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Uber went from zero to essentially killing off taxis, despite the fact that "a car is a car". Primarily because they don't pay as much for their fleet as a tax

Uber went from zero to essentially killing off taxis, despite the fact that "a car is a car". Primarily because they don't pay as much for their fleet as a taxi service does. What's coming next is going to be that, except you don't have to pay your drivers anything because you don't have drivers! (yes, there will be huge technical overhead of running this system and maintaining the cars/hardware, but over time this will become mass produced, and become cheap).

atomical 8y ago
Uber went from zero to killing off a pedestrian, despite having LIDAR tech. Downvoted by Uber devs no doubt.
icantdrive55 8y ago
Don't discount the power of future legislation. Right now the wealthy definetly control politicians. In a few years, poor people who have been the kicked around by technology might be voting in huge numbers? They will definetly be the majority of the population. Voting, along with tying corrupt politicians to wealthy donors; might throw a wrench in all this "progress". Sorry folks--losing jobs to technology, and being told to get your side-hustle on my the 1 percent does not calm the horrid existences of poor families. It's all cool when you can afford to use the tech. It's all cool except when the tech takes your job. When the Hispanics, whom have been scapegoated, get together with the low skilled white underemployed/underpaid segment of the population; things might get sticky for the tech boys club. I feel a simmering rage. I don't think I'm alone. Oh yea, watch what happens to the highly paid tech worker in a decade from now, or sooner. Remember most are not engineers, or scientists; they're JavaScript commerce soldiers.
perl4ever 8y ago
"Uber went from zero to essentially killing off taxis, despite the fact that "a car is a car". Primarily because they don't pay as much for their fleet as a taxi service does." Uber (and possibly other similar companies) is a huge charity for passengers funded with investment money. It's definitely premature to declare they've demonstrated or accomplished anything before they operate on a sustainable basis. I do think using a credit card an app is far superior to the way taxi businesses are traditionally run, regardless of price, but I also don't see why traditional taxis can't adopt the mechanism eventually. At some point, the bubble will burst and capital will be scarcer for a while, and things will realign.

atomical 8y ago

Uber went from zero to killing off a pedestrian, despite having LIDAR tech. Downvoted by Uber devs no doubt.

icantdrive55 8y ago

Don't discount the power of future legislation. Right now the wealthy definetly control politicians. In a few years, poor people who have been the kicked around by technology might be voting in huge numbers? They will definetly be the majority of the population. Voting, along with tying corrupt politicians to wealthy donors; might throw a wrench in all this "progress". Sorry folks--losing jobs to technology, and being told to get your side-hustle on my the 1 percent does not calm the horrid existences of poor families. It's all cool when you can afford to use the tech. It's all cool except when the tech takes your job. When the Hispanics, whom have been scapegoated, get together with the low skilled white underemployed/underpaid segment of the population; things might get sticky for the tech boys club. I feel a simmering rage. I don't think I'm alone. Oh yea, watch what happens to the highly paid tech worker in a decade from now, or sooner. Remember most are not engineers, or scientists; they're JavaScript commerce soldiers.

perl4ever 8y ago

"Uber went from zero to essentially killing off taxis, despite the fact that "a car is a car". Primarily because they don't pay as much for their fleet as a taxi service does." Uber (and possibly other similar companies) is a huge charity for passengers funded with investment money. It's definitely premature to declare they've demonstrated or accomplished anything before they operate on a sustainable basis. I do think using a credit card an app is far superior to the way taxi businesses are traditionally run, regardless of price, but I also don't see why traditional taxis can't adopt the mechanism eventually. At some point, the bubble will burst and capital will be scarcer for a while, and things will realign.