71–80 of 143 posts
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One time I went to McDonalds and the pickles were all mixed up with the mustard. This industry really needs a regulatory overhaul.
Luckily food supply is heavily regulated and regulators take cross contamination seriously. Contact your regulators. If you're going to snark you should at least pick a good example.
To me, this seems to speak volumes about the viability of Uber's business model in the long run. If they can't compete because additional background checks and insurance are needed, is it really a $40B company?
It's not that they couldn't afford to do the additional background checks and insurance it's obviously a statement they are making and that statement fits right into the 'Randian' views that Travis Kalanick has already been accused of. He thinks that Kansas will come crawling back after Uber is gone but more likely competitors that are willing to deal with regulation (that is probably righteous) will fill the gap. ht…
If my recent experience is anything, Uber needs some serious regulation. I live in SF, and was flying out of OAK. I had used Uber only once before, a long time ago; but this time, I suggested to the wife that we use Uber again. We had to leave SF at 7:15AM - 7:30AM or so. Around 7:15 I pulled up the app, and saw that there were several cars around (as they usually are). I requested an UberX; punched in the destinatio…
This is one of the unfortunate side effects of a car service pulling out of a city like Lyft did in Houston. Now only Uber remains which, despite its flaws, is light years ahead of the standard yellow cab service.
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SF provides great transportation (via BART) to its own airport and decent transportation (also via BART) to OAK.
If I didn't have a large suitcase, I would have definitely taken the BART. But getting to a BART station is a PITA if you have some luggage.
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My thought exactly. Or, they are mixing an agenda (low to no regulation) with business, choosing to leave a market rather than operate in it's rules.
If this is the case, Uber is being either colossally stupid or both colossally stupid and colossally evil here. You see, big businesses actually love regulation. It raises the barrier to entry and prices smaller competitors out of the market. The only companies who don't like regulation are a) small businesses who risk being priced out of the market and b) monopolists or near-monopolists, who have no competitors left…
But how much is insurance for that period going to cost? Is Uber even going to notice the difference?
Or is the problem that a 'work vehicle' is going to have no insurance the entire time it's being driven around? Even when it's not actually being used for Uber? Now that sounds unfair to make Uber pay for.
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Or, you know, don't use Uber. I get that you had a bad experience, but the response to every bad experience should not be regulation. "Surge pricing" is no more a scam than any other market-based pricing mechanism. To be clear, I'm mixed on Uber overall, and I do think they need some regulation, but not with regard to pricing, coverage, or response time. Those are good fits for self-regulating markets. I'm more conce…
> "Surge pricing" is no more a scam than any other market-based pricing mechanism. Surge pricing on an unknown fare (metered) is actually quite ridiculous. For contrast, when I order a Lyft line in Manhattan, it gives me an exact price quote ( not an estimate, but the exact quote) before I order the ride, taking all surges into account. This means I have perfect knowledge of what the price is going to be before I dec…
The opposite is actually clear to me. Lyft in SF previously had the functionality you describe Uber in Manhattan having. You put your destination in, it gives you an exact price, you decide whether to call it. When Lyft Line (the carpooling variant) was introduced, that feature was actually removed, and now with a standard Lyft ride there is no way to know your fare in advance (though there is now with Lyft Line).
In a similar vain, Uber gives a max fare on Uber Pool (so you know at most what it will cost, guaranteed). Uber also does do fare estimates on UberX and other rides. I've heard from a few drivers that they may have avoided giving exact fares in advance on UberX and others because people tend to want to use them a little bit more flexibly than get from point a to b (Stop and pick up a friend on the way, for instance).
Point of all of this being, it's not clear to me that either company is committed to providing or not providing price quotes. I think we're still in the early stages of experimentation, with features being added and removed and changed between locations all the time, and I don't think we can yet characterize what either company is committed to doing or not.
Uber has been having similar regulatory fights in Kansas City, which recently passed ordinances that Uber claimed would make it prohibitive to do business there ( http://goo.gl/cXlhzb ). Uber made claims that "thousands of jobs" would be lost in the move, despite the fact that its competitors (Lyft, etc.) would abide by the new rules and continue to operate. It seems a little silly to talk about the jobs of your cont…
Kansas City, MO and Uber have worked out their differences. I believe Uber will provide background check info to the city about their drivers, and pay a flat fee to cover all their drivers in the city. http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2015/04/23/kansas...
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I have been living in NYC for ten years. I use cabs constantly. This has happened to be exactly one time. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I think the idea that this is common for NYC cabbies to do is really outdated.
More anecdata: this happens to me continually. I have successfully reported at least half a dozen drivers in as many months for refusing to go to bushwick.
How despotic! Lawmakers demanding background checks and insurance from taxi drivers! This is outrageous. Where is muh freedom? I want to be able to hire a taxi with a rapist driver! http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/...