Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#411

Post by bena » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

_wp3r wrote: post #329

yarcob wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are giving service providers way too much leeway. Service providers should offer their service to everyone, not just to "easy" customers. Service providers should not reject you because you are disabled, because you have a child, because you have a certain religion, or whatever else is the problem. If someone is in the business of transporting people, they shouldn't be allowed to just pick the most profit…

Oh you mean like a licensing system that requires drivers to pick up all passengers? /s HAAS Act '37 NYC TLC '71 Operation Refusal '98 Not that NY has it exactly right, but at least there was some structure. The entire business model of Uber is regulation avoidance. They did not "distrupt" any business they just did as you said and stole all the profitable easy routes/riders, avoided pricing regulations, and driver c…

Yep, I was talking about Uber/Lyft et al with someone recently and going over the point that these services are finding out that Taxi services charge what they charge and operate how they operate due to very good reasons on the whole.

There's a lot of institutional knowledge baked into the cab industry and Uber/Lyft thought they could figuratively reimplement the whole deal in a weekend.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#412

Post by christkv » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:02 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #50

The real problem here is Uber/Lyft not accounting for this in their app. As someone who takes rideshare with a small child who needs a car seat, I've had similar issues. A person with a dog will need extra time getting in and out, and the driver will need extra time to clean the car and remove any dog hair or other stains or spots. A person with a carseat like myself needs extra time to get into and out of the car wh…

Check out the mifold chair for kids it’s great for when you have to use taxis or a rental car https://www.mifold.com/ it just simplified travel so much for us.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#413

Post by intrasight » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #369

I recall a couple cities where folks proposed Uber / Lyft as a sort of public transit option or just filling the gap of public transit and etc. Can't really do that if they simply won't / argue they don't have to serve some members of the public ...

That a bit different a situation. The municipality would have a contract with a private company to provide public transportation services. Like with any such contracts, the recipient would have to abide by all specified regulations and also would have to hit performance milestones in order to get paid and/or renewed.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#414

Post by dehrmann » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

yarcob wrote: post #271

jedberg wrote: post #50

The real problem here is Uber/Lyft not accounting for this in their app. As someone who takes rideshare with a small child who needs a car seat, I've had similar issues. A person with a dog will need extra time getting in and out, and the driver will need extra time to clean the car and remove any dog hair or other stains or spots. A person with a carseat like myself needs extra time to get into and out of the car wh…

I think you are giving service providers way too much leeway. Service providers should offer their service to everyone, not just to "easy" customers. Service providers should not reject you because you are disabled, because you have a child, because you have a certain religion, or whatever else is the problem. If someone is in the business of transporting people, they shouldn't be allowed to just pick the most profit…

Subsidies for these passengers might go further than an edict they they must transport these passengers. It's the carrot vs. the stick.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#415

Post by darrylb42 » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:08 PM UTC

ALittleLight wrote: post #399

cactus2093 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, have you ever actually taken many cabs in cities? Or Ubers? I see this complaint all the time and I truly can't wrap my mind around it based on my own experience. The difference between yellow cabs and Ubers is night and day. I've had countless cabs drive away and refuse to pick me up because they didn't like where I was going, and that's never once happened with Uber (I'm sure it happens some behind th…

I got off a bus once, at night, by mistake, in what seemed like a very bad part of town. I was waiting for the next bus to carry me away but became uncomfortable with my surroundings and so tried to get an Uber to come first. I had four or five cancel on me immediately after getting assigned and wound up having to wait for the bus anyway. I've never experienced that before or since with Uber.

Taxi's do the same thing. Wouldn't come to the location I was in, hung up, told us we were in a bad neighborhood and shouldn't be there. Eventually the bus came, we didn't want to wait 60 minutes with luggage.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#416

Post by shuntress » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:14 PM UTC

Miner49er wrote: post #216

ehmmmmmmmm wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I agree with you, Uber should have to deal with it. A lot of people in this thread are arguing that the driver should be forced to suck it up and I think that's shitty for both the driver's and rider's safety.

I don't see much of an other option for Uber if they want to fix this. It's not uncommon for small towns to have one Uber driver going at certain times. Well that driver can't be the only driver around if they aren't going to take service animals. So Uber would have to tell them that they can't drive unless they are willing to take service animals or there is another driver around that is willing to.

They have to make sure the service they offer complies with the ADA's requirements and where that is not possible they must not offer that service.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#417

Post by jedberg » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:19 PM UTC

hluska wrote: post #389

jedberg wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well really they should pay the Uber driver until they passenger is fully departed, but right now passengers get upset if the driver doesn't end the ride the moment they arrive (and if they start the drive before actually departing), so the driver has to load and unload on their own time. I try to make up for it by telling the driver to start the ride the moment I walk up, and letting them know not to end the ride un…

I’ve got the gift of the gab and so I see this differently. If I had no scruples or morals and chose to drive Uber, I could make an obscene hourly wage simply by picking up elderly people and engaging them in conversation. Most phone scams rely upon preying upon vulnerable, lonely people like this so sadly, it’s a public 0 day with no known fix.

I would argue that you're providing the service of companionship and should be paid for that too. :)

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#418

Post by saddlerustle » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:19 PM UTC

ALittleLight wrote: post #399

cactus2093 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, have you ever actually taken many cabs in cities? Or Ubers? I see this complaint all the time and I truly can't wrap my mind around it based on my own experience. The difference between yellow cabs and Ubers is night and day. I've had countless cabs drive away and refuse to pick me up because they didn't like where I was going, and that's never once happened with Uber (I'm sure it happens some behind th…

I got off a bus once, at night, by mistake, in what seemed like a very bad part of town. I was waiting for the next bus to carry me away but became uncomfortable with my surroundings and so tried to get an Uber to come first. I had four or five cancel on me immediately after getting assigned and wound up having to wait for the bus anyway. I've never experienced that before or since with Uber.

Uber doesn't punish drivers for cancelling anymore because it kept being used as an argument that drivers are employees, not contractors.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#419

Post by CJefferson » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:20 PM UTC

fuzzer37 wrote: post #180

Miner49er wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Allergy could be handled by Uber, who should be provided by the driver with a medical certification of the allergy and shouldn't even show that car to the blind customer. IANAL, but I don't think it is that simple. Small towns sometimes only have one driver at a time. If there's one driver, they _have_ to take a service animal, by law. Allergy or fear of dogs is not good enough. Admittedly the liability for the dri…

> Allergy or fear of dogs is not good enough. I'm interested in this part. This seems to be counterintuitive. Is a waiter with a really bad peanut allergy required to serve a guest a dish with peanuts in it? Why does the clients (legitimate) health concerns override the drivers (also legitimate) health issues?

Restaurants don't have to serve peanuts at all. They have to allow guide dogs.

Re: Uber ordered to pay $1.1M to blind woman refused rides

#420

Post by shuntress » Mon, Apr 05, 2021, 9:20 PM UTC

Uber is just going to add (in the driver signup forms) a checkbox labeled "I agree to comply fully with all ADA requirements" and link to a big confusing document that no driver will ever read then whenever a driver is sued for failure to comply with ADA regulations Uber will hang them out to dry because they are a "contractor" not an "employee"