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Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

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Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#51

Post by jamesmishra »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #35
jamesmishra wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey William, the reason Uber charges a cancellation fee is to compensate the driver for driving towards you. Without cancellation fees, drivers would have to eat the cost of whatever progress they made towards you. While the policy varies by city, typically an UberX or UberBLACK vehicle can be cancelled for free within 2 minutes. UberPOOL rides typically get billed cancellations immediately, because the canceling rid…

> Hey William, the reason Uber charges a cancellation fee is to compensate the driver for driving towards you. Sorta? So one of the last times I cancelled a ride the driver was 8 minutes away which, not ideal, was fine. The problem was the driver was sitting at a restaurant. After 15 minutes passed he was still 8 minutes away but occasionally his car icon would move a little here and there (but staying at the restaur…

Hey Kris, I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but it sounds like you were able to get your situation resolved with the support team.

The situation you describe happens pretty rarely--Uber has done over five billion trips in seven years, and typically drivers are fairly intent on finding their rider quickly and delivering a five-star experience.

In the future, perhaps various improvements to the product can mitigate the situation you describe. For example, Uber uses accelerometer data from the driver phone to improve ride safety. https://eng.uber.com/telematics/

If you have any thoughts on further improving the Uber experience, feel free to reach out.

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#53

Post by BinaryIdiot »

jamesmishra wrote: post #51
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hey William, the reason Uber charges a cancellation fee is to compensate the driver for driving towards you. Sorta? So one of the last times I cancelled a ride the driver was 8 minutes away which, not ideal, was fine. The problem was the driver was sitting at a restaurant. After 15 minutes passed he was still 8 minutes away but occasionally his car icon would move a little here and there (but staying at the restaur…

Hey Kris, I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but it sounds like you were able to get your situation resolved with the support team. The situation you describe happens pretty rarely--Uber has done over five billion trips in seven years, and typically drivers are fairly intent on finding their rider quickly and delivering a five-star experience. In the future, perhaps various improvements to the product c…

> The situation you describe happens pretty rarely

Statistically maybe but around in the East Bay I have this happen with an Uber or Lyft driver almost once a week. The time I mentioned was just more extreme than the others (typically I wait and they start moving after a few minutes).

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#54

Post by Broken_Hippo »

anon1385 wrote: post #44
sangnoir wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not going to happen in the US - mugshots of suspects are public way before people get their day in court. I know at least 1 European country (can't remember which) that won't allow the publication of suspects' names (or was it photographs?) until they are convicted.

There's issues with going that way though - it gives the police the power to arrest and detain people in secret and prevents anybody talking about it. Historically police forces have a bad record of abusing that kind of power. It's also going to be pretty unenforceable in the era of social media.

The abuse of power in the US is a much larger problem to be sure, and honestly that stuff has already happened [1]. And this is with the stuff supposedtly being public. Surely there are other ways that blend protecting privacy of the presumed innocent without letting up on police forces.

We can do things like keep mugshots of unconvicted people out of public view, especially on police websites and media outlets. We can quit putting folks' names on the front page when covering a story. Sure, publish arrests the cops have made with a general location, withholding people's names and addresses. We can have all cops wear body cams that may or may not be recording and release them to the public once we've blurred the person's identity.

Some of this would take changing a system. Stiff penalties to cops that break the law and are convicted. Better training. A chip sewn into uniforms (which can be laundered at the station with no need to take them home to protect the police during their personal life) to track movements. A bail system that actually looks to see if someone is a flight risk and limits on how long we can keep folks in jail. A robust public defender system (it is a right to have a lawyer, after all, even though some states make destitute folks pay for it nonetheless).

We could start public service announcements asking folks not to judge folks before they are found guilty with evidence. We could use official, licensed services to do background checks and disallow arrest records to be part of the check (probably a few exceptions for security reasons). Train police officers a bit better so they minimally can be aware of their natural biases and work against them.

I'm not saying this list is perfect nor all inclusive, but it is a start.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/19/homan-square...

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#55

Post by sjg007 »

cgb223 wrote: post #23
motardo wrote: post #21

If Papa John's calls in thousands of fake pizza delivery orders to Donimos, are they doing research on response times and how many drivers their competitor has, or are they committing a crime?

That depends, did Domino's pay for each pizza in full or cancel them when they made it 90% of the way there?

They'd probably still be charged. Also dominos and papa johns and even Pizza Hut don't compete in delivery zones (unless there is so much demand for pizza that it doesn't matter). The losers are the local shops. Prices are nationwide which is where the competition is. They really just want people to order a pizza delivery.

Unless your are in New York but I guess that local pizza wins. Maybe a few downtown areas as well.

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#57

Post by jrochkind1 »

motardo wrote: post #21

If Papa John's calls in thousands of fake pizza delivery orders to Donimos, are they doing research on response times and how many drivers their competitor has, or are they committing a crime?

how about if Papa John's hacks Dominos computer system to make fake pizza delivery orders?

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#58

Post by dnautics »

jamesmishra wrote: post #51
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hey William, the reason Uber charges a cancellation fee is to compensate the driver for driving towards you. Sorta? So one of the last times I cancelled a ride the driver was 8 minutes away which, not ideal, was fine. The problem was the driver was sitting at a restaurant. After 15 minutes passed he was still 8 minutes away but occasionally his car icon would move a little here and there (but staying at the restaur…

Hey Kris, I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but it sounds like you were able to get your situation resolved with the support team. The situation you describe happens pretty rarely--Uber has done over five billion trips in seven years, and typically drivers are fairly intent on finding their rider quickly and delivering a five-star experience. In the future, perhaps various improvements to the product c…

>The situation you describe happens pretty rarely--

Can you put a number on that? It's anecdata but I feel like watching my friends request Ubers it's like 10% of requests. It's even worse at the airport. Adding extra padding time to account for failed requests is a fairly regular use pattern.

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#59

Post by stephenbez »

jamesmishra wrote: post #28
wbharding wrote: post #26

This probably explains why Uber charged me $2 last time I canceled a ride with them. They need a billing paradigm that prevents them from being taken advantage of by strategies like those that they employ against their competitors. Nevermind that the ride I canceled was 10+ minutes away, and was canceled immediately upon being booked. Advantage: Lyft.

Hey William, the reason Uber charges a cancellation fee is to compensate the driver for driving towards you. Without cancellation fees, drivers would have to eat the cost of whatever progress they made towards you. While the policy varies by city, typically an UberX or UberBLACK vehicle can be cancelled for free within 2 minutes. UberPOOL rides typically get billed cancellations immediately, because the canceling rid…

That's not true. I cancelled a ride less than 1 minute after I booked it and was charged the cancellation fee.

The email they sent me even confirms that. They must code their systems to still charge the fee even when they say they wont: http://imgur.com/a/JqTgT

Re: Uber Faces FBI Probe Over Program Targeting Rival Lyft

#60

Post by to_bpr »

jamesmishra wrote: post #51
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hey William, the reason Uber charges a cancellation fee is to compensate the driver for driving towards you. Sorta? So one of the last times I cancelled a ride the driver was 8 minutes away which, not ideal, was fine. The problem was the driver was sitting at a restaurant. After 15 minutes passed he was still 8 minutes away but occasionally his car icon would move a little here and there (but staying at the restaur…

Hey Kris, I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, but it sounds like you were able to get your situation resolved with the support team. The situation you describe happens pretty rarely--Uber has done over five billion trips in seven years, and typically drivers are fairly intent on finding their rider quickly and delivering a five-star experience. In the future, perhaps various improvements to the product c…

Are things so bad at Uber that they've decided putting a PR guy on HN is a worthwhile investment?
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