I was just in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago, and Uber uses the local Yellow Cab there instead of black car or local drivers.
Introducing UberTAXI
41–50 of 65 posts
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#42As a non Uber customer, why would I use this over Hailo? And why would Uber customers opt for a more expensive taxi when the same application has a cheaper option? When I use black cabs here in London, I'd much rather use an established and local product from a company with less questionable ethics. That's Hailo.
> ...from a company with less questionable ethics Ok, I'll bite. What is questionable about Uber's ethics?
Things like its "Safe Rides Fee": http://valleywag.gawker.com/why-is-uber-charging-you-extra-t...
And questionable promotions: http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-used-the-boston-bombing-ann...
And [allegedly] intentionally triggering surge pricing: http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/02/uber-busted-intent...
And otherwise just acting as if the rules just don't apply to them: http://www.straight.com/news/uber-town-car-service-shut-down...
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#43As a non Uber customer, why would I use this over Hailo? And why would Uber customers opt for a more expensive taxi when the same application has a cheaper option? When I use black cabs here in London, I'd much rather use an established and local product from a company with less questionable ethics. That's Hailo.
> ...from a company with less questionable ethics Ok, I'll bite. What is questionable about Uber's ethics?
Oh, you know, just a few things:
http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-used-the-boston-bombing-ann...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/28/uber-s-bigg...
http://pando.com/2012/10/24/travis-shrugged/
http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/Ride-Service-May-Po...
http://pando.com/2014/04/24/uberx-allegedly-hired-a-convicte...
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Uber-sued-over-girl-s-...
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#44As a non Uber customer, why would I use this over Hailo? And why would Uber customers opt for a more expensive taxi when the same application has a cheaper option? When I use black cabs here in London, I'd much rather use an established and local product from a company with less questionable ethics. That's Hailo.
> ...from a company with less questionable ethics Ok, I'll bite. What is questionable about Uber's ethics?
They are shifting all of the liability to the people who can least afford it. So far they have done everything in their power to not protect drivers like in the case last month. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Uber-denies-fault-in-S... An uber driver killed a girl, but Uber is claiming they are not liable because he did not have an active fare at the time. It is unlikely this driver can ever make the family whole.
Additionally many car sharing services are operating without regard to the law. In some states the cars are getting seized. So far Uber has been covering the legal case, but they have no obligation to continue to do so.
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#45As a non Uber customer, why would I use this over Hailo? And why would Uber customers opt for a more expensive taxi when the same application has a cheaper option? When I use black cabs here in London, I'd much rather use an established and local product from a company with less questionable ethics. That's Hailo.
> ...from a company with less questionable ethics Ok, I'll bite. What is questionable about Uber's ethics?
On top of what others have mentioned, Uber has also been caught sabotaging competing car services by ordering their cars and canceling them as a physical denial of service attack against the other company.
They didn't even apologize for that one, only stating that the marketing team was "overzealous". As far as anyone is aware nobody was reprimanded in any way over this debacle, which is par for the course as far as Uber goes.
Uber the product is great, Uber the company is shady as all get out. This is why I don't trust them to shape regulation any more than I trust the existing taxi lobby. They're all purely self-serving and anti-consumer when they think they can get away with it.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/24/technology/social/uber-gett/
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#46As a non Uber customer, why would I use this over Hailo? And why would Uber customers opt for a more expensive taxi when the same application has a cheaper option? When I use black cabs here in London, I'd much rather use an established and local product from a company with less questionable ethics. That's Hailo.
I didn't know Halio was London based I swear by Uber in Toronto and will use it in London when I'm there next. A long time ago (year and half?) I looked up what the difference between the two was and it wasn't much. Comparing apples to apples, namely, plain old taxi service, they aren't much different but Uber is straight no minimums, gratuity set to a standard rate. I decided not try Halio at the time and stick with the Uber I'd been supporting (arbitrary I know) and enjoy not having to worry about any settings or anything. Hail cab, hop in, hop out, done.
On the business side I think Halio is an actual cab dispatcher company, whereas Uber is just an app service that any cabbie can use..... Anyways, yeah, have nothing but good things to say about Uber and kind of laugh at the mess going on in London right now
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#47seems crazy that they are announcing this today with the protest happening but whatever....
I am happy to see the taxi hailing feature coming as it is my most used feature in Toronto ( I mean, you only needthe fancy cars for fancy events/group things)
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#48I don't really know what to make of:
> There will be no booking fees or additional charges to clients
versus
> We’ll charge a flat commission of just 5%
Looks fishy.
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#49Uber started with boat services in Stockholm today. I thought that was bigger news :) You might want to translate this somehow but here: http://blog.uber.com/UberBAT
I wonder if this is part of some larger campaign -- maybe there are more Uber* stuff going on in other cities? UberRICKSHAW!
Re: Introducing UberTAXI
#50> "We recognise the unique heritage and value of traditional black cabs when it comes to getting around. UberTAXI is another way of using technology to offer more choice, making life simpler and keeping London moving" If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
In Chicago some licensed cab drivers use Uber to process their payments with the Uber Taxi service. You can call a cab with the app, pay the normal fare plus 20% gratuity and a small service fee. I don't use cabs often, but it's working out way better for me than when I used to call dispatch and maybe the cab would show up and maybe it wouldn't. It's also really nice to be able to just get in and get out without wast…
It's also nice that they can't charge "surge" pricing on cabs, so if they're doing a 2x or 4x you can call a taxi through it for a normal-ish fare. That said, the cab option always seems to be very sparsely populated whenever there's an ongoing pricing "surge".
I haven't seen taxis done on uber anywhere other than Chicago though.