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Travis is right on a technicality they did not lower Uber Black prices much if any. What they did instead was coerced Uber Black drivers to take Uber X request.

Travis is right on a technicality they did not lower Uber Black prices much if any. What they did instead was coerced Uber Black drivers to take Uber X request. Yes drivers can reject Uber X request, but if you reject a certain amount of Uber rides, they kick you off their system. Probably why the driver is complaining about going bankrupt, you need a luxury car to drive Uber Black, but if you're stuck picking Uber X fares you'll lose money.

unityByFreedom 10y ago
Thanks for the explanation. This sounds a lot like mortgage crisis. There, borrowers said they didn't understand the terms of loans that had changing rates (ARMs), and banks said they didn't mislead anyone because the terms were in the contract. These fights explain why we have government regulation and education to sort things out. We can't have the rich constantly taking advantage of the poor, and we can't have the poor be so uneducated as to not understand the risk of a NINA loan. It isn't good for the growth of the country.
erdojo 10y ago
Are you sure they still do this? I haven't gotten a Black Car for an X fare in several years. Used to be fairly common, now never. Before the Susan Fowler allegations, I was a 2-3x per day rider (I'm now mostly using Lyft).
- rockarage 10y ago
  Yes they do, however in some cities there are so many Uber X drivers so Uber does not have to send Uber X request to Uber Black drivers.
  - erdojo 10y ago
    Got it. I'm usually in San Francisco, LA or Reno, so that makes sense.
- randyrand 10y ago
  Not all Lyft employees are saints either. I'm worried when the next Lyft scandel happens, ill have no good taxi options.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    There is that. I have a taxi driver who's super awesome and I call him for airport rides. However a) I can't just call him adhoc b) he's good so he's busy. So sometimes I don't get him. Then I just plan on a Lyft.
xapata 10y ago
> reject Uber rides ... kick off the system I believe it simply sets you to inactive temporarily, because you're obviously not picking up rides and you're slowing down the rider matching process.
- st3v3r 10y ago
  Which is absolutely wrong. They're deciding, as a contractor, to not take jobs which are not worth their time. As a contractor, they're supposed to be able to do that without punishment. If Uber is doing this, it is a punishment.
  - xapata 10y ago
    > punishment There's some balance between punishment and keeping the rider experience pleasant. I don't want to wait 10 minutes to get matched because of nearby lurking Uber Black cars passing on my Uber X request. If a driver ignores several requests in a row, they're clearly taking a break. It's a feature, not a punishment.
    - prostoalex 10y ago
      > don't want to wait 10 minutes to get matched because of nearby lurking Uber Black cars passing on my Uber X request. Uber has a solution in place to deal with this, and it's surge pricing.
      - xapata 10y ago
        I wonder if surge is activated by a lack of drivers or a lack of drivers who accept rides. My initial thought was that it was based on the number of active drivers, so making a driver inactive would take the pricing higher for the remaining drivers.
    - st3v3r 10y ago
      No, that's not clear. And if you don't like that you can't get a ride in time, switch to another network.

unityByFreedom 10y ago

Thanks for the explanation. This sounds a lot like mortgage crisis. There, borrowers said they didn't understand the terms of loans that had changing rates (ARMs), and banks said they didn't mislead anyone because the terms were in the contract. These fights explain why we have government regulation and education to sort things out. We can't have the rich constantly taking advantage of the poor, and we can't have the poor be so uneducated as to not understand the risk of a NINA loan. It isn't good for the growth of the country.

erdojo 10y ago

Are you sure they still do this? I haven't gotten a Black Car for an X fare in several years. Used to be fairly common, now never. Before the Susan Fowler allegations, I was a 2-3x per day rider (I'm now mostly using Lyft).

rockarage 10y ago
Yes they do, however in some cities there are so many Uber X drivers so Uber does not have to send Uber X request to Uber Black drivers.
- erdojo 10y ago
  Got it. I'm usually in San Francisco, LA or Reno, so that makes sense.
randyrand 10y ago
Not all Lyft employees are saints either. I'm worried when the next Lyft scandel happens, ill have no good taxi options.
- r00fus 10y ago
  There is that. I have a taxi driver who's super awesome and I call him for airport rides. However a) I can't just call him adhoc b) he's good so he's busy. So sometimes I don't get him. Then I just plan on a Lyft.

xapata 10y ago

> reject Uber rides ... kick off the system I believe it simply sets you to inactive temporarily, because you're obviously not picking up rides and you're slowing down the rider matching process.

st3v3r 10y ago
Which is absolutely wrong. They're deciding, as a contractor, to not take jobs which are not worth their time. As a contractor, they're supposed to be able to do that without punishment. If Uber is doing this, it is a punishment.
- xapata 10y ago
  > punishment There's some balance between punishment and keeping the rider experience pleasant. I don't want to wait 10 minutes to get matched because of nearby lurking Uber Black cars passing on my Uber X request. If a driver ignores several requests in a row, they're clearly taking a break. It's a feature, not a punishment.
  - prostoalex 10y ago
    > don't want to wait 10 minutes to get matched because of nearby lurking Uber Black cars passing on my Uber X request. Uber has a solution in place to deal with this, and it's surge pricing.
    - xapata 10y ago
      I wonder if surge is activated by a lack of drivers or a lack of drivers who accept rides. My initial thought was that it was based on the number of active drivers, so making a driver inactive would take the pricing higher for the remaining drivers.
  - st3v3r 10y ago
    No, that's not clear. And if you don't like that you can't get a ride in time, switch to another network.