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What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

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Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#41

Post by philwelch »

mindslight wrote: post #16
incision wrote: post #4

Interesting. He drives his Jeep, falls to a 4.3 rating and is about to get released from the service. He starts driving his Tesla, finds that passengers start treating him as an equal and give him a perfect 5.0 every time. Somehow that's not at all surprising and disappointing at the same time.

In general, rating systems where the top vote is the "normal" vote are fucked up. There's always noise in how each party perceives the transaction. As the supplier, the only thing you can do is kiss the ass of everyone in hopes of placating the overly negative ones. And as a buyer, you're unable to reward truly above-and-beyond service.

There's literally nothing an Uber driver can do that I would see as "above-and-beyond".

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#42

Post by [deleted] »

tomkinson wrote: post #32

This is the kind of guy you want to be your CEO. Someone who doesn't spend their time shopping for the best suit or glad handing unnecessarily. For those in the hunt for a CEO, take note here. Curiosity, exploration, not afraid to get dirty, a desire to understand and learn. Well done.

[deleted]

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#43

Post by eigenvector »

[deleted] wrote: post #42
tomkinson wrote: post #32

This is the kind of guy you want to be your CEO. Someone who doesn't spend their time shopping for the best suit or glad handing unnecessarily. For those in the hunt for a CEO, take note here. Curiosity, exploration, not afraid to get dirty, a desire to understand and learn. Well done.

[deleted]

He took up Uber driving in the free time created by his resignation as CEO so I don't really understand your comment.

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#44

Post by yetanotherphd »

marvin wrote: post #26
SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see that at all. It's not that humans are replaceable as much as the fact that each driver's performance (and corresponding rating) is crucial to their continued employment. I have no problem with that at all given the fact that Uber's image and product both rely on having good customer experiences. If Uber were more concerned with providing a living to its employees, then they likely wouldn't last very long…

What's even more unsettling than the fact that many companies have this attitude towards their employees, is the degree to which members of HN unquestioningly defend this practice whenever the subject comes up. As long as only Uber does this, there really isn't a problem. But it will be a problem if it happens everywhere. I am not saying that this is a black-and-white thing. There are certainly nuances here, and in a…

You assume that there is some relationship between churn, and total unemployment. I don't see how that would work.

If Uber were convinced that it was terribly immoral to fire someone, they would just put greater effort into making sure they got the best people in the first place.

So your policies favor a society with 5% of the people unemployed 100% of the time, instead of 100% of the people unemployed 5% of the time.

Job security is of questionable social good because it places a nonsensical emphasis on the harm of getting fired, as opposed to the harm of not getting hired in the first place.

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#45

Post by RealCasually »

Natsu wrote: post #33
mindslight wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, rating systems where the top vote is the "normal" vote are fucked up. There's always noise in how each party perceives the transaction. As the supplier, the only thing you can do is kiss the ass of everyone in hopes of placating the overly negative ones. And as a buyer, you're unable to reward truly above-and-beyond service.

You can partially infer something from the lack of ratings. People usually only do them to give good or bad ones, so you can balance it out a bit with non-voters as "average" scores. It's still goofy, though.

Not voting is nearly impossible on Uber though. As soon as you open up the app it prompts you. Often I forgot the ride and just press 5 stars unless something was exceptionally bad.

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#46

Post by theorique »

ultrasaurus wrote: post #36
alonmower wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agreed. I also think Uber should be slightly more explicit in their ratings screen (e.g. Bad Experience, Good Experience, Exceptional Experience) If someone has a problem with a ride, the only thing they really care about is letting Uber know that the ride was terrible (I bet the rating distribution clusters heavily around 1, 4 and 5 stars). Looking at passenger rating histories should also play a role in how…

Sidecar does something like this, They ask if it was bad, good or exceptional. If you say good, they ask what could've been improved -- and I usually find myself selecting "nothing in particular" That gives a very accurate picture of the driver. It's cool that sometimes my sidecar driver gives me candy and tells jokes, but that's not why I use the service.

I wonder what "exceptional" even means?

I expect a driver to get me from A to B, and notice whether I'm interested in talking (in which case talk and be friendly) or not interested in talking (in which case don't talk please).

A half-pint of water is nice but hardly necessary - it won't convert a horrible ride into a great one, and its absence doesn't make a great ride a bad one.

So much is outside the control of the driver - a late night drive with no traffic is generally more pleasant than a sluggish rush-hour drive, but it's not the driver's fault.

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#47

Post by tomhschmidt »

cloudwalking wrote: post #30
kosei wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair here, unless you're driving a luxury car like a Tesla, your depreciation, gas and maintenance costs are still probably $5/hour or less. So, call it $16/hour, and it's still well above minimum wage and most living wages. You're adding extra danger due to potential crash concerns etc, but I don't really know how to best quantify that. http://commutesolutions.org/external/calc.html

Your assumptions may be incorrect. Here is an article that was on HN a couple months ago: http://brent-noorda.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-much-does-lyft-... According to Consumer Reports (see linked article), the median car costs about $9k per year for the first 5 years (including the sticker price). That comes out to $0.75 per mile--not an insignificant amount. Driving 30 miles per hour, that's $22.50 in costs.

That's not a very good comparison. Many of these costs you'll incur, regardless of whether or not you drive for Uber (insurance, tabs, tax, depreciation, etc.)

To actually calculate the costs of driving for Uber, we should only be looking at the variable, or the per-mile cost, which as far as I can tell should be:

- Gas - Maintenance - Loss in resale value

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#48

Post by Karunamon »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #17
Karunamon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd imagine the same thing that happens to people who work for the average delivery food place (i.e. most don't mark it a work vehicle for insurance purposes either) and get into an accident. I'd hardly call Uber immoral for this. It's up to each person to square up with their insurance company.

What's happening here is that Uber and your favorite pizza taxi are littering. They know that a fair share of their drivers do not carry a commercial liability policy. When an Uber driver has an accident, the next thing that will happen is that their insurance denies the claim, and you have to claim against your uninsured motorist policy. Good luck to anyone who doesn't have such a policy because they don't own a car…

>Hey, uninsured motorist rates just went up! I wish they didn't do that, and instead Uber fares and pizza prices went up because I don't use them. They have no business imposing externalities on me.

Indeed. If someone drives in such a way as to be uninsured, shame on them.

Still not the company's fault for the individual's lack of responsibility.

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#49

Post by marincounty »

rdl wrote: post #6
incision wrote: post #4

Interesting. He drives his Jeep, falls to a 4.3 rating and is about to get released from the service. He starts driving his Tesla, finds that passengers start treating him as an equal and give him a perfect 5.0 every time. Somehow that's not at all surprising and disappointing at the same time.

I'd personally be annoyed if my UberX driver came in a Wrangler; one of the most uncomfortable-as-passenger cars on the market. A Camry or something is totally fine; doesn't have to be a Tesla, but should be something relatively quiet and comfortable.

Really? Americans have gotten soft. I once had a date who questioned what I was driving; I took out her roommate instead. I guess we all have our own "Comfy" zone though?

Re: What happened when the CEO of a Boston burrito chain became an Uber driver

#50

Post by earljwagner »

theorique wrote: post #46
ultrasaurus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sidecar does something like this, They ask if it was bad, good or exceptional. If you say good, they ask what could've been improved -- and I usually find myself selecting "nothing in particular" That gives a very accurate picture of the driver. It's cool that sometimes my sidecar driver gives me candy and tells jokes, but that's not why I use the service.

I wonder what "exceptional" even means? I expect a driver to get me from A to B, and notice whether I'm interested in talking (in which case talk and be friendly) or not interested in talking (in which case don't talk please). A half-pint of water is nice but hardly necessary - it won't convert a horrible ride into a great one, and its absence doesn't make a great ride a bad one. So much is outside the control of the…

If you thought they handled a crisis really well, that could be exceptional.
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