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Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

bbc.com

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Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#211

Post by larnmar »

ghaff wrote: post #207
thathndude wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I'm always amazed at how quickly people crap on Uber. In hindsight it's not a particularly revolutionary service. But does everyone remember how much the Taxi system sucked?

London it's really not bad in my somewhat limited experience. (Usually take transit.) Yes it's more expensive than VC-subsidized rides but is better than taxis in most places.

The black cabs in London were excellent but ridiculously expensive, which is why I’ve only caught one, like, once. Most people have to rely on minicabs, which were sketchy and unreliable. Uber was a huge boon to London.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#212

Post by VBprogrammer »

dominotw wrote: post #195
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number comes from Cognizant who were hired to conduct an independent review [1]. They found that 43 drivers out of 45,000 drivers skirted Uber's identity checks committing identity fraud. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/78827b06-0f6a-11ea-a225-db2f231cf...

ok thank you. I don't have FT subscription. But 43 out of 45k drivers seems like a pretty good number, certainly not a ban worthy number.

Yes, you can tell that someone is trying to make it sound bad by using the inflated 'trips' figure rather than number of drivers. This is mostly the fall out of political pressure from black cab drivers and their associations.

I'm certainly not keen on Ubers business practices, it's lacklustre approach to safety and poor record when it comes to employment regulations. However I think acceptance that the taxi industry has been changed forever will come eventually, these luddite challenges will eventually be forgotten and we'll all move on with our lives.

If we're lucky Uber will crash and burn and someone will pickup the baton, ideally in a more fair and sustainable way.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#213

Post by mytailorisrich »

thathndude wrote: post #203
oefrha wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, care to share where you live? I’ve hardly ever heard stories of taxi drivers cheating locals (needless to say tourists are cheated all the time).

This was common in Chicago when I lived there from 2011-2013. "I'd like to pay with credit card" "Machine is broken." "It's all I have." "Fine."

Here in the UK, if you say it's all you have they just reply "I can stop by an ATM"...

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#214

Post by kd5bjo »

itamarst wrote: post #201
omarhaneef wrote: post #191

Something about this doesn't make sense to me. I take it for granted that the staff at Uber would do anything not to lose the license. I am sure that, for 17 months, they've been investing heavily in security systems, ID verification etc. They must have followed up on every complaint. If I were them, I would have just manually followed everything that the Cabs do till I had a technology in place. It also seems that t…

You would think Uber Autonomous Vehicles group would do everything they can not to hit pedestrians. Yet according to the NTSB, previous to killing a pedestrian in Arizona Uber had a weak safety culture ( https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Documents/2019-HWY18MH010-B... ). Even worse, "Pedestrian outside crosswalk not assigned goal of crossing street", "Tracking history not considered when classification changes", "Pred…

> "Pedestrian outside crosswalk not assigned goal of crossing street", "Tracking history not considered when classification changes", "Predicted path depended on object’s goal"

To be fair, I could see myself implementing these sort of heuristics to get a working prototype. On the other hand, I deliberately avoid working on life-critical software because of how easily it can go wrong.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#215

Post by oefrha »

thathndude wrote: post #203
oefrha wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, care to share where you live? I’ve hardly ever heard stories of taxi drivers cheating locals (needless to say tourists are cheated all the time).

This was common in Chicago when I lived there from 2011-2013. "I'd like to pay with credit card" "Machine is broken." "It's all I have." "Fine."

That’s cheating their company (and/or setting up for tax evasion), which in my experience is far more common than cheating the customer with a detour, at least when the customer is local (you can show your localness through verbal cues implying or simply indicating you know the route).

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#216

Post by Jommi »

phatfish wrote: post #197
Jommi wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is HN really the place to conflate a single digit amount of personal anecdotes into a reason why someone should not use an app? What year was this? Where was this? This comment is worth absolutely nothing without specifics, and even then its a tiny data point which cannot offer any real perspective on the current news about Uber in London.

I know this is just "whataboutism". But the exact same comments are being made against mini-cab/black cabs all over this thread. "I rode a black cab once before Uber and it was awful." I'll trust the research from TFL rather than random anecdotes from either side, thanks.

What are you on about? Even if both "sides" use anecdotes how does that in any way justify you conflating them with the overall business?

Same can be said about the tfl note. Uber is basically a franchise company, locations rarely have strong interactions with eachother. Not to mention the reaction from tfl is in the end minor. Uber doesn't even need to stop operations.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#218

Post by larnmar »

oefrha wrote: post #189
stale2002 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? There are quite a few people in the very thread, talking about their bad experiences with Taxis. It is a common thing, to hear stori es that people have of bad experiences with Taxis.

> It is a common thing, to hear stories that people have of bad experiences with Taxis. Stories of bad experiences with taxis != stories of taxi drivers cheating locals.

Taxi drivers swindle everyone, they just have a wider array of tricks for swindling tourists.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#219

Post by UK-Al05 »

gjulianm wrote: post #193
UK-Al05 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who want Uber banned are often middle-class people following their left-wing ideology pretending to be on side of the working class worker. That or black cab drivers. If you actually listen to vast majority workers working Uber they're ok with it. They enjoy the flexibility and the lack of obligations. If people want more fixed work they can get it at the moment. Essentially you are taking the choice away from…

They seem very happy indeed. So happy they have recently striked over pay and conditions [1]. A MIT study also showed the big profits they have (26% make more than minimum wage in the US!) [2]. >Your imposing your own morals on people who don't want your morals. You are wrong. It is not morals. It is the law. Uber is bypassing laws, full stop. 1: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/08/uber-driv... 2: http…

According to a government report[1] 68% of workers are satisfied working for ride-sharing services. Which admittingly isn't super high, but not awful either. But the most important thing like is the independence it gives.

1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

The laws are created by a minority of people who don't always vote in favour of the public.

You regulate it like a normal job, and the thing they like about it most will be removed.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#220

Post by dogma1138 »

ghaff wrote: post #207
thathndude wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I'm always amazed at how quickly people crap on Uber. In hindsight it's not a particularly revolutionary service. But does everyone remember how much the Taxi system sucked?

London it's really not bad in my somewhat limited experience. (Usually take transit.) Yes it's more expensive than VC-subsidized rides but is better than taxis in most places.

Black cabs only work in the center, even in Zone 2 there are plenty places where you won't find one and where they won't be willing to go.

Car hire can work but it's often more expensive, needs to be booked ahead of time and they also refuse trips that aren't profitable for them.

Uber openen up travel for many people in London, especially at night. It's quite easy to find a lot of places in London that aren't serviced by Night Buses, there are plenty of places that are 15-30 min walk from a tube station, and the Night Tube is only available on select lines and only during the weekend.

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