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LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

libretaxi.org

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Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#201

Post by fareesh »

galdosdi wrote: post #175
reubensutton wrote: post #6

My concern with this is the problem of ensuring the safety of the person driving the cab and the real identity of the rider. Lots of drivers will be reluctant because they can be stiffed on the bill. Lots of passengers will be reluctant to use it due to the inherent risk of riding with what is essentially a stranger.

Shouldn't be an obstacle. This is already exactly how normal, hailable, regulated taxis work (at least in much of the USA, and certainly in NYC -- I can't speak for elsewhere). That's why taxi driver is (at least in the US) a statistically more dangerous occupation than police officer. From the point of view of a driver, this scheme is less dangerous than the status quo, at least there is potentially a little more pa…

I don't know if this feature is still around, but in India the calls to drivers/passengers were made via pressing the button in the app, which launched the dialer and connected the two calls via a third ephemeral phone number provided by a cloud telephony API.

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#202

Post by ralmeida »

bcook wrote: post #62
darpa_escapee wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is one thing people love to be paid in, it is a collectible whose value widely varies daily based on when its larger holders game the system or when online drug markets get shutdown.

I'm not completely sure whether you're referring to cash or Bitcoin.

How does cash vary in value? If you have a $50 bill, you can expect to buy a very predictable amount of food (for example) next week, regardless of what happens. Not so much if you have 0.0521 BTC.

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#203

Post by forgetsusername »

galdosdi wrote: post #175
reubensutton wrote: post #6

My concern with this is the problem of ensuring the safety of the person driving the cab and the real identity of the rider. Lots of drivers will be reluctant because they can be stiffed on the bill. Lots of passengers will be reluctant to use it due to the inherent risk of riding with what is essentially a stranger.

Shouldn't be an obstacle. This is already exactly how normal, hailable, regulated taxis work (at least in much of the USA, and certainly in NYC -- I can't speak for elsewhere). That's why taxi driver is (at least in the US) a statistically more dangerous occupation than police officer. From the point of view of a driver, this scheme is less dangerous than the status quo, at least there is potentially a little more pa…

>This is already exactly how normal, hailable, regulated taxis work

It's funny, isn't it? Every pro-Uber article around here talks about the over-regulated, controlled taxi environment and how damaging it is. Then a service appears that goes the other way: peer-to-peer, no middle-man. Now people complain that it could be dangerous, and they need regulation and control?

Which is it? And what makes anyone believe Uber (or themselves) know what that "proper level" is?

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#204

Post by zantosh »

docdeek wrote: post #5

Interesting idea but not as convenient for someone who travels and doesn’t want to organize a cash withdrawal to leave the airport. With Uber I can just get going.

You're right, Uber has introduced a type of convenience that you can't ignore.

I launched RideConnect on PH yesterday, and it's a different, private take on Uber and Libretaxi.

The big difference is that anyone can create their own rideshare for their community, customers or whatever group it is that needs a ride.

We will be introducing a billing system in a few months at which time it can be used by Uber drivers to setup their own customer communities and give them rides directly.

As for privacy, we put control in the hands of the riders to demand background checks, screening and additional validations from drivers. It's basic at the moment but we have a deal going that I'm expecting will make this totally awesome.

Check it out on PH - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/rideconnect

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#205

Post by bpierre »

vosper wrote: post #192
bpierre wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What would be the incentive to develop such an app in decentralized fashion? What if there are problems between rider and driver, who will act as a middleman to resolve issues? What about basic support etc? Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough, but I am precisely talking about this: using the blockchain for what it is good at today, instead of trying to put everything on a decentralized system (which is really hard or ju…

What is "the blockchain" and what built-in features does it have that can replace a purpose-built reputation system?

In this context, you can see the blockchain as a database, always available, and containing entries (transactions in blocks) that you can not delete. It’s very simplified, see the Wikipedia article [1] for more details about blockchain systems.

The specific features that I find interesting to build an “open trust system” built on top of it, compared to a traditional database, are:

- Transparency: anyone can explore this database, and verify that the software is using it in a transparent way. It might sound not important for something like Uber, but if you build an open trust system that could be used by different services, it becomes very important for authors (Uber, Lyft, etc.) to trust this system.

- Reliability: because a blockchain is distributed, it is always running and available.

- Trust: transactions are immutable and a transaction can not be falsified once confirmed (validated).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_(database)

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#206

Post by creeble »

Interesting, (I think) this is exactly the kind of app/service I was talking about with a taxi driver in Tahoe a month ago.

It's a rural area with several small taxi companies, but none offer real-time info or the convenience of a single app to use to call a taxi.

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#207

Post by creeble »

creeble wrote: post #206

Interesting, (I think) this is exactly the kind of app/service I was talking about with a taxi driver in Tahoe a month ago. It's a rural area with several small taxi companies, but none offer real-time info or the convenience of a single app to use to call a taxi.

Wait, oops - no GPS tracking?

Um, that's the killer feature that makes Uber Uber. It's taxis with GPS.

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#208

Post by arsmoriendi »

parasanti wrote: post #154
spIrr wrote: post #131

I'll post a comment from ProductHunt, which might give a bit more context to where the founder sees this going, and why cash rides make sense under certain circumstances he designed the app for: […] I have gone to the founder's blog and it provides a better understanding of where he sees it going: Uber (and similar apps) will never reach many remote villages, cities and regions around the world (and don't have to), b…

Uber is trying to address the Credit Card issues after it noticed that lots of Singaporeans, maids and foreign labor do not have credit cards but still needs the service. They accept cash now. https://www.techinasia.com/uber-cash-payments-singapore

I think Uber accepts cash in Argetina too. At least in Buenos Aires.

Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft

#209

Post by prance »

galdosdi wrote: post #175
reubensutton wrote: post #6

My concern with this is the problem of ensuring the safety of the person driving the cab and the real identity of the rider. Lots of drivers will be reluctant because they can be stiffed on the bill. Lots of passengers will be reluctant to use it due to the inherent risk of riding with what is essentially a stranger.

Shouldn't be an obstacle. This is already exactly how normal, hailable, regulated taxis work (at least in much of the USA, and certainly in NYC -- I can't speak for elsewhere). That's why taxi driver is (at least in the US) a statistically more dangerous occupation than police officer. From the point of view of a driver, this scheme is less dangerous than the status quo, at least there is potentially a little more pa…

"at least in much of the USA, and certainly in NYC"

Here in Kenya, and much of the developing world, things are quite different. Traditionally, people would save known and trusted drivers in their phonebook, and call them when needing a taxi. If you're somewhere far from your drivers, you might call a friend who lives there and ask them.

That's how we got started on our own app (http://maramoja.co.ke): we let people favourite drivers, and let them choose the driver for their ride. We show them who's their favourite, who's their friend's (e.g. from Facebook, phonebook, referrals) favourite etc.

Although other apps have now made an inroad here (Nairobi), particularly Uber, whose marketing budget we of course cannot match, there's still quite a number of people who won't use their "just any driver" approach.

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