481–490 of 609 posts
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>"While I agree that London has great public transport" This must be a different London from the one I was in ten years ago.
What about London public transport do you think isn't great? Compared to anywhere else in the country, it's leaps and bounds ahead.
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AIUI, the regulator had evidence that Uber had used Greyball in some markets (i.e., the known uses), and Uber were unable to convince the regulator that they had not used Greyball in London.
Not even sure how you would convince them. Full code and database audit isn't easy nor cheap and I doubt Uber wants to pay for that. Apart from that, there's no way to detect if Uber runs services to detect regulators.
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Defiantly not rare. And I don't want to spend my evening complaining to tfl.
Then just accept the fact you’re part of the problem. If everyone was like you and only in it for themselves, quality service would be rare, if not ever.
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I consulted three dictionaries, including a British one, before writing that comment. Your use very fringe at best and is very inappropriate anywhere else, as it was pointed out to you.
> Your use very fringe at best and is very inappropriate anywhere else New Yorker here. Perfectly fine usage there. “The cab driver robbed me” is our local variant.
>informal overcharge (someone) for something.
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They already had a warning shot four months ago, when their license renewal was denied in favour of a temporary renewal for four months. This one is the next step in the process. Uber isn't magic - if there's pent-up demand for a company that fills Uber's boots, one will pop up. The issues TfL have with Uber aren't to do with the service they provide, it's failing to comply with TfL's administrative requirements. You…
For sure, a lot of the value proposition of Uber could be seamlessly be replaced by a different company. However one thing that Uber has that is totally proprietary to them is their global mindshare. For example, when I go to the US, I use the Uber app whenever I can, because it's the exact same experience as at home and I know what I'm going to get. For travellers, this continuity of experience is great.
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That is factually a quote from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as reported in the article. It is not the journalist's job to provide specifics on the behalf of others.
Investigative journalism? Sort of is their job. You're not just supposed to blindly reprint things people say. Admittedly everyone does it anyways, but still.
They did not reproduce what he said as though the content of his statement was factual - they reproduced it to report what he had said.
To illustrate the point further, they had his quote:
> Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "I fully support TfL's decision - it would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners' safety and security."
and then several paragraphs later they had this from an Uber driver:
> But one driver with Uber in London said: "I don't think it is a fair decision. Uber offers a flexible schedule, and a weekly income."
The also reported on statements by "Fred Jones, head of cities for Uber across the UK and Ireland", and "Uber's general manager in London Tom Elvidge".
Reporting on the statements of a range of parties interested in a particular dispute is perfectly reasonable journalism, and should not be compared to opinion-led journalism where the statements of favourable individuals are rewritten as though they were facts.
To clarify, I'm not claiming that the BBC as an institution is devoid of opinion-led journalism, I just don't think that demanding that journalists substantiate the claims of interested parties (as O.P. did) is very reasonable.
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I've had black cab drivers insist that I can't use my card, and that I must get out. I've had cab drivers refuse to drive me to certain parts of London because it's inconvenient for them. They are also really expensive.
Black Cabs in London are wonderful, except: 1. When you need one at about 10pm in the City, and stand on the street corner for ages watching dozens of them go by with their lights off and no passengers. 2. When you are less than 1/2 a mile north of the Thames, and the cabbie refuses the ride because he 'doesn't go south of the river, mate' 3. Same as #2 but 'doesn't go north of the river, mate' 4. Same as #2 and #3 b…
For me it is not 'let's grab an Uber', it is 'drat, missed the last train, where and when do I get the night bus?'
Because traffic is considerably lighter at night the bus goes at a good speed and during the day the bus has its own lane, one which Uber can't be in.
I appreciate that if you have some very important clients arriving then you want to book them a cab, plus there are plenty of other reasons to get a cab, however, TfL is putting together a transport system for everyone, not just people stuck in their apps.
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Defiantly not rare. And I don't want to spend my evening complaining to tfl.
Then just accept the fact you’re part of the problem. If everyone was like you and only in it for themselves, quality service would be rare, if not ever.
A customer should not HAVE to report people for this shit. It should just work. And if it doesn't, then I am using a different service.
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Game theory makes it clear why anonymous cabs paid in cash will almost always provide worse service than a rating sensitive system. The notion that people will be kind and nice because of social norms or "plain decency" or something is sentimental hogwash. People behave well when the system rewards them for doing so and penalises them for not.
Most of local cab companies in my city also let you rate a driver now, so it's not a unique selling point of Uber anymore.
I don't think the Mayor of London or TfL really expect to shut down Uber. It would be a deeply unpopular move. There's an acceptance that Uber has improved things for riders, albeit at the expense of the Black Cab industry, and London wants to welcome innovative technology firms. However, I also suspect that Uber hasn't been as co-operative as TfL would like on several issues mentioned, and so this feels like a warni…
They already had a warning shot four months ago, when their license renewal was denied in favour of a temporary renewal for four months. This one is the next step in the process. Uber isn't magic - if there's pent-up demand for a company that fills Uber's boots, one will pop up. The issues TfL have with Uber aren't to do with the service they provide, it's failing to comply with TfL's administrative requirements. You…
The thing is, until Uber popped up, that pent-up demand simply wasn't being satisfied. The taxi monopolies and regulators were quite happy with their rents (in the economic sense of rent-seeking), and consumers suffered from it (I suspect that Uber & Lyft have prevented thousands of drunken-driving deaths).
A lot of people give Uber's culture a lot of hate — but that corporate culture is what created a company which was able to satisfy millions of customers and save lives too. It's provided a colossal amount of economic value to the world (I also like to think that it's made visible the economic value the taxi monopolies & regulators have been invisibly destroying for decades).
> there already are a number of minicab companies that do what Uber does, just minus quite as fancy an app.
I think that app is the keystone of the whole experience. I can, anywhere I am, open that app and a car will come to pick me up and take me where I need to go. The car will be clean; the driver will be friendly; the service will be prompt and inexpensive. I can't get that experience if I have to install an app in each city, potentially give each app horrible permissions (e.g., to get a ride in Some City I have to give the car company access to my files, my contacts and my email) &c. I travel a lot, and the quality of the Uber rides I've gotten has just been head-and-shoulders above the taxi rides.