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The indignation over this makes no sense. Sure it's aggressive, but Uber has to be in order to maintain their market position and keep growing. As developers,
by jallmann 12y ago
The indignation over this makes no sense. Sure it's aggressive, but Uber has to be in order to maintain their market position and keep growing.
As developers, we get recruited all the time, even while employed. The horror! This is a good problem for drivers to have. No one is forcing them to switch (or even stopping them from driving for multiple services concurrently). They will drive for a company as long as the offer is good.
These are competitors offering an essentially identical service, and apparently fighting over an important resource -- drivers -- so the moral outrage is absurd. This is the free market in action.
I'll say it: from everything I've seen over the years of Uber, I like their playbook. Call it whatever you want -- underhanded, blatant, political, amoral, spotlight-stealing, $linkbait_adjective. Most importantly, it is damn effective.
- thenmar 12y agoDid you miss the part where they cancel the rides?
- jallmann 12y agoAnd? Any service is susceptible to being gamed/abused. As developers we should understand this intuitively. Lyft is clearly working on technical ways to mitigate this if they don't want Uber hailing their drivers. As to the ethical quandary of wasting the driver's time and gas, the solution is simple: charge a cancellation fee.
- malka 12y agoall right, let's legalize DDoS !
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoIt rises to the level of fraud. Its immoral. Maybe they will get away with it; but there are level-playing-field laws in business. Calling it 'recruiting' is disingenuous.
- rdlecler1 12y agoWill you like their playbook when they turn it back on you once they have a monopoly?
- ianstallings 12y agoYou know man, some things are more important than winning. It's a shame you don't see that.