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“tech companies that have demanded total freedom from legal oversight despite their inability to produce benefits for the rest of society.” There are a lot of

by aksss 5y ago

“tech companies that have demanded total freedom from legal oversight despite their inability to produce benefits for the rest of society.” There are a lot of statements like this, which make one doubt any bit of objectivity in the reporting - it’s schadenfreude about Uber’s uber-problems with a blind eye to what consumers really value about Uber. That said the criticism about the fundamentals seems about right. They have billions in cash though, so there’s some runway to dial things in yet.

esyir 5y ago
Even in the worst case, they've done tons. They've facilitated a wealth transfer to the taxi takers of America from vcs and the Saudis.
- motioncuty 5y ago
  They stole years of ridership from justifying global public transport investment, all while promoting oil demand. Solid investment on the saudis part...
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  They also very publicly exposed the scam that is taxi medallions. I know i had never heard of them before uber exposed how stupid it was, and i know i'm not alone there. Besides getting cheap taxis in college and as a young grad, its great to know its easier to call a taxi.
CarelessExpert 5y ago
> there’s some runway to dial things in yet. At their current rate of progress, they're gonna need a runway longer than the one at the end of Fast and the Furious 6.
908B64B197 5y ago
It's interesting how it's now fashionable to bash on Uber and Lyft. Seems everyone conveniently forgot about the medallion system Uber and Lyft disrupted. Pre-Uber, either the driver rented the car to a middleman who rented the medallion from a rich owner, or said owner was selling and financing (most banks won't touch these medallions!) a medallion at a ridiculous interest rate to a driver that planned to use it as his retirement savings (an extremely volatile asset and not very liquid). The more I spoke to cab drivers the more it seemed their industry was a pyramid scheme aimed at helping established rent-seeker take advantage of often poor new immigrants. Uber brought a breeze of fresh air: Someone could simply buy a car, calculate the depreciation and it's value on the market (since unlike medallions cars are relatively liquid assets!) do rideshare and calculate their profits or loss. They can get out of the game at anytime, and they know exactly how much they are going to get for the car they have should they sell it. And I'm not even touching the usual pain points and often discriminatory practices of medallion drivers (refusing card payments, refusing rides to non-white passengers and to non-white neighborhoods...).
- tomjakubowski 5y ago
  The taxicab medallion system exists only in a handful of US cities.
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    Which cities didn't?
    - sharkmerry 5y ago
      According to quick wikisearch, all cities except NYC, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Philly and SF
      - 908B64B197 5y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_medallion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_medallion > Several major cities in the US use these in their taxi licensing systems, including New York City, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. I think you might have misinterpreted the sentence here: these are cited as examples, not at the only cities in the US to have such a system in place.
        sharkmerry 5y ago
        Did you research before asking "which cities didn't?" Or only after I replied? "Denver taxi medallions" seems to return nothing indicating they have one. Los Angeles doesn't seem to have one either
        aksss 5y ago
        Is "medallion" a requirement for this search? I think a lot of cities that use this system merely call them licenses. I'm not sure that whether you call the system one of medallions or one of licenses makes them qualitatively different if the principle is that a) only a limited number can ever be issued creating artificial scarcity; b) that scarcity and resulting high cost create a protected group of suppliers; c) the city has a financial interest and even duty to shield the market from competitors and innovation.

by aksss 5y ago

esyir 5y ago

Even in the worst case, they've done tons. They've facilitated a wealth transfer to the taxi takers of America from vcs and the Saudis.

motioncuty 5y ago
They stole years of ridership from justifying global public transport investment, all while promoting oil demand. Solid investment on the saudis part...
vineyardmike 5y ago
They also very publicly exposed the scam that is taxi medallions. I know i had never heard of them before uber exposed how stupid it was, and i know i'm not alone there. Besides getting cheap taxis in college and as a young grad, its great to know its easier to call a taxi.

CarelessExpert 5y ago

> there’s some runway to dial things in yet. At their current rate of progress, they're gonna need a runway longer than the one at the end of Fast and the Furious 6.

908B64B197 5y ago

It's interesting how it's now fashionable to bash on Uber and Lyft. Seems everyone conveniently forgot about the medallion system Uber and Lyft disrupted. Pre-Uber, either the driver rented the car to a middleman who rented the medallion from a rich owner, or said owner was selling and financing (most banks won't touch these medallions!) a medallion at a ridiculous interest rate to a driver that planned to use it as his retirement savings (an extremely volatile asset and not very liquid). The more I spoke to cab drivers the more it seemed their industry was a pyramid scheme aimed at helping established rent-seeker take advantage of often poor new immigrants. Uber brought a breeze of fresh air: Someone could simply buy a car, calculate the depreciation and it's value on the market (since unlike medallions cars are relatively liquid assets!) do rideshare and calculate their profits or loss. They can get out of the game at anytime, and they know exactly how much they are going to get for the car they have should they sell it. And I'm not even touching the usual pain points and often discriminatory practices of medallion drivers (refusing card payments, refusing rides to non-white passengers and to non-white neighborhoods...).

tomjakubowski 5y ago
The taxicab medallion system exists only in a handful of US cities.
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  Which cities didn't?
  - sharkmerry 5y ago
    According to quick wikisearch, all cities except NYC, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Philly and SF
    - 908B64B197 5y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_medallion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_medallion > Several major cities in the US use these in their taxi licensing systems, including New York City, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. I think you might have misinterpreted the sentence here: these are cited as examples, not at the only cities in the US to have such a system in place.
      - sharkmerry 5y ago
        Did you research before asking "which cities didn't?" Or only after I replied? "Denver taxi medallions" seems to return nothing indicating they have one. Los Angeles doesn't seem to have one either
        aksss 5y ago
        Is "medallion" a requirement for this search? I think a lot of cities that use this system merely call them licenses. I'm not sure that whether you call the system one of medallions or one of licenses makes them qualitatively different if the principle is that a) only a limited number can ever be issued creating artificial scarcity; b) that scarcity and resulting high cost create a protected group of suppliers; c) the city has a financial interest and even duty to shield the market from competitors and innovation.