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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

#11

Post by abirch »

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

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

#12

Post by dmitriid »

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 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.

No. The reason was that Uber has been losing billions of dollars a year, every year, for over a decade and hasn't imploded as a company. Providing a nice ride hailing UI is just the cherry on top.

Same with Lyft, but on a slightly smaller scale.

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

#13

Post by Fatnino »

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…

As a teen in the early 00s I rode in plenty of taxis around LA and never had a problem. None of them were people I would like to hang out with but none were bad enough to leave a bad impression either.

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

#14

Post by nostromo »

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 that's about the only benefit left.

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

#16

Post by Fatnino »

ciguy wrote: post #10
taxicabjesus wrote: post #2

I started taxi driving in early 2012. I'd drive my little 1994 Honda Civic Hatchback to the taxi yard and check out a cab for 12 hours or 24 hours. It was a pretty good deal: the taxi company took care of complying with Arizona's minimal taxi regulations, provided insurance and customers. I could do anything I wanted with their taxi, I just had to pay them at the end of the shift. I always made money, even on my 4th…

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#17

Post by gernb »

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…

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.

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

#18

Post by hourago »

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.

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

#19

Post by corrral »

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…

What's with the DVs? This is correct. You'd have to raise pay much, much higher to keep decent (for even very bad values of "decent" that we currently have) gov. workers and politicians if you also want to saddle them with a very broad and painful non-compete when they leave. That or they'll turn even more openly to bribery and corruption to make up the difference.
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