7 ms·

This is extremely relevant and overlooked. Sharing economy relies heavily on ratings for trust. That's literally the only thing that separates Uber from Taxi se

This is extremely relevant and overlooked. Sharing economy relies heavily on ratings for trust. That's literally the only thing that separates Uber from Taxi services and AirBnb from hotel services, and why it is considered OK that they don't have to go through the same licensing and vetting process. I am surprised that the companies themselves are not as concerned about this. This whole gig economy is going to fall apart real quick if this isn't brought under control. Edit: I think I see why the companies don't need to be too concerned. They only need to remove the worst actors. The ones that could get them into media (e.g, someone ends up with an Uber driver showing criminal tendencies). For that, this system probably works. Anyone who didn't make you feel like your life is at risk is a 5-star. This situation is unlikely to change unless there is competitive pressure on these companies. So it is very important to prevent these companies from monopolizing the sharing economy. Once older cabs and hotels are gone, and these companies have monopoly, we could be left with no option but to take an Uber/AirBnb with unreliable, terrible and probably even dangerous "service" and no legal recourse.

icebraining 9y ago
While I'm in full agreement on the need for more competition in these industries - which thankfully seems to be happening - I don't think it's important to prevent this particular issue. Uber has no incentive to keep bad drivers around; after all, it costs them little to fire them and onboard a new one, and there's plenty of people willing to drive a car. Besides, it's not such a big problem. What ends up happening is that they raise the bar; e.g. an average of 4.6 becomes the equivalent of a 3. A friend of mine has a house on AirBNB with a rating of 3.9, and it's essentially invisible - you'll only find it if you set very specific filters. Specifically, they can use percentile ranks to do the "translation": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentile_rank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentile_rank
s73v3r_ 9y ago
"That's literally the only thing that separates Uber from Taxi services and AirBnb from hotel services, and why it is considered OK that they don't have to go through the same licensing and vetting process." Hotels have had rating systems for a long, long time. Since before AirBnB existed. And most people don't think a star rating is a substitute for an actual vetting and licensing process.

icebraining 9y ago

While I'm in full agreement on the need for more competition in these industries - which thankfully seems to be happening - I don't think it's important to prevent this particular issue. Uber has no incentive to keep bad drivers around; after all, it costs them little to fire them and onboard a new one, and there's plenty of people willing to drive a car. Besides, it's not such a big problem. What ends up happening is that they raise the bar; e.g. an average of 4.6 becomes the equivalent of a 3. A friend of mine has a house on AirBNB with a rating of 3.9, and it's essentially invisible - you'll only find it if you set very specific filters. Specifically, they can use percentile ranks to do the "translation": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentile_rank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentile_rank

s73v3r_ 9y ago

"That's literally the only thing that separates Uber from Taxi services and AirBnb from hotel services, and why it is considered OK that they don't have to go through the same licensing and vetting process." Hotels have had rating systems for a long, long time. Since before AirBnB existed. And most people don't think a star rating is a substitute for an actual vetting and licensing process.