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Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

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Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#21

Post by yummyfajitas »

Why do we dislike Uber? Lets go through the links.

1) Stuff about the CEO's personal life.

2) CEO wants to automate business processes. Those of us in tech would never consider replacing humans with machines, right?

3) Trying to compete for workers. (Didn't we hate Apple/Google for agreeing not to do this?)

4) We love Peter Thiel and he hates it.

5-7) A few Uber drivers are crazy (Uber is helping the cops). Note that if most of these incidents happened in a taxi, the cops would have little info unless the passenger remembered a license #.

8) Standard french advertising in France.

9) Standard PR.

10) Exec discusses hiring journalists to do journalism to journalists. You know, digging up stuff about their personal life, kind of like (1) on this list.

Are these the real justifications? Or are we simply engaging in internet mobbing because we get to feel self righteous, and the CEO is kind of a jerk?

Disclaimer: I've used Uber maybe 3-4x in my life and was happy every time. Lyft rejected my CC. I use autowale.in whenever I can't flag one off the street.

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#22

Post by hyh1048576 »

Uber solves my problem and I think that's good. if Lyft ever expand to Beijing I might want to try it.

In China Uber faces equally fierce competition, but they are doing well and expanding. (They are No.3 in China I guess)

It's always nice to see more players get into this space.

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#23

Post by birken »

If you live in San Francisco, you might consider getting a bike and/or using public transportation instead of ride-sharing services. Either of them are better for the city by reducing congestion and pollution, and biking in particular is surprisingly fast and convenient.

If you are interested in getting introduced to biking, there are a bunch of free classes by the SF Bicycle Coalition that I highly recommend you look into:

https://www.sfbike.org/resources/urban-bicycling-workshops/

For public transportation, here are a couple of "far too specific" guides for different types of public transit:

Light Rail: http://fartoospecific.tumblr.com/post/63733141599/fartoospec...

BART: http://fartoospecific.tumblr.com/post/100628937344/fartoospe...

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#24

Post by CaptainZapp »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #21

Why do we dislike Uber? Lets go through the links. 1) Stuff about the CEO's personal life. 2) CEO wants to automate business processes. Those of us in tech would never consider replacing humans with machines, right? 3) Trying to compete for workers. (Didn't we hate Apple/Google for agreeing not to do this?) 4) We love Peter Thiel and he hates it. 5-7) A few Uber drivers are crazy (Uber is helping the cops). Note that…

looking at your comment history you seem emotionally highly invested into a company, which according to your claim, you have used 3x4 times in your life.

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#25

Post by nemothekid »

eksith wrote: post #17

And this, folks, is why taxi regulation is a thing. Of course, there is crime and corruption and they have their own variety of scams[1]. But what you won't see is a sweeping sense of impunity because if you go out of bounds to this degree so blatantly (and at regular intervals, it seems), a rather large hammer will come down on you and your union. Taxi drivers in general are well aware of this. But a bunch of broexe…

So taxi regulations are in place to ensure faceless execs don't make mean remarks? Uber might not be startup of the month right now, but given the choice of excellent service for customers at the cost of a couple assholes in a boardroom somewhere versus crappy service while the execs try to please everyone, I'd choose excellent service every time. Ignoring the fact that, of course, taxi regulations don't stop people from being assholes; after all it has never stopped drivers from not picking up minorities.

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#26

Post by gonzi25 »

eksith wrote: post #17

And this, folks, is why taxi regulation is a thing. Of course, there is crime and corruption and they have their own variety of scams[1]. But what you won't see is a sweeping sense of impunity because if you go out of bounds to this degree so blatantly (and at regular intervals, it seems), a rather large hammer will come down on you and your union. Taxi drivers in general are well aware of this. But a bunch of broexe…

The Taxi drivers in Seattle protested by blocking downtown traffic in their cabs on multiple occasions when the Uber/Lyft vote was going on. Uber and Lyft are now capped at 150 cars each.

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#27

Post by comrh »

nemothekid wrote: post #25
eksith wrote: post #17

And this, folks, is why taxi regulation is a thing. Of course, there is crime and corruption and they have their own variety of scams[1]. But what you won't see is a sweeping sense of impunity because if you go out of bounds to this degree so blatantly (and at regular intervals, it seems), a rather large hammer will come down on you and your union. Taxi drivers in general are well aware of this. But a bunch of broexe…

So taxi regulations are in place to ensure faceless execs don't make mean remarks? Uber might not be startup of the month right now, but given the choice of excellent service for customers at the cost of a couple assholes in a boardroom somewhere versus crappy service while the execs try to please everyone, I'd choose excellent service every time. Ignoring the fact that, of course, taxi regulations don't stop people…

I think regulations have more to do with the drivers not taking you on 20 mile detours, trying to sexually assault or yelling at a cancer patient (all Uber stories).

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#28

Post by comrh »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #21

Why do we dislike Uber? Lets go through the links. 1) Stuff about the CEO's personal life. 2) CEO wants to automate business processes. Those of us in tech would never consider replacing humans with machines, right? 3) Trying to compete for workers. (Didn't we hate Apple/Google for agreeing not to do this?) 4) We love Peter Thiel and he hates it. 5-7) A few Uber drivers are crazy (Uber is helping the cops). Note that…

There is plenty of very real, legitimate criticism.

- http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2014/07/28...

- http://www.cnet.com/news/uber-disputes-kidnapping-claims/

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#29

Post by sinak »

birken wrote: post #23

If you live in San Francisco, you might consider getting a bike and/or using public transportation instead of ride-sharing services. Either of them are better for the city by reducing congestion and pollution, and biking in particular is surprisingly fast and convenient. If you are interested in getting introduced to biking, there are a bunch of free classes by the SF Bicycle Coalition that I highly recommend you loo…

So I cycle around SF, but am considering stopping. The data varies depending on which source you use, but it seems like cycling is about 3 times less dangerous than motorbiking, and considerably (at least ~5-10x) more dangerous than driving. Most people who've lived in SF have plenty of anecdotal evidence of friends who've been hurt, often seriously, by bike accidents.

I'd love to be proven wrong about this: I love cycling and particularly like getting built-in exercise in my routine. And I'll continue to donate to the SF bicycle coalition, and vote for improving infrastructure to support cyclists. It just seems most rational to stop actually cycling.

Re: Trends: Uber vs. Lyft

#30

Post by moab »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #21

Why do we dislike Uber? Lets go through the links. 1) Stuff about the CEO's personal life. 2) CEO wants to automate business processes. Those of us in tech would never consider replacing humans with machines, right? 3) Trying to compete for workers. (Didn't we hate Apple/Google for agreeing not to do this?) 4) We love Peter Thiel and he hates it. 5-7) A few Uber drivers are crazy (Uber is helping the cops). Note that…

I feel like you're playing the devil's advocate here. Despite the recent witch-hunt surrounded the company lately (which I won't try to defend), you can't deny the fact that they've engaged in some fairly unscrupulous business tactics in order to 1) acquire drivers from competing ride-sharing services, and 2) significantly drop wages (primarily due to competition in cities with multiple ride-sharing services) at the cost of workers pulling fairly inhuman hours.

The latter point is not just Uber's problem, but the ride-sharing industry's as a whole. I point it out mainly to argue that as the leader in the industry, Uber has at least some obligation to treat the pawns on the board a little better.

To succinctly answer your question: there are real justifications, and it's a combination of Uber's business tactics, and the way they're treating their human capital.

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