I'm very happy that Uber broke the law that protected the cab cartel. Now I can conveniently get a ride wherever I want and never have to deal with a sleazy incompetent cab company ever again. When I travel to other countries I never have to deal with their shitty taxi scams.
I would absolutely prefer a cab to Uber now. The pricing was better, the service was better, we weren't expected to mutually review each other, and I could flag one down on the street. If I walked to a taxi stand, it was instant satisfaction.
The only things that improved with Uber were price and coverage, and they tried to fool us into seeing other improvements that didn't exist, largely by painting cab drivers as scary, stinky, subhuman swindlers and implying people that drove Uber were all part timers who usually worked at real jobs. Now the prices are sky high and the things take as long or longer as cabs did to show up.
Maybe there's room for an Uber in tiny places that don't need cab companies or even full time cabbies, but everywhere else, they've just added another layer of rentseeking over a familiar experience. We could have gotten rid of the medallion system without replacing it with this thing. Let's make gigwork illegal so Uber will have to contract with local companies, or reduce themselves to people they're willing to employ.
Middlemen will always try to extract maximum profits, and even if they look better in the short term in the longer term they'll be just as bad or worse, but more entrenched.
I don't think "the ends justify the means" arguments are terribly persuasive, personally. And any company or person who is willing to break the law to succeed is not trustworthy enough to be comfortable doing business with.
They may be good now, but the instant that they see a method of increasing their profit by screwing someone, including customers, over then that's what they'll do.
You will never fix self centered or low empathy people, but have a chance with the systems we must all participate in. Choose how you spend your time accordingly. Talk is cheap, all that matters is outcomes.
It certainly seemed that way at first, now I'm not convinced. They seem to be recapitulating most or all of the bad behaviors. And more expensive often enough I have to check, used to just assume it would be comparable or better unless obvious reason for shortage.
Depends on the area, but qualified yes - many local cab companies now have apps (in response to uber) and some of those will give decently accurate quotes. In some places e.g. airport fares are fixed rate anyway, so you can just check.
Unfortunately. Uber has made it normal for people to work for poverty wages to make their asset depreciate even faster, all because they managed to pump a shitload of money into a money losing proposition. Getting a personalized driver right now should be a luxury expense - Uber dumping money that they will never make back into it doesn't change that. Uber drivers should be paid fairly, like employees, and not as independent contractors.
"Uber reported a net income of $394 million in the second quarter. That number includes a $386 million unrealized gain from equity investments, so it's not quite as good as it looks. "
It will be interesting to see if they manage to close at least one bookyear in the black. If with a windfall like that they can't manage then they likely never will.
Not invariably, sadly. Uber, for example, didn't seem to be overly hurt by their lawbreaking.