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I never said they were perfect but pretty much every single person who defends Uber falsely claims that Uber is complying and/or not engaging in activity that i

I never said they were perfect but pretty much every single person who defends Uber falsely claims that Uber is complying and/or not engaging in activity that is shady. And when it comes to things like insurance and background checks, Uber is worse than the Taxi companies in many areas. [e.g. Houston ]

criddell 11y ago
I think a more interesting question revolves around the effectiveness of regulations. Maybe it's time to deregulate the Taxi business and see how things go. If there's a big problem, reintroduce regulations that make sense.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  Well would you agree hiring felons that then rape drunk women they pick up via Uber is a problem?
  - yazaddaruvala 11y ago
    Anyone raping anyone is horrendous and a tragic atrocity. It should never be allowed to happen! However, we don't live in Minority Report. You do not and cannot know if someone is going to commit a crime, regardless of their past actions. Discarding "innocent until proven guilty" is also an atrocity, that shouldn't be allowed to happen. While difficult to accept, it really is impossible to compare two atrocities and declare one is more important than the other. On a different note: Improving realtime safety, inside of an Uber, is something you will get unanimous support for. If what you're looking for is Uber combined with http://www.companionapp.io/ http://www.companionapp.io/ that is worthwhile and I hope Uber prioritizes this feature next over all others. Infact, if anyone reads this and has the appropriate connections to get this idea into the hands of Uber's executives, it is really worth Uber's time to get safety right. Allowing women/children(even men) to opt-in to pre-set a designated "Companion" on trips taken between 8pm-8am(configurable) is worth investing the three or so dev months it would take them to build this out.
    - fweespeech 11y ago
      > Anyone raping anyone is horrendous and a tragic atrocity. It should never be allowed to happen! Yet it can be somewhat prevented with background checks.
      - criddell 11y ago
        It happens with regular cab companies too: http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/18/11680790/ http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/18/11680790/ http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-brooklyn-woman-recounts-traumatic-rape-taxi-article-1.2101285 http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-broo... http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/07/former_yellow_cab_driver_sente.html http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/07/former_yellow_ca... AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US.
        fweespeech 11y ago
        > AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US. They do a cheaper less effective version than is required for cab drivers in many areas (e.g. Houston)
        criddell 11y ago
        And there are still problems, right? http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/11/11254424/ http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/11/11254424/ Overall, I wonder if the crime rate among Uber rides is more or less than the crime rate among Taxi rides?

criddell 11y ago

I think a more interesting question revolves around the effectiveness of regulations. Maybe it's time to deregulate the Taxi business and see how things go. If there's a big problem, reintroduce regulations that make sense.

fweespeech 11y ago
Well would you agree hiring felons that then rape drunk women they pick up via Uber is a problem?
- yazaddaruvala 11y ago
  Anyone raping anyone is horrendous and a tragic atrocity. It should never be allowed to happen! However, we don't live in Minority Report. You do not and cannot know if someone is going to commit a crime, regardless of their past actions. Discarding "innocent until proven guilty" is also an atrocity, that shouldn't be allowed to happen. While difficult to accept, it really is impossible to compare two atrocities and declare one is more important than the other. On a different note: Improving realtime safety, inside of an Uber, is something you will get unanimous support for. If what you're looking for is Uber combined with http://www.companionapp.io/ http://www.companionapp.io/ that is worthwhile and I hope Uber prioritizes this feature next over all others. Infact, if anyone reads this and has the appropriate connections to get this idea into the hands of Uber's executives, it is really worth Uber's time to get safety right. Allowing women/children(even men) to opt-in to pre-set a designated "Companion" on trips taken between 8pm-8am(configurable) is worth investing the three or so dev months it would take them to build this out.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    > Anyone raping anyone is horrendous and a tragic atrocity. It should never be allowed to happen! Yet it can be somewhat prevented with background checks.
    - criddell 11y ago
      It happens with regular cab companies too: http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/18/11680790/ http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/18/11680790/ http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-brooklyn-woman-recounts-traumatic-rape-taxi-article-1.2101285 http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-broo... http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/07/former_yellow_cab_driver_sente.html http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/07/former_yellow_ca... AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US.
      - fweespeech 11y ago
        > AFAIK, Uber does do a background check for drivers in the US. They do a cheaper less effective version than is required for cab drivers in many areas (e.g. Houston)
        criddell 11y ago
        And there are still problems, right? http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/11/11254424/ http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/11/11254424/ Overall, I wonder if the crime rate among Uber rides is more or less than the crime rate among Taxi rides?