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[onadesertedisland]

Took UberX to DFW, was efficient and easy, and the driver took the quickest, safest route.

Took a taxi home because of their cartel, and the driver was a salty asshat who took the long way to milk the fare, and then sighed like I was asking for his first born when I paid with a credit card.

Taxis suck. If people liked their services so much they'd have nothing to worry about from Uber or Lyft.

 

[Cyan]

For rich people reasons, taxi regulations have to be written in such a way that they don't apply to towncars (liveried drivers). Generally this means that the regulations apply to drivers that are not chartered beforehand. Uber exploits this loophole by allowing you to charter a driver beforehand using your mobile phone, i.e., immediately upon needing a car.

Ah, say no more.

 

[Calamari41]

There have been complaints


http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-new-years-eve-surge-pricing-2014-1

Thanks for the article.

To me, though, this is essentially the same as them saying "sorry, there are no taxis." I used to get that all the time, especially on a day like New Year's Eve or Halloween.

And believe me, I may not have been willing to pay the extreme $350 from the worst example in the article, but I was stuck in Venice Beach one Halloween and would have seriously considered a drastically high fare to not have to walk more than an hour through rough neighborhoods to get home at 2 AM.

 

[Ether_Snake]

The following apply to cabs but not to Uber and Lyft:

• No regulation of rates: Uber and Lyft can charge as much as they want
• No liability insurance (although some drivers may have this)
• No background checks (Uber says they do this voluntarily)
• No vehicle safety inspections, what this really means varies by city
• No limit to how many vehicles can be run. A taxi company is limited by their number of medallions, and the overall number of cabs in the system is limited by how many medallions are issued. Lyft is not limited by this.

This can be solved really easily! If you think like a person who lives in the 21st century.

You could enter the car's license plate, and get reviews. If you fuck with customers, you are screwed. It would take one click and bam, you know if the guy can be trusted.
Heck, build that into the app. Star rating for all available pseudo-taxis!
And this alone solves pretty much everything else as far as the user is concerned. If your car is shit, that's your problem, it will show up in the rating unless it's not impactful to the user.

This is much simpler than a bunch of regulations. But technology is perceived through dumb 20th century brains.

 

[sooperkool]

i thought ratings were already built into the app.

 

[Calamari41]

They are, for sure. And what's more, Uber usually contacts you if you give a bad score.