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> We flagged taxis and paid cash for a hundred years with little problems In my home town, rogue taxis are a big problem. Not with robbery usually; but with ri
by powersnail 4y ago
> We flagged taxis and paid cash for a hundred years with little problems
In my home town, rogue taxis are a big problem. Not with robbery usually; but with rigged meters, not using a meter, deliberate detours, picking up extra customers along the way, harassment against women, cheating pocket money out of child, etc.
Those were surprisingly rampant especially at airports and train stations because tourists typically don’t know what price/time to expect. The amount of deception is frankly speaking, staggering.
Centralized apps, with a relatively transparent quote beforehand, a map and route in the customer’s hand, largely solved this problem.
It also seemed to have improved the average tidiness, given that it’s part of the rating. It used to be that the drivers would happily smoke in your face even if there are children or pregnant parent.
This is just one city of course. I don’t presume that every city was infested with horrible taxi drivers like where I come from. But to me, “with little problem” is not how I’d characterize the taxi business of the past.
- kornhole 4y agoI have experienced a few rogue taxi drivers in some countries too, and they can take advantage of more vulnerable people. Most countries have laws and rules for being a registered taxi driver. The drivers are obviously not anonymous as they have license plates. They can be reported to authorities and taxi companies more easily with an app. As a rider, I do not see why it is so important to identify myself and tell all these platforms where I am going which is why I still prefer taxis.
- powersnail 4y agoI mean, as a rider, I, too, do not see why it is so important to identify myself to the platforms. That's not the part that I like about the apps. The taxi companies in my hometown don't give a flying toss about complaints. The customer essentially has no power of making an informed choice when it comes to picking a driver. A driver might have been complained about 800 times in the last year, but you can't know that, and therefore it can't be used against the driver. A frequently complained driver brings the same amount of money to the company as a well-behaved one, so as long as they don't cause any legal trouble, the companies don't care and don't act.
- grumpymouse 4y agoI think for a large part of the population getting in a car with a stranger is fundamentally not a trustless activity, and no combination of tokens, hashes, customer reviews or market forces is going to make it so. Even more if the driver is anonymous apart from an address in a blockchain.
- mantas 4y agoCentralized app itself doesn't solve the problem. In my city after a short happy period we're back to crappy taxis like you describe. Mostly because the biggest app (Bolt) doesn't care. And the city doesn't care as well. Possibly because of personal connections with the local branch of said company.