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“Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

stallman.org

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Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#11

Post by agildehaus »

cjbprime wrote: post #3

> Uber plans to do away with human cab drivers. > It would be easy for a non-plutocratic government to prohibit this, and that's what every country ought to do, unless/until every person gets an adequate basic income so people don't need to be employed. Okay, so I am extremely liberal and everything, but "let's ban any new technologies that might make somebody lose their job to a robot" is seriously the most ridiculo…

It's nearly in the job description of every software engineer to create things that ease people's workloads or replace their jobs entirely. I bet Stallman's projects, and the free software movement itself, are responsible for the non-existence of numerous jobs.

Also: basic income, or whatever it is that will make sense when there aren't enough jobs to go around, won't be preemptive.

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#12

Post by Thlom »

cjbprime wrote: post #3

> Uber plans to do away with human cab drivers. > It would be easy for a non-plutocratic government to prohibit this, and that's what every country ought to do, unless/until every person gets an adequate basic income so people don't need to be employed. Okay, so I am extremely liberal and everything, but "let's ban any new technologies that might make somebody lose their job to a robot" is seriously the most ridiculo…

He could just go the non-free software route on this point as well ...

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#13

Post by diminoten »

Modern taxis fail every one of these "tests", so the fact that RMS wouldn't use Uber but would continue to use taxis at all is merely RMS riding a hatred bandwagon in an effort to stay relevant.

Fortunately for us, he hasn't said anything remotely new, so we can continue to think of him as the 20th century man he is.

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#14

Post by birken »

Or... Why you shouldn't use any ride sharing company.

Numbers 4-6 are even more broad, they basically apply to any situation where you are required to use a credit card to pay (which identifies you), which is basically every single app.

I'm empathetic to the issue that there is no way to anonymously take an Uber (a real downgrade as compared to cabs), but for your average person where a massive upgrade in convenience offsets the slight loss of anonymity, this is going to be a tough sell.

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#15

Post by sshconnection »

I agree that the government shouldn't have pervasive access to the records, but I WANT Uber to track my rides. That's how I can have recourse if a driver takes me for a spin. I WANT my driver to be identified and for them to track who picks me up. He claims that it's troublesome for a female passenger to be identifiable to a driver. How about if you're a female (or male) driver driving in your spare time? Would she not feel safer picking up someone who is at least somewhat identified versus a shady looking stranger?

One of the crucial components of sharing apps is the building of trust and accountability. Identification is part of that.

This list of complaints doesn't hold water for me.

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#16

Post by dllthomas »

xbonez wrote: post #5

> With real taxis, you can flag one on the street or phone in any fashion; you can pay cash; you can be anonymous. And even with Uber around, you can still do that. No one's taken that choice away. Use Lyft/Uber if you're comfortable with it. If not, user a regular cab.

Well, he makes the point later that if Uber/Lyft/etc are sufficiently successful they could displace regular cabs. You can disagree with that point, but it probably deserves to be addressed rather than ignored.

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#17

Post by [deleted] »

xbonez wrote: post #5

> With real taxis, you can flag one on the street or phone in any fashion; you can pay cash; you can be anonymous. And even with Uber around, you can still do that. No one's taken that choice away. Use Lyft/Uber if you're comfortable with it. If not, user a regular cab.

[deleted]

Re: “Why you should not use Uber (the car ride brokering company)”

#19

Post by eps »

enjo wrote: post #7

That's all well and good. Except that I still need to get around, and Uber (and it's competitors) remains better than my local cab system. That's true of basically every city I've ever visited as well. Until that is no longer true, I'll continue to be an extremely satisfied Uber user.

Comfort/convenience vs principles/ethics. To each his own.
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