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,, opening up being a taxi driver to anyone with a car'' That's what customers want. Taxis were always too expensive for normal people to use. In the past they

,, opening up being a taxi driver to anyone with a car'' That's what customers want. Taxis were always too expensive for normal people to use. In the past they needed to know the routes to any place inside a city, but since we have GPS navigation, now that knowledge is much less useful. Nowdays I care more about the car being modern than the knowledge of the driver.

pydry 6y ago
>Taxis were always too expensive for normal people to use. That's largely coz the American precariat-with-a-car demographic wasn't large enough. Had an Uber-like business kicked off in the 90s when fewer Americans were desperate for work and the world wasn't awash in capital seeking returns from, it would have gone spectacularly bust. The magic ingredient was wealth inequality - both for providing cheap financing (VC funded rides!) and tapping into that critical precariat-with-a-car demographic at just the right time. GPS is irrelevant. Taxis had it years before Uber was dreamed up. Giving them credit for that is like giving Mark Zuckerberg credit for the microchip.
- thinkharderdev 6y ago
  They seemed to be doing alright in 2019 when we were at full employment (more or less), at least relative to their normal state of hemorrhaging money. But to give them their due, I do in fact think Uber made the product of paying someone to drive you from point A to B much better. Even in the early days of Uber (when they were still just Towncars), it was very rare to get in a taxi in Washington DC that accepted cards for payment. It was also much harder to get a ride if you weren't downtown. You would have to call a dispatcher and in about 30 minutes (if you were lucky and they didn't just ghost you entirely) a cab would show up. Also, if you were downtown and wanted a ride out to Arlington, they would sometimes just drive off because they knew they wouldn't be able to get a fare back into the city.
  - pydry 6y ago
    >Also, if you were downtown and wanted a ride out to Arlington, they would sometimes just drive off because they knew they wouldn't be able to get a fare back into the city. You understand how a precariat makes this type of thing possible, right? It's not like Uber drivers wouldn't pull this type of shit if they had more leverage. They absolutely would. They don't coz they really need the $$.
    - thinkharderdev 6y ago
      Partly, but partly it is an effect of having of thicker market. Arlington itself is still quite densely populated and Uber drivers have a lot of opportunities to pick up fares there. But you aren't going to find people hailing cabs on the street. But if you have a matching mechanism that works better in less densely populated areas then the drivers can actually pick up fares there so they are more willingly to take someone out there to begin with.
      - pydry 6y ago
        This is how radio cabs used to operate in the 90s.

pydry 6y ago

>Taxis were always too expensive for normal people to use. That's largely coz the American precariat-with-a-car demographic wasn't large enough. Had an Uber-like business kicked off in the 90s when fewer Americans were desperate for work and the world wasn't awash in capital seeking returns from, it would have gone spectacularly bust. The magic ingredient was wealth inequality - both for providing cheap financing (VC funded rides!) and tapping into that critical precariat-with-a-car demographic at just the right time. GPS is irrelevant. Taxis had it years before Uber was dreamed up. Giving them credit for that is like giving Mark Zuckerberg credit for the microchip.

thinkharderdev 6y ago
They seemed to be doing alright in 2019 when we were at full employment (more or less), at least relative to their normal state of hemorrhaging money. But to give them their due, I do in fact think Uber made the product of paying someone to drive you from point A to B much better. Even in the early days of Uber (when they were still just Towncars), it was very rare to get in a taxi in Washington DC that accepted cards for payment. It was also much harder to get a ride if you weren't downtown. You would have to call a dispatcher and in about 30 minutes (if you were lucky and they didn't just ghost you entirely) a cab would show up. Also, if you were downtown and wanted a ride out to Arlington, they would sometimes just drive off because they knew they wouldn't be able to get a fare back into the city.
- pydry 6y ago
  >Also, if you were downtown and wanted a ride out to Arlington, they would sometimes just drive off because they knew they wouldn't be able to get a fare back into the city. You understand how a precariat makes this type of thing possible, right? It's not like Uber drivers wouldn't pull this type of shit if they had more leverage. They absolutely would. They don't coz they really need the $$.
  - thinkharderdev 6y ago
    Partly, but partly it is an effect of having of thicker market. Arlington itself is still quite densely populated and Uber drivers have a lot of opportunities to pick up fares there. But you aren't going to find people hailing cabs on the street. But if you have a matching mechanism that works better in less densely populated areas then the drivers can actually pick up fares there so they are more willingly to take someone out there to begin with.
    - pydry 6y ago
      This is how radio cabs used to operate in the 90s.