4 ms·

If you set aside the hyperbolic title, this actually is an exoneration of the worst things that Uber has been accused of: namely they were NOT pranking or tryin

If you set aside the hyperbolic title, this actually is an exoneration of the worst things that Uber has been accused of: namely they were NOT pranking or trying to deliberately mess up Lyft. The hangup calls were the side-effect of their extremely aggressive recruitment efforts for Lyft drivers - where it seems they'd hang up and call back later to try and get a different driver that they hadn't already pitched. While not great, it also doesn't strike me as particularly underhanded or evil (this is a scenario where the "best" outcome for Uber is paying Lyft for a ride where they try and give the Lyft driver a phone and presumably a better paying job).

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- cwyers 12y ago
  They don't know which driver they'll get assigned to them until they get the driver assigned to them - there's no way for them to check drivers against the spreadsheet until the ride has been requested.
- DmitriRavinoff 12y ago
  It sounds like you don't understand how Lyft and Uber work. You have no control over which driver you get; the driver app lets all the drivers in your area (and an increasing area over time) know that you want a ride. Whoever clicks "accept" first gets it. The fact that there are so many cancellations is a direct result of the Uber recruiters using a CRM to avoid pitching to the same driver more than once.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
crazypyro 12y ago
Lyft has stated they've had over 5,000 CANCELLED rides, meaning Uber is deliberately trying to mess up Lyft. If you don't think the cancelled rides count, how can you say that aggressively recruiting its drivers, and as a by product, reducing the earnings of the drivers/Lyft, is Uber not trying to mess up Lyft? I'm not saying its illegal, but its clearly Uber trying to win the market by shutting out Lyft.
- dnautics 12y ago
  I love lyft (and also drive for uber)... I have no doubt in my mind that uber did this (and if I get deactivated by uber for posting this I don't really care, they've lost so much money on trying to recruit me it will take 10 more months for them to recover their investment). I think it would be hilarious if lyft didn't ban the uber guys but hellbanned the uber guys (hellbanned in the hn sense). Which would make the number of cancelled rides make much, much more sense.
  - foobarqux 12y ago
    Why were they trying to recruit you if you were already driving for Uber?
    - dnautics 12y ago
      They tried to recruit me before I drove for Uber? I do now, but I "gave" the recruiting bonus to my friend who was a dual driver and not the smarmy recruiter.
- badusername 12y ago
  5000 cancelled rides over a year does not mess up a system that reportedly has a millions of trips per year.
  - crazypyro 12y ago
    I don't think the argument here is over the scale or the percent of rides that were fake. The argument here was "Is Uber trying to shut down Lyft, through a variety of tactics?". I'd have to say yes, they are trying their best to block Lyft out of the business by limiting the key resource, drivers.
    - mayanksinghal 12y ago
      > Is Uber trying to shut down Lyft, through a variety of tactics? But not through cancelled rides, right? I don't understand how Uber trying to recruit drivers is any different from any tech company trying to recruit me.

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cwyers 12y ago
They don't know which driver they'll get assigned to them until they get the driver assigned to them - there's no way for them to check drivers against the spreadsheet until the ride has been requested.
DmitriRavinoff 12y ago
It sounds like you don't understand how Lyft and Uber work. You have no control over which driver you get; the driver app lets all the drivers in your area (and an increasing area over time) know that you want a ride. Whoever clicks "accept" first gets it. The fact that there are so many cancellations is a direct result of the Uber recruiters using a CRM to avoid pitching to the same driver more than once.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

crazypyro 12y ago

Lyft has stated they've had over 5,000 CANCELLED rides, meaning Uber is deliberately trying to mess up Lyft. If you don't think the cancelled rides count, how can you say that aggressively recruiting its drivers, and as a by product, reducing the earnings of the drivers/Lyft, is Uber not trying to mess up Lyft? I'm not saying its illegal, but its clearly Uber trying to win the market by shutting out Lyft.

dnautics 12y ago
I love lyft (and also drive for uber)... I have no doubt in my mind that uber did this (and if I get deactivated by uber for posting this I don't really care, they've lost so much money on trying to recruit me it will take 10 more months for them to recover their investment). I think it would be hilarious if lyft didn't ban the uber guys but hellbanned the uber guys (hellbanned in the hn sense). Which would make the number of cancelled rides make much, much more sense.
- foobarqux 12y ago
  Why were they trying to recruit you if you were already driving for Uber?
  - dnautics 12y ago
    They tried to recruit me before I drove for Uber? I do now, but I "gave" the recruiting bonus to my friend who was a dual driver and not the smarmy recruiter.
badusername 12y ago
5000 cancelled rides over a year does not mess up a system that reportedly has a millions of trips per year.
- crazypyro 12y ago
  I don't think the argument here is over the scale or the percent of rides that were fake. The argument here was "Is Uber trying to shut down Lyft, through a variety of tactics?". I'd have to say yes, they are trying their best to block Lyft out of the business by limiting the key resource, drivers.
  - mayanksinghal 12y ago
    > Is Uber trying to shut down Lyft, through a variety of tactics? But not through cancelled rides, right? I don't understand how Uber trying to recruit drivers is any different from any tech company trying to recruit me.