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Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

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Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#61

Post by TeMPOraL »

snitko wrote: post #16
fx85ms wrote: post #5

The title would be better if it were "Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio's plan to block them from doing business". I think we really need to fight the notion that Uber promotes "ride sharing", whatever that even means now. Uber has shown that its service is anything but sharing - it is plain old taxi with a spiffy app and no labour protection, and where their "employees" are merely treated as another replaceable contr…

And yet people choose to use them and pay them money. But no, we must protect those willing customers from the dangers of doing business freely and having an actuall choice, instead of paying extra to a violent monopoly of taxi drivers who'd rather crash other's cars than compete honestly.

Just because some people are willing to pay for something, doesn't mean it's right. People in general are very happy to pay for things that have huge externalities not directly affecting them.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#62

Post by dbcooper »

Caught a taxi tonight in Paris. 5 euro but jacked up to a minimum of 7, driver claimed he couldn't give me change. He spent 5 minutes pretending to have no change, then gave me 2 euros in coins plus a 10 in exchange for a 20. Great.

Taxi services have practically begged for Uber etc to destroy them.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#63

Post by dotBen »

s73v3r wrote: post #3

Why are we still calling this "ridesharing"? Isn't it pretty clear to everyone that there is no ride sharing going on?

Uber doesn't describe the service as 'ridesharing'. That's a term the media uses or very occasionally we will use if referring to (for example) "Texas Ride Sharing Bill" where that's the official name of the legislation.

(Source: I'm an Uber employee)

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#64

Post by [deleted] »

jrockway wrote: post #48

I don't really like Uber's business practices but they do fill an essential niche in New York City. A couple years ago, the city allowed independent car services to paint their cars green and take street hails. They previously did this, of course, but it wasn't legal. And of course, not every "black car" became a green cab, so this still happens. It's the standard way to get around the outer boroughs of New York. I w…

[deleted]

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#65

Post by danieltillett »

The thing about Uber I don’t understand is how they are going to defend their monopoly once they acquire it. Assuming they eventually win all the legal battles and drive all other taxi and taxi-like services out of business then how are they going to stop anyone else from entering their market?

Each transport market is effectively isolated (you don’t hail a driver from SF to get around NYC). This means any new entrant can achieve critical mass in a market at a relatively low cost (especially if they start with small towns/cities). If Uber do manage to get to the point where they can start extracting monopoly profits they have no means of defending these markets other than competing on unit price. Consumers are going to win big time out of Uber, but I can’t see how their investors will (at least their long term investors). Someone far smarter than me must have answered this?

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#66

Post by jrcii »

zschallz wrote: post #59
jrockway wrote: post #48

I don't really like Uber's business practices but they do fill an essential niche in New York City. A couple years ago, the city allowed independent car services to paint their cars green and take street hails. They previously did this, of course, but it wasn't legal. And of course, not every "black car" became a green cab, so this still happens. It's the standard way to get around the outer boroughs of New York. I w…

Even the yellow cabs within Manhattan would not take me places within Manhattan when hailed. They would stop and ask where to-- when I told them where (touristy areas) they'd just drive off.

As a seasoned New Yorker I've learned that the best response to "where to?" is to silently get in the cab.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#67

Post by toomuchtodo »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #51
ethanbond wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a non-sequitur. The business model was made illegal by people who were voted into office to make business models like these illegal. Uber isn't wrong to push the letter of the law, but no one should be surprised that it will take a little bit of time for the law to adapt to this. Uber's vicious and cavalier attitude towards law in general is really disgraceful. This seems like a classic "ends justify…

It's just a hunch at this point, but I suspect the end game for personal transportation a few decades down the road will be government-provided rides. Cities, counties, whatever municipal entities providing autonomous vehicles at subsidized rates, or maybe even "free". These are the entities paying for the infrastructure, after all, and once voters don't own vehicles, the argument will start to be made that governmen…

This is the future I want to see.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#68

Post by princeb »

SilasX wrote: post #11
rquantz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a company with an illegal business model stayed under the radar until they got big enough that they could combat the legal challenges to their illegal business model. Always a pleasure to watch.

Yishan Wong explained it well in a Quora answer about the law being "lazily evaluated" and how the political realities can change by the time the law comes after a business in earnest: https://www.quora.com/Why-has-Airbnb-not-been-sued-or-regula...

sometimes I wish a brave soul will do the same with the financial industry (w.r.t. institutional regulation) but alas the law there is nowhere close to lazy eval.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#69

Post by dnautics »

danhak wrote: post #40
ethanbond wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a non-sequitur. The business model was made illegal by people who were voted into office to make business models like these illegal. Uber isn't wrong to push the letter of the law, but no one should be surprised that it will take a little bit of time for the law to adapt to this. Uber's vicious and cavalier attitude towards law in general is really disgraceful. This seems like a classic "ends justify…

> The business model was made illegal by people who were voted into office to make business models like these illegal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Although I am a big proponent of spreading the word about Regulatory capture, it's not quite that simple. A lot of the regulations that exist for taxis really do make sense, given a few contexts:

1) you don't know who is coming to pick you up 2) the ability to contact your former driver in the event of a bad experience is almost nil 3) you have to trust the taximeter 4) taxis have to jockey for a visual hail 5) there is no guarantee that a dispatched taxi will actually arrive.

while there are concerns (e.g. safety, insurance) that do warrant a strong rational basis for regulation that are in common between taxis and lyft/uber, etc - a lot of the regulations that are in place do not carry over and those shouldn't apply to the lyft/uber.

To its credit, the state of california seems to be making an (if slow) rapprochement between the existing regulation set and a reasonable set... Don't know about other places.

Re: Uber has defeated Bill de Blasio’s plan to rein them in

#70

Post by arthurcolle »

jrcii wrote: post #66
zschallz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the yellow cabs within Manhattan would not take me places within Manhattan when hailed. They would stop and ask where to-- when I told them where (touristy areas) they'd just drive off.

As a seasoned New Yorker I've learned that the best response to "where to?" is to silently get in the cab.

When do you drop the tidbit of information related to the whole reason you got in?

/just moved to NYC

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