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Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

lyft.com

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Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#221

Post by kippinitreal »

zelly wrote: post #82

What's stopping someone from running a Lyft-like service "dry" (without payment processing) and just matching riders with drivers, with the expectation of paying cash or Zelle I mean other than the fact that it would make no money. What could California do to the developers of such an app?

Maybe an alternative model would be too charge the drivers a subscription fee. Could be a typical SAAS model where first 10 rides/month are free and the ability to work unlimited hours costs ~$1k. I don't think you could do this for free as the support costs are likely really high and support is super important when people are putting their lives in the drivers' hands.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#222

Post by sneak »

tmp538394722 wrote: post #41
nemothekid wrote: post #9

When I moved to CA, I put off getting a CA license for years. I always told myself I'd go to the DMV and do the paperwork, then I waited long enough to find out I would have to retake the test, until finally I just resigned to using Uber and Lyft all the time. I never thought I would need it and so I never made it a priority. So this news really sucks, as you haven't been able to schedule DMV appointments at all and…

I’d think a good ole fashioned taxi would work. Is there a reason you couldn’t or wouldn’t use one?

Uber was founded because there are frequently 60 minute waits for taxis in SFBA, if they show up at all.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#223

Post by malandrew »

subsubzero wrote: post #163

What people are not talking about is how much congestion these services bring to city streets. For San Francisco traffic congestion increased by 60% between 2010-2016[1] and Lyft/Uber contributed to half of that. That is very bad as more traffic leads to more traffic accidents, more fatalities and pedestrians getting hit. In addition lets not forget the heavy toll on the environment with air pollution and its myriad…

I'm always perplexed when people bring this issue up but never discuss the contribution to congestion by people driving their own cars.

Yes, you can say that increased congestion from single occupancy vehicles leads to a tragedy of the commons for those on buses. This can be addressed by making bus only lanes (and they should be bus only lanes, not bus and taxi lanes)

For the rest of the congestion, there's not much difference between rideshare vehicles and private vehicles. Rideshare vehicles might be empty while looking for passengers (net positive contribution to congestion), but also provide pooling (net negative contribution). Private vehicles also circle blocks looking for parking spaces (net positive contribution).

> For San Francisco traffic congestion increased by 60% between 2010-2016[1]

It's hard to pin this solely on ridesharing though. There have been no lack of road construction projects in the last decade. More recently, the Van Ness work has been an absolute clusterfuck for San Francisco traffic.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#224

Post by georgeecollins »

saas_sam wrote: post #145
georgeecollins wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why the California economy is collapsing. /s Everybody likes to complain about California. When I was born here it was about 15m people. Now its 40m. If you are unhappy, please leave to a lower cost, lower tax state. People have been predicting California's decline my entire life and the real problem is it can't handle the growth. Also, California has been sucking up employing the young and of mid-west and so…

Do you have a similar "love it or leave it" attitude when people complain about America? Not very Californian of you.

That's a good point. I think immigration is great for the country. And I never mind it my neighbors come from the mid-west or from Central America or wherever. I just get sick of people bashing California. It outgrows the rest of the country at an amazing rate, spawns world beating companies, and then people say it is socialist.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#225

Post by spanhandler »

theplague42 wrote: post #196
spanhandler wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the post before it had any responses and based on how it read to me then I'd say milofeynman's post is responding to the strongest plausible interpretation, as that's one of the HNest posts I've ever seen, which is really saying something as that's a field full of strong contenders.

this whole thread is a travesty

This thread is a prime example of how one can troll or shitpost on HN, no problem, so long as the trolling and shitposting is sufficiently HN-flavored. By which I don't mean to imply that the moderation or community are systemically or broadly broken, certainly no more so than most communities online, but simply that there are definite gaps in the armor and when they're found you see a kind of mis-targeted immune response amplifying the damage (in fact, that effect is the main way damage is done by such posts on HN)

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#226

Post by 908B64B197 »

ivarv wrote: post #7

So this is basically an admission that the ridesharing business model is not viable without worker exploitation?

Because the previous medallion system was so much better.

Either the driver rented the car to a middleman who rented the medallion from a rich owner, or said owner was selling and financing (most banks won't touch these medallions!) a medallion at a ridiculous interest rate to a driver that plans to use it as his retirement savings.

Pre-Uber, the more I spoke to cab drivers the more it seemed their industry was a pyramid schemed aimed at helping established rent-seeker take advantage of often poor new immigrants. Uber brought a breeze of fresh air: Someone could simply buy a car, calculate the depreciation and it's value on the market (since unlike medallions cars are relatively liquid assets!) do rideshare and calculate their profits or loss. They can get out of the game at anytime.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#227

Post by wlesieutre »

Androider wrote: post #214
lotsofpulp wrote: post #72

Yes, voters in the US want to give people education, healthcare, and unemployment (or basic income-ish) benefits. Voters in the US also don’t want to pay for any of this. Hence, the politicians that get elected are ones that give people education via student loans, and healthcare/unemployment benefits tied to employer/employment status. Those politicians get to claim they helped people, and they get to claim they kep…

In the US we pay hundreds of dollars in monthly medical premiums, thousands in deductibles per year, and still need to live in fear of surprise bankruptcy-level bills arriving if god forbid you collapse and need an emergency procedure at the closest out-of-network facility. Absolute insanity. Yet changing this at a fundamental level is somehow considered radical, nothing we can do etc., except what every other wester…

Don't forget how much higher your car insurance is because if you get in an accident it needs to cover someone else's $200,000 medical bills

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#228

Post by theplague42 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #170
tmp538394722 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d think a good ole fashioned taxi would work. Is there a reason you couldn’t or wouldn’t use one?

The reason that Uber and Lyft were eating the taxi business's lunch: Less cost and better service.

In part by ignoring city and state laws!

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#229

Post by supernova87a »

I was really surprised by the 3rd requirement of the law to qualify as a contractor. Recall, the new law says that you can be counted as a contractor (instead of an employee) only if all 3 conditions are met [1]:

-- Are free from control of the company in how the job is executed

-- Perform work outside the company's normal line of business

-- Are customarily engaged in this work anyway as an independent worker

This last condition is really unreasonable I think. Basically someone can only be counted as a contractor if they already do that kind of work as their primary employment. This basically forecloses anyone from casually offering their time as a driver, even if that's a perfectly efficient and reasonable thing for people to do.

If I were cynical, I would say that this is a concession to taxi / labor lobbies to protect their wages. Which I do not support.

Strange how Sacramento representatives, in trying to fix certain failings of current laws, always try to insert something extra like this while they do it.

[1] https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_independentcontractor.htm

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#230

Post by manigandham »

azinman2 wrote: post #135

Would Lyft/Uber stop operations in CA in the long term? Or is this just a ploy to get people to vote for their proposition? It seems silly to leave money on the table.

If operations are unprofitable then what money are they leaving?

However it's likely that without changes, they will just operate in a few core urban regions rather than the widespread coverage they have today.

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