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LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
81–90 of 400 posts
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#82There are actually taxi cooperative or call center that have their own app. But they're each limited to one city. What they need to do is get together to release a high-quality app that works all over the world by relying on the local taxi call center partner.
Mytaxi (mytaxi.com) is a popular taxi app in germany. Since they are using "real" taxis, they get around all the problems Uber and Lyft face.
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#83>, pay cash upon arrival. Paying cash is a non-starter. I haven't been to a bank ATM in over 10 years. I don't even know what my card's secret PIN is to make a cash withdrawal. Being virtually cashless by using credit-cards for everything is very common in professional circles. A credit-card is simpler and the exact line-item amount showing up on my monthly statement helps me keep track of travel expenses. (Also, man…
> Paying cash is a non-starter. That certainly depends on the country. Good luck living cashless in Europe, especially in Germany where virtually no small store, food vendor etc. has a CC reader.
Really? That's pretty surprising - I live in Barcelona, and I use cards 99% of the time, and in the UK it was even easier. Even taxis here have card machines, and every small shop definitely does. The only holdouts are the occasional tiny old wine bar here and there, but even most of them have moved with the times.
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#84It's definitely an interesting idea. Though one of the major features that I love about Uber/Lyft is that I don't have to worry about paying in cash.
I wouldn't want to deal with cash. That's always a pain and also insecure for both the driver and for the passenger. it should leverage some online payment (even sg. like Bitcoin)
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#85>, pay cash upon arrival. Paying cash is a non-starter. I haven't been to a bank ATM in over 10 years. I don't even know what my card's secret PIN is to make a cash withdrawal. Being virtually cashless by using credit-cards for everything is very common in professional circles. A credit-card is simpler and the exact line-item amount showing up on my monthly statement helps me keep track of travel expenses. (Also, man…
That is a first world problem. Majority of the the world does not have a credit card or real access to a card. Majority of world pays with cash. A statement like this is similar to when I see American abroad and shocked that places don't take Amex for purchases. It's a very first world thing to even own an Amex let alone use it for a small purchases below $50.
>That is a first world problem.
But owning a smartphone with a touch screen (instead of tin cans connected by a string) and having the luxury of choosing between Uber vs LibreTaxi (instead of waving your arms on the street to hail a taxi) is also a 1st world problem. If we're discussing percentage of world market, 51%+ do not have combined attributes of (1) smartphone ownership[1] + (2) Uber availability + (3) preference for paying cash.
For customers, one of the key attractions to Uber is that drivers can't play the game of "oh sorry my credit card reader is broken, you'll have to pay cash". In other words, many customers deliberately choose Uber as way of not having to pay cash. (This point is more relevant in Uber-USA and not Uber-India that allows cash payment.)
The developer name I see on the LibreTaxi page is "Roman Pushkin, San Francisco, California" and since he's based in a 1st-world location, it seems like the Uber-vs-LibreTaxi has relevance to cashless people like me. If he intends for the service to be used mostly by 3rd-world countries where cash is king, I misunderstood the point of the Uber vs LibreTaxi comparison.
EDIT ADD 40-minutes later: I found author's comment on the intended market of customers: "Just started http://libretaxi.org - uber alternative for communities and remote regions." : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13328052
also see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13530355: "Uber, a company evaluated at $60B, will unlikely go to remote Siberian region where I was born."
Conclusion: LibreTaxi isn't really a competitor to Uber -- it's more of an alternative to remote villages having no ride sharing at all and therefore cash payments makes perfect sense for that market.
[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/203734/global-smartphone...
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#86>, pay cash upon arrival. Paying cash is a non-starter. I haven't been to a bank ATM in over 10 years. I don't even know what my card's secret PIN is to make a cash withdrawal. Being virtually cashless by using credit-cards for everything is very common in professional circles. A credit-card is simpler and the exact line-item amount showing up on my monthly statement helps me keep track of travel expenses. (Also, man…
Not having to carry cash is the one main reason those apps work well. Otherwise, just call/hail a cab. Done.
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#87Rideconnect.com, A way to create your own ride network was posted here a few days ago.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13502133
All face chicken and egg problem but would be nice to explore uber alternatives
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#88>, pay cash upon arrival. Paying cash is a non-starter. I haven't been to a bank ATM in over 10 years. I don't even know what my card's secret PIN is to make a cash withdrawal. Being virtually cashless by using credit-cards for everything is very common in professional circles. A credit-card is simpler and the exact line-item amount showing up on my monthly statement helps me keep track of travel expenses. (Also, man…
> Paying cash is a non-starter. That certainly depends on the country. Good luck living cashless in Europe, especially in Germany where virtually no small store, food vendor etc. has a CC reader.
There are huge differences in Europe.
In Scandinavia you can pay with credit card almost everywhere, starting from a food truck at a festival. They'll have a tablet and a credit card reader connected. Some places don't take cash at all.
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#89About the trust and reputation issue, I think blockchain technologies could play an important role for decentralized services like this. I would like to see a multipurpose reputation / trust system based on the blockchain, exposing all the needed features as a simple library and / or HTTP API, ready to be implemented by apps and websites. I think we are still in a period where a lot of products are built either in a…
I think most of this "blockchain talk" is just nonsense. Uber/lyft similar are very complex services, which are pretty pain in the ass to maintain and develop. What would be the incentive to develop such an app in decentralized fashion? What if there are problems between rider and driver, who will act as a middleman to resolve issues? What about basic support etc?
Re: LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft
#90About the trust and reputation issue, I think blockchain technologies could play an important role for decentralized services like this. I would like to see a multipurpose reputation / trust system based on the blockchain, exposing all the needed features as a simple library and / or HTTP API, ready to be implemented by apps and websites. I think we are still in a period where a lot of products are built either in a…
I think most of this "blockchain talk" is just nonsense. Uber/lyft similar are very complex services, which are pretty pain in the ass to maintain and develop. What would be the incentive to develop such an app in decentralized fashion? What if there are problems between rider and driver, who will act as a middleman to resolve issues? What about basic support etc?
Cheaper prices for one thing.