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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

#71

Post by dogman144 »

I’m tech-fluent and lived pre/post-Uber around NYC. The crime cabs committed was behind the times on tech, the medallion system was wage slavery for drivers, and fleecing tourists sometimes on airport rides.

However, cabs were abundant and easy to hail, and prices weren’t much different than Uber. Cabs are about 30% cheaper than uber today.

This was replaced by Uber, one of the most destructive influences on cities via the traffic and the “gig worker freedom” wage slavery. Add in its shadow war against public transit.

Cabs really weren’t as bad as this thread seems to imply. I hope Uber goes down for this.

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

#72

Post by mchusma »

Uber and Lyft did incredible things in the aggregate to improve transportation, including getting horrible laws updated to be less horrible. I don't think they were perfect, but fighting against unjust laws is a very good thing, and I appreciate that they did so. If you are mad at them, it seems analogous to being mad at high quality nonviolent weed dealers, who did nothing other than provide a service which was legal for a long time and is legal again.

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

#73

Post by wil421 »

ciguy wrote: post #8
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…

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…

My only pleasant cab experience was a black cab in London. He found an old Native American body digging in Hyde Park. Apparently the first time Native Americans came to the UK one of them died and they covered it up saying only 3 came not 4.

He went to a local College in my area and spoke about it. Showed us a hat from the College and pictures.

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

#74

Post by gamblor956 »

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…

In LA I've never actually had an issue with taxis.

OTOH, I've lost count of the number of Ubers and Lyfts that just never showed up, or cancelled en route, or tried to go the wrong way to pad mileage.

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

#75

Post by jer0me »

bonzini wrote: post #50
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...

I think they meant early 2000s.

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

#76

Post by admax88qqq »

BoorishBears wrote: post #51
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

This is a funny thread because Uber at least has started doing both these things. Uber will show a message saying you won't see the fare until there's a ride. Their FAQ claims it can happen if you hail faster than they can calculate a price, but it happens awfully often to me. I've also noticed their scheduled rides are really unreliable. They seem to start searching way too late, and I've almost missed a flight over…

The scheduled rides feature is buggy in the app, there's two different entry points that behave differently.

But FWIW I scheduled a 5am flight to the airport in mexico city with Uber and it was great

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

#77

Post by yupper32 »

mola wrote: post #47
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)?

I can dislike them both at the same time.

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

#78

Post by gruez »

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.

Well the main thing with taxis is that getting any ride to show up on demand is a shitshow, whereas with ubers you just have to wait 5-10 minutes (at least in my area).

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

#79

Post by piva00 »

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.

Shocking stuff like this, weaponising drivers against city governments:

> MacGann insists that Uber drivers were seen by some at the company as pawns who could be used to put pressure on governments. “And if that meant Uber drivers going on strike, Uber drivers doing a demo in the streets, Uber drivers blocking Barcelona, blocking Berlin, blocking Paris, then that was the way to go,” he said. “In a sense, it was considered beneficial to weaponise Uber drivers in this way.”

> The files show MacGann’s fingerprints on this strategy, too. In one email, he praised staffers in Amsterdam who leaked stories to the press about attacks on drivers to “keep the violence narrative” and pressure the Dutch government.

And most comments are quasi-whataboutism on the taxi industry vs Uber. Yes, the taxi industry is bad, in lots of places ran by some kind of mob, etc. Still, Uber was weaponising their workers (while fighting as hard as possible to not call them workers and pay for workers' benefits) against local governments, they were behaving like a tech-mafia.

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

#80

Post by autoexec »

agumonkey wrote: post #59
gryn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just like online streaming promised to replace the tv, now more and more a drop-in replace for it in a (not so) different distribution technology.

Yeah, it removed the linear time constraints but it's just a TV.

They want the time constraints back too. So many streaming services these days still have shows that air episodes at regular times rather than a while season at once. They also drop content regularly, offer to steam content for limited times, or only provide recent episodes.

They can't wait to back to the point where they can dictate people's schedules and induce FOMO in their customers. They just have to condition us slowly into accepting it after netflix spoiled us.

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