Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 58 posts

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#41

Post by bcgraham »

I live in NYC. During an Uber ride, I was talking to a driver about Juno. Between my understanding of him and my recollection, some of this may be incorrect.

They've recruited a lot of the NYC Uber drivers. They've been paying them $25/week to keep the Juno app open while they're on duty, collecting information about driving habits, routes, etc. The drivers' relationships with Juno won't be as contractors, so Juno will have much more control over the drivers - such as having exclusivity agreements.

The idea seemed to be to bring on all the drivers as employees, destroy the population of (good) Uber drivers, and advertise the app. The plan is that everyone in NYC switches to Juno, since you won't be able to get an Uber in a timely way, and Uber's quality will be bad because it'll just be the "leftovers" of the driver talent pool.

That's what I remember getting out of the conversation, anyway.

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#43

Post by Cheyana »

jlgaddis wrote: post #26
Cheyana wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Juno still provides dialup service and free email. I just fixed a Juno email issue for a friend (which turned out to be their AVG blocking it). Not sure how this other company gets away with calling themselves Juno.

They're in a different space / industry. Trademarks exist to prevent confusion between similar products. Juno, the free dial-up and e-mail provider and Juno the taxi/transportation(?) company are very different.

I guess it couldn't hurt the older Juno either, since people may google Juno to look for it and poke around the Juno website looking for the app for ridesharing.

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#44

Post by bcgraham »

koolba wrote: post #3

I've never heard of Juno before and it took some serious A-level googling to find their website. Only PR articles (like this one) show up when you search for them and none of them actually link to their site. That's some seriously odd SEO.

Their target market is taxi & livery drivers in NYC, who they seem to have been very effective in reaching. Look at their homepage[0] - does it seem to be trying to speak to you?

[0] https://www.gojuno.com/

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#45

Post by dopeboy »

peterwwillis wrote: post #39
ineedtosleep wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, Juno. Along with NetZero and Freewwweb, I journeyed the path of the "grey"-side with free internet hacks (which just blocked the ads). My parents didn't yet see the value of internet -- nor did they have the extra cash for it.

Free internet and "click this Ad to get paid $0.10" were some really interesting hacks back in the day. Oh, the money you could make with Visual Basic and a dial-up modem....

Don't forget the "cracks" you could download to hide the netzero ads.

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#46

Post by redthrowaway »

ArnoldP wrote: post #31
aianus wrote: post #20

> All drivers there are licensed by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), as required by law. Their vehicles must also be licensed with the TLC, and they have to carry commercial insurance. This is going to negatively impact driver supply (making wait times higher, especially in the outer boroughs) and increase the cost of the service vs Uber. > Juno’s drivers will provide better service because they’re happie…

All other things being equal I'll go with the service that gives more to the person doing the actual labour.

Buy anything from Amazon? Because they're infamous for treating their non-engineer employees terribly, yet I and most people I know still buy from them because they're cheap and have great customer service.

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#47

Post by [deleted] »

ArnoldP wrote: post #31
aianus wrote: post #20

> All drivers there are licensed by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), as required by law. Their vehicles must also be licensed with the TLC, and they have to carry commercial insurance. This is going to negatively impact driver supply (making wait times higher, especially in the outer boroughs) and increase the cost of the service vs Uber. > Juno’s drivers will provide better service because they’re happie…

All other things being equal I'll go with the service that gives more to the person doing the actual labour.

[deleted]

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#48

Post by fjolthor »

redthrowaway wrote: post #46
ArnoldP wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All other things being equal I'll go with the service that gives more to the person doing the actual labour.

Buy anything from Amazon? Because they're infamous for treating their non-engineer employees terribly, yet I and most people I know still buy from them because they're cheap and have great customer service.

> All other things being equal.

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#49

Post by peterwwillis »

dopeboy wrote: post #45
peterwwillis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free internet and "click this Ad to get paid $0.10" were some really interesting hacks back in the day. Oh, the money you could make with Visual Basic and a dial-up modem....

Don't forget the "cracks" you could download to hide the netzero ads.

Some of us might have made them ;)

Re: Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

#50

Post by [deleted] »

ibejoeb wrote: post #30
aianus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Uber as shorthand for UberX, where the vast majority of drivers (at least in my city) have no commercial licensing or insurance. That's what enables them to be so cheap and ubiquitous. Maybe NYC specifically is different, I don't know.

Yes, NYC is different. All for-hire drivers are required to go through the TLC. From Uber, itself: https://get.uber.com/cl/nyc/ . TLC also regulates the types of vehicles that must be driven and mandates commercial insurance.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN