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I do, up to a point. My experience with "sharing economy" taxi companies is that they really, truly, do not care about their drivers or their customers. It's a

by elahd 10y ago

I do, up to a point. My experience with "sharing economy" taxi companies is that they really, truly, do not care about their drivers or their customers. It's a free for all where customers and drivers are basically left to sort things out themselves. IMO, this is where regulation comes in. In a city like New York, taxis are a part of our public infrastructure -- like buses, subways, etc. There should be baseline service guarantees set by transit regulators and adequate funding set aside for enforcement.

malandrew 10y ago
Day after day the people at these companies are working tirelessly to produce a system with as close to zero defects as possible. That's the only solution that cares about both riders and drivers in a two-sided market. Every conflict between those two sides can really only have solutions where one side wins and the other side loses. Compare the number of defects per 100,000 rides in their solution to the one they replaced, and you'll quickly see that they care very much about both riders and drivers, because there isn't any revenue without both sides of the market.
malandrew 10y ago
Furthermore, we're all on a hedonic treadmill here. The better these services get, the more intolerable we find the most minor of inconveniences. In the long run, everyone is winning in the free market: riders drivers and TNSs, even as our perception changes to notice new details that can be better.
- prostoalex 10y ago
  > The better these services get The trend seems to go the other way. Years back small perks such as free bottled water and plugged-in cables to charge your phone while you ride were not that uncommon with drivers striving to get to the 5-star ratings. Today getting a car that doesn't smell too much and has enough trunk space to transport two luggage bags (not a completely unreasonable expectation in case of an airport pick-up) is close to a miracle. My pet theory is that early successful drivers quit after running their numbers (that included costs on maintenance, wear and tear, extra tires, insurance that suddenly tripled when the car went way above the typical 12,500 annual miles), the current drivers looking to milk the system for as much as possible before the music stops.
qeternity 10y ago
You're pretty naive to think that the regulators or taxi companies care about you or the drivers anymore than Uber does.
duncan_bayne 10y ago
> It's a free for all where customers and drivers are basically left to sort things out themselves. And yet it works _better_ than when things are regulated, and people seem to prefer it.

by elahd 10y ago

malandrew 10y ago

Day after day the people at these companies are working tirelessly to produce a system with as close to zero defects as possible. That's the only solution that cares about both riders and drivers in a two-sided market. Every conflict between those two sides can really only have solutions where one side wins and the other side loses. Compare the number of defects per 100,000 rides in their solution to the one they replaced, and you'll quickly see that they care very much about both riders and drivers, because there isn't any revenue without both sides of the market.

malandrew 10y ago

Furthermore, we're all on a hedonic treadmill here. The better these services get, the more intolerable we find the most minor of inconveniences. In the long run, everyone is winning in the free market: riders drivers and TNSs, even as our perception changes to notice new details that can be better.

prostoalex 10y ago
> The better these services get The trend seems to go the other way. Years back small perks such as free bottled water and plugged-in cables to charge your phone while you ride were not that uncommon with drivers striving to get to the 5-star ratings. Today getting a car that doesn't smell too much and has enough trunk space to transport two luggage bags (not a completely unreasonable expectation in case of an airport pick-up) is close to a miracle. My pet theory is that early successful drivers quit after running their numbers (that included costs on maintenance, wear and tear, extra tires, insurance that suddenly tripled when the car went way above the typical 12,500 annual miles), the current drivers looking to milk the system for as much as possible before the music stops.

qeternity 10y ago

You're pretty naive to think that the regulators or taxi companies care about you or the drivers anymore than Uber does.

duncan_bayne 10y ago

> It's a free for all where customers and drivers are basically left to sort things out themselves. And yet it works _better_ than when things are regulated, and people seem to prefer it.