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We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

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Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#91

Post by hughrr »

whitepaint wrote: post #81
hughrr wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly the demand pricing model which is up to 5x the cost of other local services, the absolutely abhorrent non-existent customer service, the 25% of the time when you order an Uber and it gets cancelled, the transaction processing problems which seem to go in waves of plague and the buggy as hell app. And don't even get me started on Uber Eats which universally delivers cold, damaged food which is twice the price o…

I live in Europe and I didn't have such experiences at all (when in very few cases a car didn't arrive, I got refund very swiftly without any problems). Try other applications (Lyft, Bolt or whatever).

London here. That's one reason Uber sucks. The drivers are running Bolt and Uber and will pick the most profitable journey each time.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#92

Post by a-dub »

mftb wrote: post #31
simonbarker87 wrote: post #15

Fully agree with this. It seems like so many of the apps that come to dominate just make up for shortcomings unique to the US that then, with money, take over the rest of the west for no good reason other than scale to get 25 people at the top of those companies rich. I’ve never seen the need for Uber. Taxis have never been an issue in the UK and the most successful firms in the city I lived when Uber was starting ou…

You're sample is simply not representative. If we could go back in time to 5 years before Uber's founding, I could show you the taxi system on the entire west coast of the US was non-functional, from San Diego to Seattle, service, pricing, availability were all abysmal. FWIW, I actually agree that the "Gig Economy" is riddled with problems, but at least in the case of Taxi's where Uber started, the existing system wa…

as a counterpoint, there were places like nyc where the cabs and black cars were very reliable, fast and cheap and there were both drivers and family owned black car bases that were keeping the overheads rather than see them sent elsewhere.

many drivers were first generation immigrants.. owned homes in queens, were putting kids through college, looking at their name come up on the medallion wait-list in a few years as a retirement.

all that stopped with appcars.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#93

Post by rosndo »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #15

Fully agree with this. It seems like so many of the apps that come to dominate just make up for shortcomings unique to the US that then, with money, take over the rest of the west for no good reason other than scale to get 25 people at the top of those companies rich. I’ve never seen the need for Uber. Taxis have never been an issue in the UK and the most successful firms in the city I lived when Uber was starting ou…

> I’ve used Uber three or four times in my life and each time was a worse experience than a taxi.

Every time I call an Uber in London, an extremely professional and courteous driver shows up within a couple of minutes in a Mercedes S-class or equivalent, at a price only slightly above that of a black cab.

I doubt that you can find a better taxi service anywhere.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#94

Post by [deleted] »

a-dub wrote: post #75

this is what the real web3 is actually going to solve. out with globally centralized service dispatch and paupers doing the work on unencrypted user data siphons and in with decentralized identity, reputation and commerce systems that sell to small business. tools so small business can be as good as uber, everywhere.

[deleted]

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#95

Post by rosndo »

bartread wrote: post #90
simonbarker87 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you were unlucky but I never had an issue at all in Essex growing up or Newcastle where I spent 15 years. Also Blueline taxis had an app before Uber gained market relevance in the UK and it was great.

Ditto: Panther in Cambridge have always been reliable for the 20 years I've lived in the area. Same with the Ely firms. Last time I tried to get an Uber in central London in the early hours of the morning two or three drivers cancelled before one eventually showed up after I'd phoned Uber support to complain. I'm not sure the phone call is what did the trick - in fact I'm pretty sure it wasn't - but what triggered th…

This sounds really unusual, in my experience even Uber Lux usually shows up within a couple of minutes at 3-4 AM on weekdays.

I live in SW1 and end up in these situations on a weekly basis, I’ve never waited 30 minutes for a Uber.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#96

Post by shmde »

In India, the drivers at Uber Bikes(paid better than rapido), Rapido(bike ride startup) are paid sooo damn low by these companies that we have to give them 20-30% extra on top of the actual ride price. How low you might ask ? 40 cents to travel 3-4Kms in my city. One Gallon of petrol costs over 6 Dollars in India. They keep showing these ads that the price is low to attract the customers, pay the drivers even less and then The customer and the drivers have to make a deal outside of the platform before the ride is even initiated. I have no idea how will the drivers survive with the extremely low wage. I have switched back to public transport just like the good ol days before the uber era.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#97

Post by amaccuish »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #82
whitepaint wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you had exact experience with one taxi firm in Newcastle. Superb. I had this exact same experience with Uber in different countries and different cities. "I’ve never seen the need for Uber.". Well, you are one of very few, pal. I can tell you that for sure.

Alright chill your beans “pal”. It wasn’t just one company in Newcastle, growing up I never had an issues with taxis And as far as I know you still can’t book an Uber for the next day or whatever.

We had Blueline in Harrogate too. And there was Apple Taxis in Exeter with an app. Ideally Uber should just be an interface that ties these different companies together.

At least here in Berlin, when I book via Uber, I'm told more often than not that it won't be an Uber picking me up but a normal taxi.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#98

Post by lordnacho »

heurisko wrote: post #6
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #4

My take on the productivity paradox is software is a form of literacy . We have put a pen and paper onto every desktop and every pocket but almost no-one can read or write. Edit: And those that can find that only a tiny fraction of the fold is written down (accessible through the virtual cyber world). Amazon's secret to success was forcing every service to live behind a "public" API.

I disagree that writing software is comparable to literacy. I think it's more similar to any other profession, with a skillset you can learn if you're interested, or learn to get paid. Not everyone is interested in writing software, and that's fine. It has also never been easier to tinker with things, as root VMs are cheaply available, in comparison to 20 years ago, when you really were just given a cpanel interface,…

Literacy is known at the top for things like the Iliad or the works of Shakespeare, but the major benefits are actually much more mundane, like allowing doctors to write prescriptions or being able to have instructions in a manual.

Similarly, you may never write an OS or a AAA game, but being able to just automate a teeny tiny bit of your Excel spreadsheet, that's where software literacy will benefit the most people.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#99

Post by Cederfjard »

pokepim wrote: post #72
simonbarker87 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you were unlucky but I never had an issue at all in Essex growing up or Newcastle where I spent 15 years. Also Blueline taxis had an app before Uber gained market relevance in the UK and it was great.

If 87 in your nickname suggest your age then I guess you are not the target for Uber. I’m 10 years younger and almost all of my peers never used Taxi and take Uber/Lyft quite often.

That’s a bit of an absurd take. Uber entered the UK market in 2012 when he was 25 and you 15, surely he’d have been in the target demographic before you? I’m in a similar age bracket and everyone I know uses Uber rather than black cabs.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#100

Post by nstart »

shmde wrote: post #96

In India, the drivers at Uber Bikes(paid better than rapido), Rapido(bike ride startup) are paid sooo damn low by these companies that we have to give them 20-30% extra on top of the actual ride price. How low you might ask ? 40 cents to travel 3-4Kms in my city. One Gallon of petrol costs over 6 Dollars in India. They keep showing these ads that the price is low to attract the customers, pay the drivers even less an…

For some who might wonder how Uber attracts riders to the platform, it’s done through “bonus” payments. They give riders “goals” to achieve in terms of numbers of orders completed. Achieve these numbers each month and you get a bonus. The bonus is usually comparable to an expected monthly wage. Over time though, the goals go higher (Uber says the demand is more but fails to say the supply is more as well) and then the bonus goes down. Over time it just becomes an abusive relationship. But like a person trapped in a Ponzi scheme, many drivers believe they can do it if they work hard enough (they shoulder the blame) and they stick on.
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