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No, "fingerprinting" was the issue the City marketed. The actual scuffle was because the City of Austin wanted ride-level trip data and a larger fee from the i

No, "fingerprinting" was the issue the City marketed. The actual scuffle was because the City of Austin wanted ride-level trip data and a larger fee from the individual rides. Further, Mayor Adler's goal was a tax+security screening system for anyone who wanted to transact online. Those are his words, not mine. Quoted in the post below. I detailed some of it here: https://medium.com/@CaseySoftware/mayor-steve-adler-is-scamming-the-austin-tech-community-399d12b976e9 https://medium.com/@CaseySoftware/mayor-steve-adler-is-scamm...

bobthepanda 7y ago
Ride-level data and per-trip fees are also a requirement in New York City. In fact, now minimum wages are required in New York for TNC drivers. The point still stands, is that Uber has never, and would not ever, actually threaten to leave bigger markets. And the data isn't some evil hoovering scheme, but it is incredibly helpful with city planning: > Like camera-wearing meerkats, taxis provided insight into the city’s transportation ecosystem. Are cabs speeding along a certain stretch of street? Time to review the street design. Getting stuck at the same intersection every rush hour? Maybe rethink the traffic light timing. https://www.wired.com/story/nyc-uber-lyft-ride-hail-data/ https://www.wired.com/story/nyc-uber-lyft-ride-hail-data/
ozzmotik 7y ago
oh this is interesting to read. as someone who lives in Austin, I had heard so much about all this when it was going on but I never really actually looked enough into it to try and understand it all. At that point, I had stopped driving for lyft, so it didn't particularly affect me (especially because at the time I was living in Williamson county outside of Austin city limits so I could at least still use it for rideshare purposes), but I certainly was curious to learn more. Thank you for sharing.

bobthepanda 7y ago

Ride-level data and per-trip fees are also a requirement in New York City. In fact, now minimum wages are required in New York for TNC drivers. The point still stands, is that Uber has never, and would not ever, actually threaten to leave bigger markets. And the data isn't some evil hoovering scheme, but it is incredibly helpful with city planning: > Like camera-wearing meerkats, taxis provided insight into the city’s transportation ecosystem. Are cabs speeding along a certain stretch of street? Time to review the street design. Getting stuck at the same intersection every rush hour? Maybe rethink the traffic light timing. https://www.wired.com/story/nyc-uber-lyft-ride-hail-data/ https://www.wired.com/story/nyc-uber-lyft-ride-hail-data/

ozzmotik 7y ago

oh this is interesting to read. as someone who lives in Austin, I had heard so much about all this when it was going on but I never really actually looked enough into it to try and understand it all. At that point, I had stopped driving for lyft, so it didn't particularly affect me (especially because at the time I was living in Williamson county outside of Austin city limits so I could at least still use it for rideshare purposes), but I certainly was curious to learn more. Thank you for sharing.