3 ms·
at what point do we stop calling these companies "ridesharing"? The idea of ridesharing and the sharing economy seems completely incompatible with Uber, Lyft an
by beaconstudios 10y ago
at what point do we stop calling these companies "ridesharing"? The idea of ridesharing and the sharing economy seems completely incompatible with Uber, Lyft and friends, who are all basically private car hire firms.
- qeternity 10y agoWelcome to the "gig economy"
- notatoad 10y ago"ridesharing" is just one of those words now, it doesn't mean "ride sharing", it means a private car hire firm. I wouldn't expect that to change.
- pavlov 10y agoI keep waiting for pimps to rebrand their business as "body sharing".
- vuln 10y agoThere are 'Professional Cuddlers' $80-100/hr.
- mseebach 10y agoGreat example, because euphemisms were certainly never a thing in prostitution (and the word you're looking for is 'escort').
- pavlov 10y agoI'm not sure what you're trying to say with the sarcasm. The entire point of the joke was that using counterfactual euphemisms like "ridesharing" is a sign of an industry that's on shaky legal ground -- and "escort" is indeed the textbook example. Thanks for explaining the joke, I guess?
- jlebrech 10y agothe only true ridesharing apps are for longer distances such as blablacar.
- nkrisc 10y agoWe should have stopped a long time ago. There's no sharing going on other than me sharing my money with them and in return them sharing a ride. It's like calling a grocery store a "food sharing" company.
- ithinkinstereo 10y agoIt's increasingly turning to "share-driving" (ala Sharecropping), especially with the predatory leasing programs being offered by Uber/Lyft. Get your side-hustle on!
- j_s 10y agoIn case anyone isn't aware of the details: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13764994 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13764994 a year after they started the program they changed which cars were considered "black" cars and this guys Lexus?? Was no longer a black car. They said it couldn't exclusively be used for black and had to pick up Uber X riders as well. Uber x pays a lot less. The people this happened to were basically bait and switched when Travis changed the terms on them. [...] They cut rates and required you to pick up cheaper fairs and you're underwater.
- bdefore 10y agoshame they weren't bought by Verizon. then we'd get 'unlimited ridesharing'.
- akgerber 10y agoI call them 'cyber-jitneys' or 'e-jitneys'. It's a term with a long history in our urban areas, referring to car hire that often operates outside taxi laws: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitney Great play, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitney_(play) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitney_(play)