want directions, not a destination (are they dishonest or ignorant about what route's best?) this has always worked for me.

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

#42

Post by googlryas »

fatjokes wrote: post #4

I have zero sympathy for the yellow cab industry. None. I have a lot of negative feelings about Uber, and I would never work there myself as a SWE, but these feelings pale in comparison to my experiences with yellow cabs (NYC bias here). I've had my partner be threatened (the usual pay cash/credit card machine broken or "better be a good tip"), cabs drive right pass after asking where you're going, scammed. I've had…

Don't worry, the yellow cabs put handy mnemonics inside so you can remember what your cab number is instead of just remembering the cab number. So instead of having to remember the impossibly difficult "4M95", you can instead easily remember "purple antelope 7"

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

#43

Post by president »

hourago wrote: post #20

News about a whistleblower. HN comments only about how taxis are bad. I see a problem here. Uber has broken the law to incredible extends, and it has corrupted many politicians. That's the truth, that are the news.

Lesson of life, most people don't really care about anything as long it doesn't inconvenience them (directly)

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

#44

Post by MDWolinski »

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…

On a recent trip to Chicago, from the airport, the taxi was about half the price of Uber to downtown, which my wife and I waited about 20 minutes for. Uber would have been a faster pickup at that point, however.

The taxi picked us up, proceeded to drive us Downtown and upwards of 85-90mph on the highway (was about 11pm at night at this point). The car was probably at least 15 years old and the shocks nearly as old.

After that experience, we used Uber the rest of the trip (and back to the airport) and it was an overall better experience by far.

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

#45

Post by bonzini »

germandiago wrote: post #27
nostromo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 would be interested in why Uber got so bad compared to traditional cabs. In Spain they forbid all this stuff because they sold cab licenses, but the prices are abusive.

Because pay for the drivers is awful when you consider the actual cost of maintaining a car that runs for hundreds of miles every day. So the only ones that survive are those that do not do proper maintenance and those that game the system (e.g. by reporting fake customer no-shows).

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

#46

Post by iamtheworstdev »

hourago wrote: post #18
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…

> is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers. But mostly because it didn't had to pay the same fees. It treated employees as independent contractors and negate their rights. And it burned millions on AstroTurfing and ads. The Mafia also can overtake business where others where there before.

> mostly

That's a strong word here. I'm sure it had nothing to do with taxis being government sanctioned monopolies in most places that they operated.

Wonder what the going rate for a NYC taxi medallion is these days. I bet it's 1/5th of what it was fifteen years ago.

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

#47

Post by mola »

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…

You're not caring about them corrupting democracies world wide ? They not only "took care" of taxis, they also pushed for less workers rights (so they can keep not employing their workers) Pushed the stupid unsustainable "gig economy" propaganda.

And what for? For a business model that make no sense (unless they become a monopoly)?

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

#48

Post by dahdum »

throwyawayyyy wrote: post #32
nostromo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If the cabs are half the price of a rideshare and they have typically have to wait in those long taxi lines before a fare, how are those drivers not the ones being more exploited?

Lyft/Uber take 20-25% of the fare, so the ride share drivers are making more on the trip. They have variable vehicle upkeep costs, but taxi drivers renting medallions and the vehicles are hardly better off.

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

#49

Post by ptspts »

dahdum wrote: post #31
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

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…

Once I needed to catch an early flight, and no Uber drivers were available in my vicinity. But most of the time Uber and Lyft worked for me.

If there is a train to the airport, I usually prefer it, because it avoids (unpredictable) traffic jams.

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

#50

Post by bonzini »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #36

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."

Oh no, please no more COVID crap...
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