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You can now hail an Uber without the Uber app
- throwaway5959 3y agoSo… like a cab service?
- throwaway50702 3y ago[flagged]
- uoaei 3y agoYou seem to have a specific vendetta against cab companies and drivers. Who hurt you?
- throwaway50702 3y agoCab companies and drivers, unsurprisingly. I love how Uber and Bolt changed the experience of using a taxi during the last decade. Anywhere in Europe I go, I can count on a good service - 10 years ago it was absolutely terrible. Broken down cars that the drivers probably used to sleep in taking you on a much longer route than necessary and overcharging you for that. One time a gangster like that took me to his gang when I used a phone with GPS to call him out on his route. No thanks, never again.
- robertlagrant 3y agoCab companies had to get far better after Uber appeared. Getting a taxi was a rubbish experience once.
- williamdclt 3y agoTo be fair, taxis being terrible almost everywhere across the world is a very common complain
- eloisant 3y agoIn France taxis are much better than Uber. I've had some really weird experiences with Uber while taxis where all very professional and top notch.
- martinald 3y agoThe problem is it's very variable and you don't know it if you are visiting somewhere. I had a great experience in Madrid, and terrible in Lisbon with normal taxis. Could be just luck of the draw, but with Uber at least if I'm in an unfamiliar place I have some accountability if it does go horribly wrong (taking a long journey for example), with English speaking support.
- varjag 3y agoYeah in the USA and Ivory Coast maybe.
- gambiting 3y agoWhy are you describing Uber? Here in UK that pretty much is exactly the Uber experience.....long wait times, drivers cancelling rides as they are on the way to you, cars that smell like piss.......can't comment on the gangsters stuff, but jesus christ Uber is 10x worse than local taxi companies here, at least they keep some standards.
- kennywinker 3y agoI’ve not used uber a ton, but i have definitely waited 20min for an uber. I’ve also never had to wait out surge pricing to catch a taxi
- bigpeopleareold 3y agoIn Norway, Uber is barely present here. The established taxi companies do a very good job with none of those problems (but like everything here, they are pricey.) I think it really depends where you are.
- kgeist 3y agoHere, before the rise of Yandex Taxi (which eventually bought Uber Russia), we used to have several independent "taxi aggregators", you'd call them and they'd tell you your car's license plate and when it would arrive. I don't remember it taking any longer than Yandex Taxi/Uber. Now it's actually worse, since Yandex Taxi has bought the majority of local taxi aggregators, it feels like the quality is worse than before because they're a monopoly and there's no competition.
- gnicholas 3y agoExcept you have to have an account to use Uber, even over the phone.
- Animats 3y agoYou have to wait to talk to a human? I was expecting a good AI voice system. "Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line for the next available agent..."
- unsupp0rted 3y agoWe are experiencing higher than normal call volume, where normal is 0 calls, so you calling us now is a massive influx.
- lom 3y agoYou need to give your credit card information on the phone? That’s really inconvenient. Might as well call a real taxi…
- throwaway50702 3y agoWhy would anyone want to call a "real" taxi without any driver rating system? -- Reply to the comment below because I can't post no more: That "simple stuff" never worked in any EU city I ever visited. It just helped the gangsters keep their business. The real simple stuff that works is an app with rating system and pre-calculated prices. -- Reply to the second comment below: Well I mostly travel around central and eastern Europe - Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria... - never had a good experience with a "real" taxi before Uber anywhere in these countries. Not even "okay" experience, it was always very bad, barely tolerable.
- pixxel 3y agoIt’s called a carriage license or similar. Simple stuff, really.
- jwestbury 3y ago> That "simple stuff" never worked in any EU city I ever visited. It just helped the gangsters keep their business. Odd, as I've never once had a bad experience with a London black cab.
- thrkwajajbd 3y ago[dead]
- gambiting 3y ago>>Why would anyone want to call a "real" taxi without any driver rating system? I don't understand how the rating system helps in any way shape or form though. The worst rides in my life in any taxi, period, were all from 5-star rated Uber drivers. Most recent one in a small English town where the guy was literally doing 60mph on 30mph streets, braking hard and going into corners so the tyres would squeal - I literally had to tell him to slow down and he said "no it's fine don't worry about it". I checked and the guy had 3000 completed rides and something like 4.8/5 rating. I reported him through support but I will never know if anything was done. >>never had a good experience with a "real" taxi before Uber anywhere in these countries I'm from Poland and I never had issues with "real" taxis here, in Krakow, Warsaw and other places - you have to watch out for fake taxis which can operate outside of regulations, but the proper licenced taxis are absolutely fine.
- blitzar 3y agoI am truly in awe of the innovators and thought leaders in Silicon Valley, who saw making as phone call to book a taxi, brought the greatest minds of a generation together and they reimagined it and released to the market book a taxi by phone call.
- DonHopkins 3y agoThe innovation is that Uber supports the horseless carriage!
- LastNevadan 3y agoYou're obviously being sarcastic. But Uber really is an improvement on pre-Uber traditional taxi services, where you can call and not really be sure if or when a taxi will show up. Uber was really two innovations: (1) using an app to reserve a taxi and (2) making the process and the product reliable, customer-friendly and consistent.
- hef19898 3y agoThere were Taxi-apps in use in Germany before Uber became a thing here. What Uber had was infinite pockets and the willingness to simply ignore the general existence of regulations their competitors complied to.
- craftkiller 3y agoDo those apps pre-date 2009? Otherwise what the parent said still stands: Uber really is an improvement on pre-Uber traditional taxi services.
- blitzar 3y agoI first started booking my taxis via website (apps were not really a thing yet) in 2002.
- karim 3y agoSo, just like taxis who for some strange reason never seemed to accept credit cards, or would hold your luggage hostage if you didn't add a tip?
- meatjuice 3y agoYour credit card information could be stolen if the call is mitmed by someone.
- gambiting 3y agoHow exactly? Does that ever happen to anyone? In UK it's very common to give your card details over the phone(which is stupid, but unfortunately that's how the system works) and I don't think your call being intercepted is much of a concern.
- meatjuice 3y agoNot sure tho, I don't want to tell someone my credit card info over phone in any case. Someone around you can be listening to you, or even worse, recording you.
- gambiting 3y agoSure - in the UK a lot of companies don't offer any other way to pay them, or the way is a lot less convenient(you can pay with your card over the phone and have the order shipped today, or you can send us a cheque and we'll get to it in the next 3-4 weeks).
- LoganDark 3y agoSame for any web server unless the app hard-codes a specific certificate. Otherwise any CA can issue a certificate for any domain by default, CT can only catch such a thing after it happens. Don't know if uber.com has CAA records.
- danwee 3y agoI have never taken an Uber. What am I missing? It's just that they are cheaper than conventional taxis? I never had a bad experience with conventional taxis either: I just get in, say address, pay, and get out.
- reportgunner 3y agoFrom my experience it's the same like conventional taxi except you don't have to talk to anyone. Your phone can handle your payment details and the payment itself as well. The GPS can help you find out where you actually are and feed that to the app if you have a hard time keeping track of that.
- thrkwajajbd 3y ago[dead]
- bhickey 3y agoUber isn't replacing street hails. When you call a taxi company there's no certainty if or when they'll actually turn up.
- danwee 3y ago> When you call a taxi company there's no certainty if or when they'll actually turn up. Ah, that's a good one actually. So, with Uber is there any certainty? Do they give you money back or something if the Uber doesn't appear on the specified time? It has happened to me that I have waited a bit over the usual time for my taxi, but not very often.
- medvezhenok 3y agoNo, but Uber adds a market signal - if there is a shortage of drivers, rates will go up to entice more to get on the road.
- soco 3y agoIt happens with Uber sometimes that your designated driver just dallies some other place until you have to cancel the ride and hail a normal cab - then the canceling charge will be on you. Pretty neat trick, I'd say.
- marban 3y agoCan I fax my order to DoorDash?
- notRobot 3y agoYou always have been able to from uber.com
- LoganDark 3y agoCan't do that from a landline or pay phone.
- sberens 3y agoWho will be the first to wrap this in an API using twilio?
- Euphorbium 3y agoFull circle twice.
- tkfu 3y agoThe article says that you call and then speak to an "agent". I wonder if they mean a human agent, or if it's an AI.
- amelius 3y agoIs there a human on the other end of the phone line?
- nunez 3y agoThe circle is finally complete. Uber went from disrupting the cabbies to becoming Big Boss Cabbie.