4 ms·

Everyone focuses on driving which in the long run is probably going to go away as self-driving cars come onto the scene. The best example I've seen of the gig

Everyone focuses on driving which in the long run is probably going to go away as self-driving cars come onto the scene. The best example I've seen of the gig economy is jobs that were already contract based but where it was hard to find and connect contractors with customers. Walking dogs, small home renovation, etc. I've seen these apps make a massive positive change in the market where people are able to find more work than they code before (at roughly the same rate) and customers can find contractors willing to do the work and they are rated by past customers rather than just word of mouth.

thatoneuser 8y ago
Yeah, the problem with the driving apps is the damn greed. They could have made an improved taxi service where people still payed a fair amount and in exchange you get a pleasant, on demand taxi (without the credit card machine being “broken”). But they didn’t just want to compete with taxi. They wanted more. They wanted everyone to use their service. How do you do that? Offer it cheaper and pass the responsibility to the driver. If Uber and Lyft has stayed humble they could have had profit, happy workers and happy riders. Instead they wanted billions.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > They could have made an improved taxi service where people still payed a fair amount and in exchange you get a pleasant, on demand taxi This was what Uber was. Then Lyft launched its product and, to Uber’s shock, didn’t get any regulatory pushback. (Most people in most American cities had horrible cab experiences. Also, the tech backlash hadn’t yet begun.) Uber probably improved the pay laws for New York’s taxi drivers by bringing light to their plight. It also improved quality across the board. This isn’t a simple “they got greedy” story.
  - m-ee 8y ago
    Uber originally was a black car service. Sidecar was the first company I was aware of to use the model that Lyft and UberX currently follow.
  - thatoneuser 8y ago
    Tbf Lyft is my major complaint. I’m less familiar with Uber.

thatoneuser 8y ago

Yeah, the problem with the driving apps is the damn greed. They could have made an improved taxi service where people still payed a fair amount and in exchange you get a pleasant, on demand taxi (without the credit card machine being “broken”). But they didn’t just want to compete with taxi. They wanted more. They wanted everyone to use their service. How do you do that? Offer it cheaper and pass the responsibility to the driver. If Uber and Lyft has stayed humble they could have had profit, happy workers and happy riders. Instead they wanted billions.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> They could have made an improved taxi service where people still payed a fair amount and in exchange you get a pleasant, on demand taxi This was what Uber was. Then Lyft launched its product and, to Uber’s shock, didn’t get any regulatory pushback. (Most people in most American cities had horrible cab experiences. Also, the tech backlash hadn’t yet begun.) Uber probably improved the pay laws for New York’s taxi drivers by bringing light to their plight. It also improved quality across the board. This isn’t a simple “they got greedy” story.
- m-ee 8y ago
  Uber originally was a black car service. Sidecar was the first company I was aware of to use the model that Lyft and UberX currently follow.
- thatoneuser 8y ago
  Tbf Lyft is my major complaint. I’m less familiar with Uber.