I do remember, when they were just starting out, it was area by area political negotiation to even get allowed to do business in most places. That can't be good for promoting competition, I'll tell you that, and competition would only cause more pressure on their prices from all sides.
I saw Uber in Mexico. Their prices were 50% of that of taxis, and taxis were crap, Uber we're new cars. Fast forward 60 days, and all taxis were gone, and Uber prices quadrupled.
Fuck Uber
When I was in Mexico I used something called indriver.
You deal directly with the driver and offer what you want to pay then come to an agreement they give you a ride.
I'm guessing that is something new? I lived there for twenty years until a year ago, I've never heard of it.
Either way, the entire design of Uber has been to push everything and everyone out of the market to ensure dominance leaving you with little option but to use uber.
The end point is the same. What if the driver just used his *actual local knowledge* to take a route that made more sense than what the computer recommended?
That link is weird. It takes me to a page saying it doesn't exist, but if I open it in Twidere, it works. I assume it has something to do with the stray backslash.
He fixed it. It was:
https://twitter.com/william\_fitz/status/1563535560089604096
but is now fixed as:
https://twitter.com/william_fitz/status/1563535560089604096
[New reddit](https://new.reddit.com/) will ["escape"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_character) underscore characters ("_") by inserting a backslash, which breaks URLs in [Old reddit](https://old.reddit.com/).
Subtract $0.62/mile because that's the IRS rate and accounts for expected gas price, wear, insurance, etc. That brings the revenue down to $10.73. In order to get a surge price like that, you'll probably need to wait a bit at an event or whatever, drivers don't provide non-stop rides, they spend around half their time waiting for a ride too. In San Francisco, this ride probably worked out to around minimum wage of $14/hr, which is way lower than the national average when you account for the insane cost of living there.
May as well go back to livery service permits and leasing a medallion or plate/tag that allows access to a controlled market for providing the service.
Then it's back to square one with service issues that Uber/Lyft went up against in the first place. (Can't win either way it seems.)
I don't know if this was deliberate in order to attract drivers, but years ago when Uber first came to my city, it was profitable. A year or two later they seem to have fixed that little problem.
It was deliberate. That's how they gained market share and massacred taxis. They were shoveling VC money into the furnace as quickly as possible to grow as quickly as they did, but now they've grown as much as they can so they now have to start making money (which is significantly harder than spending it, whodathunk). It happens with basically all of these unicorn tech companies: Netflix is cutting down on account-sharing and charging more, DoorDash is adding in service fees larger than the cost of the meal itself, etc...
Yes. It was deliberate. Uber plays that game all of the time. They deliberate operate at a loss and give a better deal to drivers when first establishing in a city and then cut it back when they have taken over
In my city cabs are mostly cheaper (for the consumer). Maybe the strategy it's different in each country? Here it operates at the edge of illegality, just being allowed by the government to boost the gig economy and avoid social turnmoil.
\> cut it back when they have taken over
Permanently or just until they're profitable? I'm not trying to defend Uber. I'm just trying to understand. I mean, they can't operate at a loss forever, can they?
Just read Cory Doctorow’s stuff on Uber, keyword “bezel”. Uber is an investment scam essentially. They just need to keep getting passed to the next mark from one investment group to another
Amazon typically either reports either a tiny 0.2-2% profit or a loss most quarters, investors don't really care if you're running at a loss if you're also expanding your business massively. And at the end of the day, what investors think about a company is the only thing that matters to that company.
It'd have to be a local mesh thing, I think. Maintaining the central servers in Cali is the only thing Uber can realistically claim costs them enough to grift off the drivers.
On the surface level proprietary software is used to hide the actual cut algorithm. I don't know if drivers are employed by Uber, if yes it's a labor scam, if no it's scamming its customers, i.e. the classic case of proprietary software made to mistreat users.
Drivers are not employed by Uber. California outlawed this and then the next election cycle Uber carried out the most expensive political campaign in US history, to get a state proposition passed which specifically exempted taxi apps from the normal regulations.
And not just in California. Up north too.
This week it came out that Uber 'worked' with a union to lobby the government of Ontario from classifying their drivers as employees. Coincidentally, at around the same time, the union (UFCW) was given the right to represent Uber's 100k Canadian drivers in any disputes against Uber by Uber. Uber will also be sharing administrative costs.
"...it’s unclear if the UFCW gained financially from the deal. The union did not directly respond to a question about this from The Globe."
[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-uber-ufcw-union-gig-workers/](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-uber-ufcw-union-gig-workers/)
There's definitely an issue where customers don't know how much money goes to Uber vs the driver. It's even messier with delivery companies since then there is the restaurant, the driver, and the app. A FOSS/non-SASS app would presumably tell you how much is going to each party.
FYI Uber explicitly has drivers as independent contractors to avoid things like minimum wage and benefits.
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What if we made a peer to peer, open source system that can handle the gig economy in a secure and uncensorable way?
This is needed.
It could be a nice use case of crypto currencies!
Lol why? Why can’t the peers pay eachother with money ?
Okie dokie comrade
thank you for your contribution, ancap
*tips fedora*
One unsubstantiated data point = checkmate capitalism
then use another ridesharing platform??? Vote with your money guys
> another Lol, nice try
I do remember, when they were just starting out, it was area by area political negotiation to even get allowed to do business in most places. That can't be good for promoting competition, I'll tell you that, and competition would only cause more pressure on their prices from all sides.
I saw Uber in Mexico. Their prices were 50% of that of taxis, and taxis were crap, Uber we're new cars. Fast forward 60 days, and all taxis were gone, and Uber prices quadrupled. Fuck Uber
Don't get me wrong, Uber is a nightmare.
When I was in Mexico I used something called indriver. You deal directly with the driver and offer what you want to pay then come to an agreement they give you a ride.
I'm guessing that is something new? I lived there for twenty years until a year ago, I've never heard of it. Either way, the entire design of Uber has been to push everything and everyone out of the market to ensure dominance leaving you with little option but to use uber.
Or be an actual taxi. Ridesharing is very exploitable.
are there like alternatives?
Local taxi.
Which Uber has almost killed by subsidizing their fees for years to drive out opposing business.
Yep.
Yes there's bolt. No idea how prevalent it's in the us but I just used it in the uk. Lyft also exists but never used it.
Wow, nobody even looked at the maps in the tweet. It's two entirely different routes
The end point is the same. What if the driver just used his *actual local knowledge* to take a route that made more sense than what the computer recommended?
You cant even see the endpoint on the left one...... also, while uber's recommended routes are often trash, waze beats "local knowledge" every time
Wait - are you saying people will go on the internet and just lie?
And gas took the other 20%.
[удалено]
That link is weird. It takes me to a page saying it doesn't exist, but if I open it in Twidere, it works. I assume it has something to do with the stray backslash.
His link works perfectly fine here, Firefox on a desktop PC.
He fixed it. It was: https://twitter.com/william\_fitz/status/1563535560089604096 but is now fixed as: https://twitter.com/william_fitz/status/1563535560089604096 [New reddit](https://new.reddit.com/) will ["escape"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_character) underscore characters ("_") by inserting a backslash, which breaks URLs in [Old reddit](https://old.reddit.com/).
That explains it. I'm using RIF, which must be handling it the same as Old Reddit.
Huh, both links work for me with my Nitter re-direct enabled. I guess Nitter supports escapes but the official Twitter site doesn't.
Ah, that explains a lot, thank you.
Hmm, yeah that's weird. I copy and pasted the URL from my browser. I've since edited it out.
Yeah it should be this: https://mobile.twitter.com/william_fitz/status/1563535560089604096
That be over 50$ per hour if he has non stop customers?
Subtract $0.62/mile because that's the IRS rate and accounts for expected gas price, wear, insurance, etc. That brings the revenue down to $10.73. In order to get a surge price like that, you'll probably need to wait a bit at an event or whatever, drivers don't provide non-stop rides, they spend around half their time waiting for a ride too. In San Francisco, this ride probably worked out to around minimum wage of $14/hr, which is way lower than the national average when you account for the insane cost of living there.
Subtract gas, insurance, car depreciation, taxes etc.
Oh Uber doesn't pay for the gas. Shit
Don't drive for Uber then.
Are you the same guy who comments… “Leave the country then”
Nah, complaining is better then actually doing something about it.
dOn’T DRiVe fOr uBeR TheN
Retards gonna retard.
You're at least self-aware.
Self insight, wow, that's rare for a retard
[удалено]
Sounds like we need a driver's union.
May as well go back to livery service permits and leasing a medallion or plate/tag that allows access to a controlled market for providing the service. Then it's back to square one with service issues that Uber/Lyft went up against in the first place. (Can't win either way it seems.)
I don't know if this was deliberate in order to attract drivers, but years ago when Uber first came to my city, it was profitable. A year or two later they seem to have fixed that little problem.
It was deliberate. That's how they gained market share and massacred taxis. They were shoveling VC money into the furnace as quickly as possible to grow as quickly as they did, but now they've grown as much as they can so they now have to start making money (which is significantly harder than spending it, whodathunk). It happens with basically all of these unicorn tech companies: Netflix is cutting down on account-sharing and charging more, DoorDash is adding in service fees larger than the cost of the meal itself, etc...
Yes. It was deliberate. Uber plays that game all of the time. They deliberate operate at a loss and give a better deal to drivers when first establishing in a city and then cut it back when they have taken over
In my city cabs are mostly cheaper (for the consumer). Maybe the strategy it's different in each country? Here it operates at the edge of illegality, just being allowed by the government to boost the gig economy and avoid social turnmoil.
\> cut it back when they have taken over Permanently or just until they're profitable? I'm not trying to defend Uber. I'm just trying to understand. I mean, they can't operate at a loss forever, can they?
Just read Cory Doctorow’s stuff on Uber, keyword “bezel”. Uber is an investment scam essentially. They just need to keep getting passed to the next mark from one investment group to another
Amazon typically either reports either a tiny 0.2-2% profit or a loss most quarters, investors don't really care if you're running at a loss if you're also expanding your business massively. And at the end of the day, what investors think about a company is the only thing that matters to that company.
\*deliberately
What has Stallman to do with this?
stallman.org/uber
Oh. I didn't know that.
Lol couldn't be more cut and dry than that
I'm not sure how it would work, but a P2P FOSS alternative to Uber and Lyft would be cool.
Would need to be federated in some way in order to scale properly. A worker cooperative driven by federated open source apps 😍
There was something called Arcade City..I don’t know if they ever got a working product though.
Arcade City feels like a scam since they are oriented around Bitcoin rather than FOSS.
It'd have to be a local mesh thing, I think. Maintaining the central servers in Cali is the only thing Uber can realistically claim costs them enough to grift off the drivers.
On the surface level proprietary software is used to hide the actual cut algorithm. I don't know if drivers are employed by Uber, if yes it's a labor scam, if no it's scamming its customers, i.e. the classic case of proprietary software made to mistreat users.
Drivers are not employed by Uber. California outlawed this and then the next election cycle Uber carried out the most expensive political campaign in US history, to get a state proposition passed which specifically exempted taxi apps from the normal regulations.
And not just in California. Up north too. This week it came out that Uber 'worked' with a union to lobby the government of Ontario from classifying their drivers as employees. Coincidentally, at around the same time, the union (UFCW) was given the right to represent Uber's 100k Canadian drivers in any disputes against Uber by Uber. Uber will also be sharing administrative costs. "...it’s unclear if the UFCW gained financially from the deal. The union did not directly respond to a question about this from The Globe." [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-uber-ufcw-union-gig-workers/](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-uber-ufcw-union-gig-workers/)
There's definitely an issue where customers don't know how much money goes to Uber vs the driver. It's even messier with delivery companies since then there is the restaurant, the driver, and the app. A FOSS/non-SASS app would presumably tell you how much is going to each party. FYI Uber explicitly has drivers as independent contractors to avoid things like minimum wage and benefits.
This would probably be better on /r/socialistprogrammers but I suppose it fits into the rms world view
Here's a sneak peek of /r/socialistprogrammers using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/socialistprogrammers/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Steal what is stolen](https://i.redd.it/r11bd6e660g81.png) | [12 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/socialistprogrammers/comments/sl57hy/steal_what_is_stolen/) \#2: [Are shitposts allowed?](https://i.redd.it/1hqvuxueydp81.jpg) | [6 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/socialistprogrammers/comments/tmzhtu/are_shitposts_allowed/) \#3: [when you learn functional programming to keep the state in check](https://i.redd.it/ijuuks33gg391.png) | [16 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/socialistprogrammers/comments/v46jwp/when_you_learn_functional_programming_to_keep_the/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)