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I would LOVE to develop an Uber clone and pitch it to Governments around the world. We could even link them up so you have one unified account for people who cr

I would LOVE to develop an Uber clone and pitch it to Governments around the world. We could even link them up so you have one unified account for people who cross borders. The government and taxpayer could then take any profit (or operate at a loss / break even if they want to subsidise costs for their citizens). The customer acquisition / marketing costs would be almost zero if the government mandates it as the only or preferred ride-hailing app. I don't really think Uber is going to innovate much from here (e.g .how much has the uber experience changed since UberX was rolled out?) outside of self-driving cars etc. there's no reason why we need a private company to innovate further, and there's almost no risk in doing this. It would be seen as a natural extension to mass transit, and every government around the world should be providing it for their citizens.

fpisfun 9y ago
Have you seen software developed by the government? Outside of things like NSA spying, military things, etc, it's generally terrible, I doubt there are many governments that could pull this off
- throwawayjava 9y ago
  > Outside of things like... military things, etc "Aside from the most impressive engineered systems known to man kind, the government can't do anything right"
  - fpisfun 9y ago
    Right, things that enable those currently in power to remain in power they do well. Things that help the average citizen, most definitely not.
    - throwawayjava 9y ago
      Both components of your claim are dubious. > things that enable those currently in power to remain in power they do well 1. It's unclear to me how most of our military hardware is in any way even closely related to "enabling those currently in power to remain in power", perhaps aside from functioning as PC jobs programs. Super impressive engineering, but it's not really clear to me why most of it is particularly necessary. 2. Then I guess maybe we should vote for people who run effective services. > Things that help the average citizen, most definitely not. My local government has a system that allows you to reserve park space. I can also look up hours for rec centers on the city website. Those things are helpful to me, the average citizen, and definitely work well.
- albertgoeswoof 9y ago
  The government wouldn’t actually build it, it would be built by a private company that licenses it to governments. No need to reinvent the same tech over and over.

fpisfun 9y ago

Have you seen software developed by the government? Outside of things like NSA spying, military things, etc, it's generally terrible, I doubt there are many governments that could pull this off

throwawayjava 9y ago
> Outside of things like... military things, etc "Aside from the most impressive engineered systems known to man kind, the government can't do anything right"
- fpisfun 9y ago
  Right, things that enable those currently in power to remain in power they do well. Things that help the average citizen, most definitely not.
  - throwawayjava 9y ago
    Both components of your claim are dubious. > things that enable those currently in power to remain in power they do well 1. It's unclear to me how most of our military hardware is in any way even closely related to "enabling those currently in power to remain in power", perhaps aside from functioning as PC jobs programs. Super impressive engineering, but it's not really clear to me why most of it is particularly necessary. 2. Then I guess maybe we should vote for people who run effective services. > Things that help the average citizen, most definitely not. My local government has a system that allows you to reserve park space. I can also look up hours for rec centers on the city website. Those things are helpful to me, the average citizen, and definitely work well.
albertgoeswoof 9y ago
The government wouldn’t actually build it, it would be built by a private company that licenses it to governments. No need to reinvent the same tech over and over.