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I'm not going to use the service. Everything that keeps coming out about Uber has been super shady. I'm not the only one. Big Uber proponents who I know have s

I'm not going to use the service. Everything that keeps coming out about Uber has been super shady. I'm not the only one. Big Uber proponents who I know have stopped using their service. It's not going to stop the masses, but if stories like this keep coming out without policy fixes they are going to lose their edge. All they are is a dispatch service.

jsprogrammer 12y ago
It seems like Uber could be easily replaced with an open solution. Anyone working on it?
- logn 12y ago
  I've been noticing that comments advocating P2P replacements of sharing economy apps all get downvotes, and no comments explaining why. I'll assume these downvoters are NSA puppets for now.
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  @logn Not sure the NSA would bother itself with such trivialities. An Uber exec or paid social media expert is the most likely culprit. Or just your common troll (not that there's much of a difference).
  - logn 12y ago
    I saw this on a TaskRabbit thread too. Edit: and they do concern themselves with shaping opinion via social media. I imagine they very much enjoy mining ride sharing data. But yeah maybe they don't care about HN comments. Relevant links: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-ope... https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/02153313534/us-military-kicks-off-plan-to-fill-social-networks-with-fake-sock-puppet-accounts.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/02153313534/us-mi...
- free2rhyme214 12y ago
  Yes DuckDuckDrive will be out soon lol kidding
- nostrademons 12y ago
  The hardest part of Uber or any sharing-economy company isn't the technology, it's building the two-sided market. This requires boots on the ground and people who are paid to go out into the community and manually sign up drivers; it's hard to do this unless you have the capital to hire these people.
  - jsprogrammer 12y ago
    Why couldn't you just provide the market tools, similar to early eBay?
    - nostrademons 12y ago
      Because the tools are useless unless other people are using them. Someone comes across your open-source Uber alternative on GitHub, says "But what can I do with it?", and the answer is absolutely nothing unless there's a critical mass of drivers in your area. Basically all of the competitive advantage in Uber's business model is in creating that critical mass of drivers.
      - jsprogrammer 12y ago
        I guess I'm assuming that drivers would want a fair and open system. Maybe I'm wrong.
        gsnedders 12y ago
        I'd assume most of them are more concerned about having a constant influx of passengers and getting a fair wage.
    - aacook 12y ago
      eBay does much more than just provide software tools. Fraud protection being a big part of eBay (much by proxy through PayPal).
eridius 12y ago
I used to love Uber. But all the stories made me more and more unhappy with using them, even though the service itself continued to be great. This "we could spend a million dollars" boast was the last straw and got me to delete the app from my phone entirely. Now I use Lyft. I'm not sure if it's the best service. But I can't recall the last time I saw a bad PR story come out about Lyft, so I feel much more comfortable using them than Uber.
Nicholas_C 12y ago
I use Lyft every chance I get but a lot of times Uber just has more drivers out that are closer. Perhaps Lyft has the same problems, but I haven't heard about them.

jsprogrammer 12y ago

It seems like Uber could be easily replaced with an open solution. Anyone working on it?

logn 12y ago
I've been noticing that comments advocating P2P replacements of sharing economy apps all get downvotes, and no comments explaining why. I'll assume these downvoters are NSA puppets for now.
jsprogrammer 12y ago
@logn Not sure the NSA would bother itself with such trivialities. An Uber exec or paid social media expert is the most likely culprit. Or just your common troll (not that there's much of a difference).
- logn 12y ago
  I saw this on a TaskRabbit thread too. Edit: and they do concern themselves with shaping opinion via social media. I imagine they very much enjoy mining ride sharing data. But yeah maybe they don't care about HN comments. Relevant links: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-ope... https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/02153313534/us-military-kicks-off-plan-to-fill-social-networks-with-fake-sock-puppet-accounts.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/02153313534/us-mi...
free2rhyme214 12y ago
Yes DuckDuckDrive will be out soon lol kidding
nostrademons 12y ago
The hardest part of Uber or any sharing-economy company isn't the technology, it's building the two-sided market. This requires boots on the ground and people who are paid to go out into the community and manually sign up drivers; it's hard to do this unless you have the capital to hire these people.
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  Why couldn't you just provide the market tools, similar to early eBay?
  - nostrademons 12y ago
    Because the tools are useless unless other people are using them. Someone comes across your open-source Uber alternative on GitHub, says "But what can I do with it?", and the answer is absolutely nothing unless there's a critical mass of drivers in your area. Basically all of the competitive advantage in Uber's business model is in creating that critical mass of drivers.
    - jsprogrammer 12y ago
      I guess I'm assuming that drivers would want a fair and open system. Maybe I'm wrong.
      - gsnedders 12y ago
        I'd assume most of them are more concerned about having a constant influx of passengers and getting a fair wage.
  - aacook 12y ago
    eBay does much more than just provide software tools. Fraud protection being a big part of eBay (much by proxy through PayPal).

eridius 12y ago

I used to love Uber. But all the stories made me more and more unhappy with using them, even though the service itself continued to be great. This "we could spend a million dollars" boast was the last straw and got me to delete the app from my phone entirely. Now I use Lyft. I'm not sure if it's the best service. But I can't recall the last time I saw a bad PR story come out about Lyft, so I feel much more comfortable using them than Uber.

Nicholas_C 12y ago

I use Lyft every chance I get but a lot of times Uber just has more drivers out that are closer. Perhaps Lyft has the same problems, but I haven't heard about them.