Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Adder

You're completely discounting that users may prefer to be their own dispatcher.

Although whenever I've thought about using Uber or Lyft (which I've not done), I'm mostly amazed that existing cab companies hadn't already deployed these technologies on their own.

Then I remember that they don't face much in the way of competition.

Go to your favorite app vendor. Input the word "cab" or "taxi" or "ride" (wait, maybe not the last one). If you'd like, input your city, too. See what you find.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Go to your favorite app vendor. Input the word "cab" or "taxi" or "ride" (wait, maybe not the last one). If you'd like, input your city, too. See what you find.

My brother-in-law doesn't drive in a city that is severely lacking in mass transit, so he was very used to the taxi apps before Uber came along. Now, he exclusively uses Uber. It's faster, more reliable, and there's no question at all about how payment will work out.

More interestingly, friends and family who previously never took taxis have started to use Uber regularly on nights that they know they may be out drinking. Also, I can think of at least five instances in the last six months where a too drunk to drive friend was put in an Uber by other friends, again without worry about how it was going to be paid for. I don't have the need (Graham doesn't drink, so I always have a designated driver), but I wasn't surprised at the claim that duis are down in cities with Uber.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Most of them could use a good stint out in the countryside, Maoist cultural revolution style, for a little while (perhaps not quite to the famine state the Chinese took it). Send them all to Cuba and let Castro reeducate them.

Most of them could use a spell with Rick Grimes.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

My brother-in-law doesn't drive in a city that is severely lacking in mass transit, so he was very used to the taxi apps before Uber came along. Now, he exclusively uses Uber. It's faster, more reliable, and there's no question at all about how payment will work out.

More interestingly, friends and family who previously never took taxis have started to use Uber regularly on nights that they know they may be out drinking. Also, I can think of at least five instances in the last six months where a too drunk to drive friend was put in an Uber by other friends, again without worry about how it was going to be paid for. I don't have the need (Graham doesn't drink, so I always have a designated driver), but I wasn't surprised at the claim that duis are down in cities with Uber.

Just don't get into an accident.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Go to your favorite app vendor. Input the word "cab" or "taxi" or "ride" (wait, maybe not the last one). If you'd like, input your city, too. See what you find.

I was using taxi magic before uber. It sucked in comparison and it's replacement still does.

ETA: that taxi companies have responded with failed attempts to match them is strong support for my point and a major problem for yours. It's clear that uber challenged an existing oligopoly, and the oligopoly doesn't like it. What's not clear is why so many people seem eager to defend the oligarchs.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Adder

It could have, but that would have left in place the market-distorting restriction on supply that the medallion system represents and thereby substantially reduced its ability to be welfare-enhancing.

Is the phrase "But for ..." somehow difficult to understand?

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

What's are the key differences between doing it on the Uber platform or over a phone or radio through a dispatch system?

I see just one big one, and it doesn't help Uber: With the traditional cabbies, of course, you pay the cabbie, but with Uber, you pay Uber and Uber then pays the cabbie - doesn't that simple fact shift the legal analysis against Uber rather than the other way around? Why shouldn't Uber be focused on things like withholding taxes, hours (which they track) and all the other accouterments of employment?

In my experience in SF, the average wait time for someone to pick up the phone when you call varies between a few seconds (early on Sunday morning, say) and forever (say, Friday night or other times when people actually want cabs). Also, if you are in a part of town where cabs don't like to go, you'll be assured a cab will be there "soon" but it's more like "eventually, if at all." Also, scheduling an actual pick-up time borders on the impossible.

The people I see using Uber don't have these problems, as far as I can tell.

The problem is inherent in the medallion system. You compare cab companies/Uber to neighborhood punks/the mob. I would compare it to a monopoly that used government to enhance their wealth, and some upstarts that blew past that.

I'm fine with being upset about Uber's disregard of wage and hour laws, etc. --b but the cab companies do exactly the same thing, and there was essentially no discussion of that for so long as they held medallions and would refuse to lease them to troublemakers. Being put on the ropes was the only thing that made them give a shit about worker safety and rights.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

One more thing. Bob Seger had it right. Lincoln? Burgundy? Ugggh. Let me hang with the Jeep/Rioja or Porsche/Bordeaux set any day.

don't get the Seger reference, wasn't his commercial for Chevy?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

What's are the key differences between doing it on the Uber platform or over a phone or radio through a dispatch system?

I see just one big one, and it doesn't help Uber: With the traditional cabbies, of course, you pay the cabbie, but with Uber, you pay Uber and Uber then pays the cabbie - doesn't that simple fact shift the legal analysis against Uber rather than the other way around? Why shouldn't Uber be focused on things like withholding taxes, hours (which they track) and all the other accouterments of employment?

fuck these details, we don't have cabs in detroit except around a hotel. I need uber.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I'm impressed you can say that with a straight face. So this is all for the public good, and not because they're greedy bastards who want to make a lot of money (NTTAWWT)?

trifecta of replying to GGG! you realize we have basic computer tech only because of greedy bastards who wanted to make a lot of money?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

My brother-in-law doesn't drive in a city that is severely lacking in mass transit, so he was very used to the taxi apps before Uber came along. Now, he exclusively uses Uber. It's faster, more reliable, and there's no question at all about how payment will work out.

More interestingly, friends and family who previously never took taxis have started to use Uber regularly on nights that they know they may be out drinking. Also, I can think of at least five instances in the last six months where a too drunk to drive friend was put in an Uber by other friends, again without worry about how it was going to be paid for. I don't have the need (Graham doesn't drink, so I always have a designated driver), but I wasn't surprised at the claim that duis are down in cities with Uber.

thank you

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

The people I see using Uber don't have these problems, as far as I can tell.

my daughter and I went to a hipster show near the end of the the L line- coming out we didn't want to do the circles that the subways would require to get home. There were no cabs there, but we were in an uber car within 5 minutes.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

My brother-in-law doesn't drive in a city that is severely lacking in mass transit, so he was very used to the taxi apps before Uber came along. Now, he exclusively uses Uber. It's faster, more reliable, and there's no question at all about how payment will work out.

More interestingly, friends and family who previously never took taxis have started to use Uber regularly on nights that they know they may be out drinking. Also, I can think of at least five instances in the last six months where a too drunk to drive friend was put in an Uber by other friends, again without worry about how it was going to be paid for. I don't have the need (Graham doesn't drink, so I always have a designated driver), but I wasn't surprised at the claim that duis are down in cities with Uber.

I wonder whether car services like this are having a marked effect on drunk-driving accidents and deaths. Many people I know, who in previous years would have driven to dinner or parties or clubs knowing that they were going to be driving buzzed (if not outright hammered or high) on the way home, now rely on Uber. They know they'll be able to get a ride quickly, without hassle and without being kept on hold by a cab dispatcher.

Uber used technology, plus the need of many people to make some money working odd hours, to provide a service that actually works. That's what is making the cab companies angry -- not the fact that Uber isn't giving their drivers comp and benefits that the cab companies also do not give their lessees (I mean, drivers).

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Interesting that when I let lose on a rant about how the UMC is gutting the economy for its own benefit, the thing everyone (other than Sebby) focused on was defending the UMC from being pejoratively referred to as Uber-Users rather than any of the substantive points I made about the UMC or economy.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

I found the language of tweets out of the Middle East interesting overnight.

Very common rhetoric was "I am Mutah", taking off on the I am Charlie, and there were a lot (I mean, a ton) of references to Muhammad abu Khdeir's similar death at the hands of Israeli terrorists last year.