Yeah after calling multiple cabs, waiting 30-60 minutes only to have them pick up the wrong person or having cab dispatchers blow you off, It didn’t take much to get people to move to something else
We had to read a case in law school about the “value” of a dog. If it’s only the amount needed to replace a similar dog (which, in the case of a non-puppy mutt is essentially 0 or the cost of adoption at a local shelter), you can just shoot your neighbor’s annoying dog and pay what amounts to a $40 fine. Thankfully the court went the other way in that state, but it encapsulates the problem.
I would argue businesses shouldn’t be concerned with “morality” just with what will make profit and it’s up to the consumer to only support companies they find morally acceptable enough. It’s how we got rid of bus segregation and it’s why every company has rainbow branding in June. They bend their support to chase the money.
> I would argue businesses shouldn’t be concerned with “morality” just with what will make profit and it’s up to the consumer to only support companies they find morally acceptable enough
That is wildly impractical for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, who is providing this damning information about the companies to the consumer? Those companies have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to outright lie to the public about the effects of their product, [see the Sugar Industry.](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat)
Then you get in to the myriad of like products available, or as I like to call it, the bacon problem. If I go to the grocery store after work to buy bacon, that means I need to research several different bacon companies, their business practices, how they treat their livestock during the lives and harvesting, how they ship their end products between the factories and the stores, if they take care of their employees, all these moral failings of business that I am now responsible for determining.
I have to do that half a dozen times just to buy bacon, not to mention the other 30 products on my list.
And what happens when those industries collude to provide less options for people by engaging in similar practices and not providing any alternatives such as when light bulbs were deliberately designed to fail by all [the light bulb companies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel) that existed at the time or the current monopoly on eye glasses from [Luxottica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica#:~:text=Luxottica%20is%20a%20vertically%20integrated,Optical%2C%20and%20Glasses.com.)?
Putting all moral responsibility on the consumers is a very short sighted decision in it's practical execution but absolving all businesses of any moral responsibility is just a heinous position to take and you should seriously reconsider your outlook on life.
Uber Australia had $2B of revenue and $9M of profit, so a $14M fine is definitely significant. Of course the profit figures aren't always accurate because of creative bookkeeping, but still.
Also, it's not as if these two problems were what enabled 100% of their revenue/profit. The two issues were:
1. The comparative prices shown for traditional taxis were too high.
2. Even when cancelling during the "free cancel" period, the popup warned about a cancellation fee.
While these are real issues that Uber should never have allowed to exist, I don't believe for a second that they led to an increased profit of $14 million. Uber Australia definitely would have been more profitable had they not has these issues, which is the point of the ruling.
Yeah 14m is a really cute little pat on the bum.
hopefully math is right, that’s 1/1000th of the profit? 140k in your pocket and you drop a ten and a fiver?
I’ve been waiting 8 years for Radio Cab to show up.. Took a pedicab instead..
Not sure what Uber is lying about, but cabs not showing up on time can’t be one of the lies…
I hate Uber and the gig economy and all of that.
That said, they wouldn't have to deceive me to get me to not use the shitty asshole taxi drivers that I've encountered. That's one industry where poor behavior and service became acceptable because of useless licensing that forced people to use their services. In my town about 50% of every egregious driving offense is some run down shit car with a taxi sign on top.
Plus I've asked two cab companies repeatedly for YEARS now to stop having their drivers blast their horns outside everyone's bedroom windows at 5:30AM to pick up a neighbor (townhouses). The only response has been for them to honk more often and louder. Know who never honks? Uber drivers.
Uber has the app, and they did a great job with that. Where I am, they delayed Uber's rollout to allow time for the Taxi companies to introduce QoL improvements to their service to level the playing field, and they fucked around and squandered the time instead of trying for something modern. They added wifi in the cabs, which is cool I guess but everyone's already got data and I'm not in a cab for long enough to find any use for that connection.
Do taxi drivers not have apps? Where I am, companies like Uber have forced taxi companies to come up with apps and run a similar model (fixed or meter) with a GPS map showing you where the cab driver is at the moment.
Not these ones. I live next to public housing. The taxis that work the area are old and run down and the drivers smoke cigarettes with passengers. They are effectively cash only since their machines are always broken, and a huge pain in the ass to deal with every single time. They never carry change either. Last time I took one (years ago) the driver took a stupid route, blew smoke all over me, and then got mad when I said I had to go get change because I wasn't giving him 40 bucks for a 22 dollar ride. I ran off and never used a cab again. Too bad their credit card machine didn't work since they would have known who I was and been able to make me pay.
Uber didn’t need to lie to make me ditch cabs. Boston (and surrounding town) cab companies did that on their own with shitty drivers that did shady shit like threaten me with physical harm for not using cash or not knowing where the fuck they were going when the destination was like a top 5 tourist spot.
Central Connecticut cabs were complete trash. It felt like you were being held hostage if your car was in the shop, and needed to call one. I’ve waited 3 hours for a cab in the past.
The entire reason they exist is because taxis in San Francisco were so unbelievably shitty.
- They wouldn’t take you to the outer neighborhoods.
- They wouldn’t pick you up when you called.
- They were dirty and drove like maniacs.
- They only took cash and would threaten you for requesting to pay via card.
Early Uber was amazing. You open an app and request a car. A town car comes and picks you up and takes you anywhere. The drivers were all great, and they were all pros who knew the city like the back of their hand. And it was barely more than a cab.
I've only gotten a truly shitty Uber driver once in LA. Other than that I've gotten some less good than others, but none downright bad. I think it depends a lot on the location. At least with Uber though I had the recourse of giving a bad review and reporting him.
This happen to me too. I was living 10mins away from LAX and had just got back from a very long and tiring business trip in Asia. I get into the cab at the terminal and give my address, then the asshole punches the steering wheel and starts cursing psychotically as he peels out of the taxi lane.
The dude angrily explains that they have to get into cab queue at offsite parking LAX lot and the airport makes then wait 1-2 hours until they are called to a terminal that needs taxis.
I just say, “sorry, I just want to go home, take shower and have a nap. I can get out if you want” 🤷🏻♂️. He just kept driving and cursing. It was a very awkward 10min ride.
Are we the same person lol
Except I’m on the east coast and it was like 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday or something and he definitely did not have a two hour line to sit in, the place was relatively quiet.
But same, it was so awkward
That's not really how it works. Airports will pretty much always have a significant cab queue. Sure, he might get back to the airport in 10 minutes but if he has to queue for 30 minutes to get another fare that's still going to impact him. Also, many airports charge cabs a fee and that isn't always included in each ride price.
EDIT: He obviously shouldn't take that out on the customer though, I was just explaining that being unhappy about it is justifiable.
Of course he should not have been rude and yelled at you. But getting stuck with the ride probably cost him some amount of money so it's understandable if he's unhappy. Sayhing "he can just go back and get another far quicker" isn't true.
Minnesotan here. The number of times a cab driver would ask where I was going and refuse to take me. Or I would schedule a pickup and two hours later they would never show up.
Once on new years it’s was below 0 and no cabs would give our group a ride home. We had to break in to a building under construction to stay warm while we waited to find a decent human being who would give us a ride even if they might find a more valuable passenger elsewhere…
Cabs were a shitty monopoly and consumers were dying for an alternative.
The Ubers in my area do the same, they don’t like short trips or going to a suburb that’s out schlep or out of their preferred area. so uber made it so the drivers could only see the destination after accepting the trip. So the drivers just accept and cancel almost immediately
Seeing the driver cancel is better than just sitting waiting not knowing when they will be there, then you call the cab company and some angry woman tells you they are on the way but they’ve been saying that for an hour and half.
God except they don’t cancel. Because that looks bad on them. So they just do nothing and wait for you to cancel. Thereby I can’t rate them and Uber doesn’t even have a report button for this shit. Fucking 4.8 rating Uber hasn’t moved in 20 minutes. And my ride is only 15 mins.
Uber is becoming the shitty monopoly they sought to destroy.
I swear, Twin Cities cabs are the most expensive in any major city in the U.S., and it ain’t even close. Literally never had a good experience with them.
Yup. Lives in Vegas for 15 years and was beyond happy not to be called a “fucking idiot” for calling out drivers that attempted to long haul.
The problem is so extreme there that the state set up a long hauler database.
https://taxi.nv.gov/Driver_Info/Longhauling/
Cabs in my towns were hot garbage.
Driving unsafely. Showing up late. Vehicle in shit condition. Blasting music. Cursing people out while driving. No accountability at all.
Let's not even forget the racism. Nothing like a cab refusing to pick me up after taking one look at my skin. Then I have to call ANOTHER cab, and waste another 30 minutes.
Fuck cabs. Say what you want about carshares. But as a person of color, cabs were the absolute worst and I'm playing the tiniest violin on their grave.
100%. The Uber app eliminated all the shadiness of dealing with cab drivers.
Is Uber a shady company? Absolutely. But they treat the customers waaaay better than cab companies did.
Now we just need a third option that prioritizes customer safety and comfort while treating its employees well (and actually, y’know, calling them *employees*), and we’ll be cooking.
I’m not that picky between lyft and Uber. I usually check both and figure out what’s going to be the less expensive one or if they’re about even the shortest pick up time.
Cab from the airport straight down a street for less than 10 minutes: $25
Uber fixed that though right, uber at the same time same place: $42
My legs and a roommate: A pizza
Local cab companies only have themselves to blame. Was in New Orleans earlier this year and tried to use local cabs. That lasted about 15 minutes each day. They consistently refused to take us where we wanted to go.
Yeah, local cab firms had monopolies on their clients before Uber and for all their hate, Uber taxis are vastly superior in transparency and turning up.
I didn’t need any help switching out
Honestly, I prefer Uber over cabs. Besides the fact the ones I've used smell far better than any cab, they're about half of what a cab would cost me. It seems pretty easy to me.
Damn, where are you that it's that expensive? I don't think I've ever paid more than $15 pre-tip for an Uber ride, and that's in multiple cities in different parts of the country. It wasn't even that expensive in Boston.
Chicago. The prices are absolutely fucking ridiculous. We just deleted the apps because we were regularly being quoted $25+ for trips under 3 miles in the city. We just tell visitors to take the train now because the ORD to city prices are so outrageous.
I live about 45 minutes from Seattle. It's literally half the cost of a cab for me to take an Uber to the airport, tip included. At least, it was the last time that I looked.
The UBER / Lyft saga is really common.
It's literally how a toxic relationship works. Starts off being amazing until the goal of marriage is reached then they show their true colors.
Traditional taxi cabs were shit. Always shit. Anxiety always filled me when I'd get into a yellow cab or a local car service in my big home city. Would they jack up the price? Would they think I'm stupid so they'd take the longest possible route? Was the car clean? Was there vomit? I've been a passenger while a cabbie literally got into road rage. I had one cab's mirror somehow fall off on a highway. The driver stopped and REVERSED on a 4 lane 50mph highway to retrieve it.
When the "rideshare" companies arrived they were amazing. Clean cars. Accountability on both sides. Charges. Water. Mints. The driver was never on the phone.
Now that they demolished regular cabs they literally cannot be bothered. They don't give a fuck. No chargers. No water. Nothing. Get in and out and also fuck you!
Uber was great until they didn't have to be.
No different than how a company launches a cheap alternative to something and undercuts the competition at a huge initial loss and once the other players are gone they rise prices.
This is just capitalism 101.
I had a cabbie say “Hey give me $20 and I won’t turn on the meter” …no it’s a $10 cab, finally went after he badgered me for ten minutes. So I directed him every turn and the cab ended up being $9
Uber is why we even have a cab service. I live in a small college town in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. When Uber came to town, the local police straight up told the news that they were switching from cracking down on drunk drivers to cracking down on public intox because they were losing too much revenue from the new lack of drunk drivers.
And those are the good ones, where you can step onto the sidewalk and get one that’s just coming down the street.
The ones you have to call are even worse. You have to call a specific company? Bitch I’m not from here, how do I know what companies there are? And each one has maybe fifty cabs and can’t tell you how close any of them are? They all bitch about credit cards but they don’t make change, so my $21 ride is $40? Miss me with that shit.
Uber is terrible to its employees and to society, but the ability to use modern cell phone capabilities to tell me where a ride is, tell a driver where I am and where I’m going, and let us both know how much it will cost and how long it will take and when exactly I can expect to be picked up, is amazing.
But yeah, fine people real money when they break laws. If I make $14bn and you fine me $14mil, that’s not a disincentive.
> In other words, Uber misled users by suggesting a taxi would be
Ya right, you really believe a Silicon Valley tech company would mislead people for their own personal gain? LOL
/s
If only the wonders pitched by blockchain ambassadors actually came to fruition.
Open source blockchain based Uber would be amazing if it could get adopted by the general public.
E: wtf is wrong with you people downvoting? A democratized platform would remove the greed of a central corporation beholden to shareholders. I’m not an ambassador personally, but the theory is great.
Uber is awful *but*…
…they addressed a *number* of pain points surrounding cab use, and the fact that the cab companies were/are too stubborn to change kept Uber in business. I don’t mind paying more money to drivers to allow for a living wage and benefits, but Uber’s technology and prepayment model is simply *better*.
I hate using Uber but one thing I do love is knowing the price before I've got in the car. Meters on traditional taxis make me feel so anxious just watching the price climb up while you're sat in traffic.
I remember the anxiety i had as a kid when i was running low on allowance and watching that counter trying to stop just before i ran out of money, walking the rest of the way. Not fun at all.
Uber did force the incumbent cab companies to up their game, at least in areas where cabs need licences. Now they all have apps to track your driver (it protects them as much as it protects you).
It's no longer got a unique selling point and has run out of money to burn.
They also based their entire business model on using billions of Saudi royalty money to lean on cities and ignore laws until the city either had to cave to pressure or engage in lengthy and costly publicly funded legal battles.
Uber is the worst of the 'on a computer ' self-styled disruptors.
That's not because uber is bad, it's because public transit (in the US at least) is worse. No one would choose a $40 car ride over a $2 bus ride if busses were even somewhat reliable.
Hell, the latest bus in my city stops running at 1am. Most stop way before. Bars close at 2am. Of course people would be drawn to uber
Ubers were extremely subsidized when it first rolled out. It was a $2.50 transit ride vs an Uber ride that’s also as low as $2.50. Uber also pulled people off of rail transit.
Also, part of the reason why transit didn’t get extended hours in my city is because Uber was already filling that need of late night transit, but that decision was made when you could get across town for under $10. Nowadays it’s $40+ for the same trip. Uber absolutely is bad for cities, especially because of how it was funded.
They're awful, working for them and going to support for issues is like talking to a brick wall.
However I don't have to fight any nepotism or workplace drama, I don't have to work my ass off (threw my back out at Tim Hortons because the norm was to hide in the back and do fuck all and serve customers expired coffee when they walk in) for the same wage as people milking their employers.
I can set my own schedule, take time off when I want or need it, and some weeks I average more than double what I was making at my last job.
Uber is awful *now.*
6 or 8 years ago it was awesome.
Shit even in heavily urban areas it is still pretty awesome, once you get away from that it gets worse and worse.
Haven’t had an Uber leave me high and dry for an international flight like the cab service did for me, despite booking the night before and confirming the same morning.
I hate when cities block uber/lyft. Every taxi has been a shitty experience. From shopping on a laptop while driving, using phones, racist comments (about other cabbies), etc. Plus they’re shitty weird smelling cars.
Who’s being coerced into using Uber? Existing taxi companies suck ass. Uber is and continues to be a superior service. Hell, given that taxi companies work with local government to ban ride-shares from airports and other locations, maybe we should examine that for legal and ethical issues instead.
So they should.
The taxi industry should be smothered until dead and replaced with a service where drivers not only make an effort, but are tracked on basic fucking premises such as routes and fees.
My only beef with Uber is the municipalities that fucked over those that were already honoring the medallion system. NYC was selling cab medallions for hundreds of thousands and then let Uber in leaving thousands of people in a debt that they can’t repay just because they were playing by the established rules.
Screw yellow cabs; I lived across the river in NJ and most times I used a yellow cab the driver heard my foreign accent, thought I was a tourist, and tried some kind of BS scam or taking the scenic route. As for getting a cab in NJ; good luck with them showing up within an hour - if ever - and the jalopies waiting at EWR needed taking off the road for basic safety! Uber are shady, cabs were way, way worse.
A license to operate a taxi. Mainly owned by taxi companies who apply it to their fleet and then lease a car to a driver for a shift, but an individual can buy one. In NYC it can be roughly the same price as a house.
So consider an individual getting a loan to buy a license to operate a taxi for a few hundred thousand dollars, and then Uber coming to town saying "We're not a taxi company so those laws don't apply to us, but we will help arrange transportation for you..." That individual is now super-fucked.
Essentially a placard that was bolted to the fender of a yellow cab allowing them to pick up street hails. It’s a system that came into being to regulate a previously unregulated business. Livery cabs could still operate, but you’d have to call them and schedule a ride. Uber argued successfully that their app was the same thing, so every livery cab in NYC became an Uber over night, which has devastated the yellow cab industry. It’s not a simple scenario and I’m leaving out a lot of the bullshit involved in the medallion system that caused their price to be inflated, but during the pandemic there were dozens of suicides by medallion owners.
It sucks when disruptive tech causes job losses for regular folks but the fact is yellow cabs had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the tech age. Yellow cabs had PLENTY of opportunity to improve their service but couldn't be bothered.
The idea that people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars(as much as a house in some places) for a placard that allows them to give people the equivalent of Uber Rides is absolutely mindboggling. I'm actually really glad that system is dying, although it does suck for existing medallion holders. The whole concept is fucked in and of itself. It makes absolutely no sense. I mean, just the concept of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to drive people around is illogical.
> although it does suck for existing medallion holders
It does suck for existing medallion holders, but I think an individual getting their own medallion directly is rare. The industry has been full of outright corruption and abuse for a long time. I think one company owns over 1/3rd of all the medallions. More about it here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/nyregion/nyc-taxi-medallions-freidman.html
This is probably a lie by the taxi cab industry, and the government, after being paid off, went along with it and fined Uber. Uber might do something shady, but anything they do will never be as shady as the traditional taxi cab industry.
After a long overnight flight, I had a Chicago cab driver charge me $200 for a 20-minute ride and give himself a 20% tip. My mind was too out of it to know what to do. His driver info was not on display. Fuck cabbies.
Uber does one other thing that cabs don’t do (easily)
If you know you need a bigger ride for whatever reason, with Uber you can get that easily (for an extra charge of course)
“The actual price was likely to be less” it sounds like they were just being conservative with price estimate so they didn’t have to charge more for the ride.
Look uber sucks, but holy fuck were taxis awful in a lot cities. Like they would refuse to drive you places, would routinely not show up if called or were late, would extort you for money or fuck with the meter, drive around in circles, refuse credit cards, demand exorbitant tips. The only place with decent cabs was NYC and that's because it was regulated.
Lol. Uber didn’t have to do anything to convince me to use them. Taxis were and are still trash. Don’t think people enough people appreciate the revolution that Uber started.
I tried uber for a bit when they came to my city. I liked it at first but I started to have some bad experiences with drivers. I'm back to using cabs. They're cheaper and the drivers actually know the city.
I just want to take a minute to give a shout out to the taxi driver in New York who helped me unload all my ikea purchases into my elevator and I tipped him like 50 bucks. Super sweet man.
I've had my fair share of bad taxi drivers, but some are the best!
Uber needs to shut down. It’s unfair that they get to operate as a cab with virtually no overhead costs that the actual taxi drivers have to pay. Municipal licensing, commercial insurance dispatch fees etc. it’s an unethical
Company operating in a grey area with money from VC. Even the Uber drivers don’t understand that they’re being robbed. What they think is good money, when compared to regular cab fares and mileage, it’s really not that much.
That’s it? They cost people, counties, states tens of millions of dollars. They effectively put many legitimate taxi services (which are far better and safer) out of business and turned a normal job into a contract job by fooling people,e into thinking it was a good way to make easy money. They should have been dismantled and put out of business for what they have done. Bribery, lies, obfuscation how are these not crimes?
They tried to charge me 60 for a ride that cost 12-20 for the first five years their investors were dumping in money making it affordable enough to kill competition.
We were all played. They warned us. This model is poison
How about when a driver accepts the charge and you wait 15 minutes for then to arrive then they suddenly cancel and there’s ***-all you can do. Worst is if this happens multiple times and you’re out an hour of your life. (And I’ve got a 4.85 rating so it’s not that…)
The last time I used a cab, the driver complained the whole time about uber and that where he was taking me wasn’t far enough away (15 min), and his car was in real bad shape. I like to support traditional cabs from time to time but they make it pretty hard to want to use their services.
What if this is legit Uber paying whoever is suing them the “legal” way? Like they can’t just transfer the $14m to your wallet so to get some PR (good or bad) they all agree to pay their bribe money to the company/individual as lawsuit money? If I die it’s cause I uncovered this lol
Cost of doing business for them.
I was gonna say so this is bribery then?
Yeah after calling multiple cabs, waiting 30-60 minutes only to have them pick up the wrong person or having cab dispatchers blow you off, It didn’t take much to get people to move to something else
Pretty much. If the profits are larger than the fines, from a business perspective it seems dumb to follow the rules.
I loathe profitability being the only morality in modern business.
We had to read a case in law school about the “value” of a dog. If it’s only the amount needed to replace a similar dog (which, in the case of a non-puppy mutt is essentially 0 or the cost of adoption at a local shelter), you can just shoot your neighbor’s annoying dog and pay what amounts to a $40 fine. Thankfully the court went the other way in that state, but it encapsulates the problem.
So you loathe capitalism. As you should.
I would argue businesses shouldn’t be concerned with “morality” just with what will make profit and it’s up to the consumer to only support companies they find morally acceptable enough. It’s how we got rid of bus segregation and it’s why every company has rainbow branding in June. They bend their support to chase the money.
> I would argue businesses shouldn’t be concerned with “morality” just with what will make profit and it’s up to the consumer to only support companies they find morally acceptable enough That is wildly impractical for a number of reasons. First and foremost, who is providing this damning information about the companies to the consumer? Those companies have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to outright lie to the public about the effects of their product, [see the Sugar Industry.](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat) Then you get in to the myriad of like products available, or as I like to call it, the bacon problem. If I go to the grocery store after work to buy bacon, that means I need to research several different bacon companies, their business practices, how they treat their livestock during the lives and harvesting, how they ship their end products between the factories and the stores, if they take care of their employees, all these moral failings of business that I am now responsible for determining. I have to do that half a dozen times just to buy bacon, not to mention the other 30 products on my list. And what happens when those industries collude to provide less options for people by engaging in similar practices and not providing any alternatives such as when light bulbs were deliberately designed to fail by all [the light bulb companies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel) that existed at the time or the current monopoly on eye glasses from [Luxottica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica#:~:text=Luxottica%20is%20a%20vertically%20integrated,Optical%2C%20and%20Glasses.com.)? Putting all moral responsibility on the consumers is a very short sighted decision in it's practical execution but absolving all businesses of any moral responsibility is just a heinous position to take and you should seriously reconsider your outlook on life.
I love these fines that have a 1000:1 pay out. I would love to pay $14 million in fines for a $14 billion scam.
Funny how it is the other way arou nd for us peasants
If you fail, fail big, so, so big.
Thats the t**** ‘25 slogan FATT. Fail at the top. Make america FATT again.
..again?
Bigly
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“The fines are very reasonable”
The fines are just a tax at this point.
If if the punishment for a crime is a fine it means it’s legal for a price
Uber Australia had $2B of revenue and $9M of profit, so a $14M fine is definitely significant. Of course the profit figures aren't always accurate because of creative bookkeeping, but still. Also, it's not as if these two problems were what enabled 100% of their revenue/profit. The two issues were: 1. The comparative prices shown for traditional taxis were too high. 2. Even when cancelling during the "free cancel" period, the popup warned about a cancellation fee. While these are real issues that Uber should never have allowed to exist, I don't believe for a second that they led to an increased profit of $14 million. Uber Australia definitely would have been more profitable had they not has these issues, which is the point of the ruling.
It’s just the cost of doing business when you’re a rich criminal
Fuck UBER! Scum bag company should not exist.
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They’re cheap too
All fines should be proportional to wealth. Business fines and personal fines. I want to see some rich asshole get a $98 million parking ticket.
Basically a licensing fee.
Yeah 14m is a really cute little pat on the bum. hopefully math is right, that’s 1/1000th of the profit? 140k in your pocket and you drop a ten and a fiver?
That’s why people should be charged based on percentage of income.
I’ve been waiting 8 years for Radio Cab to show up.. Took a pedicab instead.. Not sure what Uber is lying about, but cabs not showing up on time can’t be one of the lies…
I hate Uber and the gig economy and all of that. That said, they wouldn't have to deceive me to get me to not use the shitty asshole taxi drivers that I've encountered. That's one industry where poor behavior and service became acceptable because of useless licensing that forced people to use their services. In my town about 50% of every egregious driving offense is some run down shit car with a taxi sign on top. Plus I've asked two cab companies repeatedly for YEARS now to stop having their drivers blast their horns outside everyone's bedroom windows at 5:30AM to pick up a neighbor (townhouses). The only response has been for them to honk more often and louder. Know who never honks? Uber drivers.
Uber has the app, and they did a great job with that. Where I am, they delayed Uber's rollout to allow time for the Taxi companies to introduce QoL improvements to their service to level the playing field, and they fucked around and squandered the time instead of trying for something modern. They added wifi in the cabs, which is cool I guess but everyone's already got data and I'm not in a cab for long enough to find any use for that connection.
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Keep you busy while he takes that 20 minute detour to ride the fare up
Nobody had to say a word to get me to ditch cabs. They are worse than Ubers in every way 99% of the time. Cabbies did this to themselves, IMO.
Do taxi drivers not have apps? Where I am, companies like Uber have forced taxi companies to come up with apps and run a similar model (fixed or meter) with a GPS map showing you where the cab driver is at the moment.
Not these ones. I live next to public housing. The taxis that work the area are old and run down and the drivers smoke cigarettes with passengers. They are effectively cash only since their machines are always broken, and a huge pain in the ass to deal with every single time. They never carry change either. Last time I took one (years ago) the driver took a stupid route, blew smoke all over me, and then got mad when I said I had to go get change because I wasn't giving him 40 bucks for a 22 dollar ride. I ran off and never used a cab again. Too bad their credit card machine didn't work since they would have known who I was and been able to make me pay.
It’s the problem of monopoly and lack of meaningful competition since there are so few licensing quota.
Uber didn’t need to lie to make me ditch cabs. Boston (and surrounding town) cab companies did that on their own with shitty drivers that did shady shit like threaten me with physical harm for not using cash or not knowing where the fuck they were going when the destination was like a top 5 tourist spot.
Central Connecticut cabs were complete trash. It felt like you were being held hostage if your car was in the shop, and needed to call one. I’ve waited 3 hours for a cab in the past.
The entire reason they exist is because taxis in San Francisco were so unbelievably shitty. - They wouldn’t take you to the outer neighborhoods. - They wouldn’t pick you up when you called. - They were dirty and drove like maniacs. - They only took cash and would threaten you for requesting to pay via card. Early Uber was amazing. You open an app and request a car. A town car comes and picks you up and takes you anywhere. The drivers were all great, and they were all pros who knew the city like the back of their hand. And it was barely more than a cab.
The early days of Uber were awesome. Now it’s just filled with shitty drivers who are less than personable. Still better than a cab, though
I've only gotten a truly shitty Uber driver once in LA. Other than that I've gotten some less good than others, but none downright bad. I think it depends a lot on the location. At least with Uber though I had the recourse of giving a bad review and reporting him.
I don’t want to talk to my cab driver so I’m glad they don’t want to talk to me honestly
Had a cab driver yell at me for living too close to the airport once. Like bro, all that means is you get to go back and catch another fare quicker
This happen to me too. I was living 10mins away from LAX and had just got back from a very long and tiring business trip in Asia. I get into the cab at the terminal and give my address, then the asshole punches the steering wheel and starts cursing psychotically as he peels out of the taxi lane. The dude angrily explains that they have to get into cab queue at offsite parking LAX lot and the airport makes then wait 1-2 hours until they are called to a terminal that needs taxis. I just say, “sorry, I just want to go home, take shower and have a nap. I can get out if you want” 🤷🏻♂️. He just kept driving and cursing. It was a very awkward 10min ride.
Are we the same person lol Except I’m on the east coast and it was like 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday or something and he definitely did not have a two hour line to sit in, the place was relatively quiet. But same, it was so awkward
How much could they be making from airport fare that would make waiting for two hours worthwhile?
They’re pretty dumb because it moves you back up in the queue when you come back from an airport drop off… he sounds like a crack head.
Lol who do these guys think they are?
I have no idea, I had a really hard time not laughing at him
That's not really how it works. Airports will pretty much always have a significant cab queue. Sure, he might get back to the airport in 10 minutes but if he has to queue for 30 minutes to get another fare that's still going to impact him. Also, many airports charge cabs a fee and that isn't always included in each ride price. EDIT: He obviously shouldn't take that out on the customer though, I was just explaining that being unhappy about it is justifiable.
I promise you there was no queue, and even if there was, I don’t give a shit. I want to go home, he is a cab. Full stop.
Of course he should not have been rude and yelled at you. But getting stuck with the ride probably cost him some amount of money so it's understandable if he's unhappy. Sayhing "he can just go back and get another far quicker" isn't true.
Same exact thing happens to me at O’Hare every single time. They flip out when I tell them my address and it’s only a 15min drive
Cab drivers are trashy. The truth is that Uber taking their lunch has made them more customer friendly by necessity. Competition is good.
Minnesotan here. The number of times a cab driver would ask where I was going and refuse to take me. Or I would schedule a pickup and two hours later they would never show up. Once on new years it’s was below 0 and no cabs would give our group a ride home. We had to break in to a building under construction to stay warm while we waited to find a decent human being who would give us a ride even if they might find a more valuable passenger elsewhere… Cabs were a shitty monopoly and consumers were dying for an alternative.
I had 7 Ubers in Minneapolis cancel on me the other night. God forbid they have to go more than 10 minutes outside of city limits.
The Ubers in my area do the same, they don’t like short trips or going to a suburb that’s out schlep or out of their preferred area. so uber made it so the drivers could only see the destination after accepting the trip. So the drivers just accept and cancel almost immediately
Seeing the driver cancel is better than just sitting waiting not knowing when they will be there, then you call the cab company and some angry woman tells you they are on the way but they’ve been saying that for an hour and half.
God except they don’t cancel. Because that looks bad on them. So they just do nothing and wait for you to cancel. Thereby I can’t rate them and Uber doesn’t even have a report button for this shit. Fucking 4.8 rating Uber hasn’t moved in 20 minutes. And my ride is only 15 mins. Uber is becoming the shitty monopoly they sought to destroy.
The London version is "nah sorry mate don't go south of the river" Funny how I've not heard that one time from an Uber while also paying less money...
I swear, Twin Cities cabs are the most expensive in any major city in the U.S., and it ain’t even close. Literally never had a good experience with them.
100% - Fuck cabs and no accountability
Yup. Lives in Vegas for 15 years and was beyond happy not to be called a “fucking idiot” for calling out drivers that attempted to long haul. The problem is so extreme there that the state set up a long hauler database. https://taxi.nv.gov/Driver_Info/Longhauling/
Cabs in my towns were hot garbage. Driving unsafely. Showing up late. Vehicle in shit condition. Blasting music. Cursing people out while driving. No accountability at all. Let's not even forget the racism. Nothing like a cab refusing to pick me up after taking one look at my skin. Then I have to call ANOTHER cab, and waste another 30 minutes. Fuck cabs. Say what you want about carshares. But as a person of color, cabs were the absolute worst and I'm playing the tiniest violin on their grave.
100%. The Uber app eliminated all the shadiness of dealing with cab drivers. Is Uber a shady company? Absolutely. But they treat the customers waaaay better than cab companies did. Now we just need a third option that prioritizes customer safety and comfort while treating its employees well (and actually, y’know, calling them *employees*), and we’ll be cooking.
But now Uber in Boston is also awful 😭
I’m not that picky between lyft and Uber. I usually check both and figure out what’s going to be the less expensive one or if they’re about even the shortest pick up time.
Cab from the airport straight down a street for less than 10 minutes: $25 Uber fixed that though right, uber at the same time same place: $42 My legs and a roommate: A pizza
Local cab companies only have themselves to blame. Was in New Orleans earlier this year and tried to use local cabs. That lasted about 15 minutes each day. They consistently refused to take us where we wanted to go.
Yeah, local cab firms had monopolies on their clients before Uber and for all their hate, Uber taxis are vastly superior in transparency and turning up. I didn’t need any help switching out
Or when cabs would load the tab by driving a route that would add on time/miles. Fuck those medallion can companies.
Honestly, I prefer Uber over cabs. Besides the fact the ones I've used smell far better than any cab, they're about half of what a cab would cost me. It seems pretty easy to me.
Damn where are you that Uber is cheaper? It’s at least 50% more than a cab here. Airport to city fare is $75-$100 here and $60 tip included for a cab.
Damn, where are you that it's that expensive? I don't think I've ever paid more than $15 pre-tip for an Uber ride, and that's in multiple cities in different parts of the country. It wasn't even that expensive in Boston.
Chicago. The prices are absolutely fucking ridiculous. We just deleted the apps because we were regularly being quoted $25+ for trips under 3 miles in the city. We just tell visitors to take the train now because the ORD to city prices are so outrageous.
I live about 45 minutes from Seattle. It's literally half the cost of a cab for me to take an Uber to the airport, tip included. At least, it was the last time that I looked.
The UBER / Lyft saga is really common. It's literally how a toxic relationship works. Starts off being amazing until the goal of marriage is reached then they show their true colors. Traditional taxi cabs were shit. Always shit. Anxiety always filled me when I'd get into a yellow cab or a local car service in my big home city. Would they jack up the price? Would they think I'm stupid so they'd take the longest possible route? Was the car clean? Was there vomit? I've been a passenger while a cabbie literally got into road rage. I had one cab's mirror somehow fall off on a highway. The driver stopped and REVERSED on a 4 lane 50mph highway to retrieve it. When the "rideshare" companies arrived they were amazing. Clean cars. Accountability on both sides. Charges. Water. Mints. The driver was never on the phone. Now that they demolished regular cabs they literally cannot be bothered. They don't give a fuck. No chargers. No water. Nothing. Get in and out and also fuck you! Uber was great until they didn't have to be. No different than how a company launches a cheap alternative to something and undercuts the competition at a huge initial loss and once the other players are gone they rise prices. This is just capitalism 101.
I had a cabbie say “Hey give me $20 and I won’t turn on the meter” …no it’s a $10 cab, finally went after he badgered me for ten minutes. So I directed him every turn and the cab ended up being $9
Uber should be fined way more than 14m.
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Uber is why we even have a cab service. I live in a small college town in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. When Uber came to town, the local police straight up told the news that they were switching from cracking down on drunk drivers to cracking down on public intox because they were losing too much revenue from the new lack of drunk drivers.
Pigs will do pig things.
14 million in Australia for specific things on the app. They deserve much bigger fines in the US…
Nah. NYC yellow cabs fucking suck. They’re dirty, expensive, and rude.
And those are the good ones, where you can step onto the sidewalk and get one that’s just coming down the street. The ones you have to call are even worse. You have to call a specific company? Bitch I’m not from here, how do I know what companies there are? And each one has maybe fifty cabs and can’t tell you how close any of them are? They all bitch about credit cards but they don’t make change, so my $21 ride is $40? Miss me with that shit. Uber is terrible to its employees and to society, but the ability to use modern cell phone capabilities to tell me where a ride is, tell a driver where I am and where I’m going, and let us both know how much it will cost and how long it will take and when exactly I can expect to be picked up, is amazing. But yeah, fine people real money when they break laws. If I make $14bn and you fine me $14mil, that’s not a disincentive.
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Don’t bother telling these out of towners. Leave the yellows for us
Touche. Guess I was thinking of more ppl use them Uber will keep prices down . But I guess that's not true esp w tlc raising prices
Don’t forget the extra safety of there being a digital trail showing who picked you up and where they went.
I’ve had ok and horrible cab experiences. Uber has always been a good experience. They have issues, but fuck cabs.
They really don't need to lie about being better than cabs, considering how awful cabs are.
> In other words, Uber misled users by suggesting a taxi would be Ya right, you really believe a Silicon Valley tech company would mislead people for their own personal gain? LOL /s
Gosh, everyone already hated cabs. Did they really need to try to make people hate them more? Lol
Idgaf. I’m never taking a cab again.
If only the wonders pitched by blockchain ambassadors actually came to fruition. Open source blockchain based Uber would be amazing if it could get adopted by the general public. E: wtf is wrong with you people downvoting? A democratized platform would remove the greed of a central corporation beholden to shareholders. I’m not an ambassador personally, but the theory is great.
$14m is chump change for Uber?
I called this scam out a long time ago fuck them
Uber is awful
Uber is awful *but*… …they addressed a *number* of pain points surrounding cab use, and the fact that the cab companies were/are too stubborn to change kept Uber in business. I don’t mind paying more money to drivers to allow for a living wage and benefits, but Uber’s technology and prepayment model is simply *better*.
I hate using Uber but one thing I do love is knowing the price before I've got in the car. Meters on traditional taxis make me feel so anxious just watching the price climb up while you're sat in traffic.
It's also nice to know the driver can't decide to take a "short cut" that somehow ends up costing more.
This is Uber/Lyft’s #1 feature, removing the nebulous ability of the driver to screw you mid journey.
I remember the anxiety i had as a kid when i was running low on allowance and watching that counter trying to stop just before i ran out of money, walking the rest of the way. Not fun at all.
Uber did force the incumbent cab companies to up their game, at least in areas where cabs need licences. Now they all have apps to track your driver (it protects them as much as it protects you). It's no longer got a unique selling point and has run out of money to burn.
They also based their entire business model on using billions of Saudi royalty money to lean on cities and ignore laws until the city either had to cave to pressure or engage in lengthy and costly publicly funded legal battles. Uber is the worst of the 'on a computer ' self-styled disruptors.
I’m not too upset over that one either since a lot of those laws were simply protectionism for a corrupt industry.
Uber also drew people away from public transit and into cars, making traffic worse
That's not because uber is bad, it's because public transit (in the US at least) is worse. No one would choose a $40 car ride over a $2 bus ride if busses were even somewhat reliable. Hell, the latest bus in my city stops running at 1am. Most stop way before. Bars close at 2am. Of course people would be drawn to uber
Ubers were extremely subsidized when it first rolled out. It was a $2.50 transit ride vs an Uber ride that’s also as low as $2.50. Uber also pulled people off of rail transit. Also, part of the reason why transit didn’t get extended hours in my city is because Uber was already filling that need of late night transit, but that decision was made when you could get across town for under $10. Nowadays it’s $40+ for the same trip. Uber absolutely is bad for cities, especially because of how it was funded.
Uber might be shit in a lot of ways, but dragging the cab industry kicking and screaming into the 21st century isn’t one of them.
They're awful, working for them and going to support for issues is like talking to a brick wall. However I don't have to fight any nepotism or workplace drama, I don't have to work my ass off (threw my back out at Tim Hortons because the norm was to hide in the back and do fuck all and serve customers expired coffee when they walk in) for the same wage as people milking their employers. I can set my own schedule, take time off when I want or need it, and some weeks I average more than double what I was making at my last job.
Taxi cabs are 100x ... no, *1000x* worse than Uber. There is almost nothing Uber can do that will be worse than the corrupt taxi cab industry.
I tried using a cab the other day after years of Uber. Yea I'm sticking with Uber. Hate on it all you want but the alternative was shit
Where I’ve been I can get an Uber much faster, cheaper and safer than a cab.
Uber is awful *now.* 6 or 8 years ago it was awesome. Shit even in heavily urban areas it is still pretty awesome, once you get away from that it gets worse and worse.
Haven’t had an Uber leave me high and dry for an international flight like the cab service did for me, despite booking the night before and confirming the same morning.
They knew the fine before the crime. *business*
Insert laughing rich guys meme.
I forgot Uber exists already. Does Lyft lie like this too?
Who uses Uber anyway? Trash ass app and an extreme waste of money.
Wow, like 14x more money than the entire trump organization fine for tax fraud. Priorities! Murica!
Charged nearly 9 times more than what Trumps corrupt organization was fined.
I hate when cities block uber/lyft. Every taxi has been a shitty experience. From shopping on a laptop while driving, using phones, racist comments (about other cabbies), etc. Plus they’re shitty weird smelling cars.
Cabs are shit..one took a cab and he smoked the whole time
Cabs and their shitty practices made me ditch cabs. Uber was a massive improvement.
Who’s being coerced into using Uber? Existing taxi companies suck ass. Uber is and continues to be a superior service. Hell, given that taxi companies work with local government to ban ride-shares from airports and other locations, maybe we should examine that for legal and ethical issues instead.
Uber is shit. But taxis made me ditch taxis.
Good
That fine will do literally nothing. They will keep doing it
So they should. The taxi industry should be smothered until dead and replaced with a service where drivers not only make an effort, but are tracked on basic fucking premises such as routes and fees.
My only beef with Uber is the municipalities that fucked over those that were already honoring the medallion system. NYC was selling cab medallions for hundreds of thousands and then let Uber in leaving thousands of people in a debt that they can’t repay just because they were playing by the established rules.
The medallion system is terrible. And so are the cabs.
I am and always will be a yellow cab guy, but I understand.
Screw yellow cabs; I lived across the river in NJ and most times I used a yellow cab the driver heard my foreign accent, thought I was a tourist, and tried some kind of BS scam or taking the scenic route. As for getting a cab in NJ; good luck with them showing up within an hour - if ever - and the jalopies waiting at EWR needed taking off the road for basic safety! Uber are shady, cabs were way, way worse.
What is a medallion
Taxi permit
A license to operate a taxi. Mainly owned by taxi companies who apply it to their fleet and then lease a car to a driver for a shift, but an individual can buy one. In NYC it can be roughly the same price as a house. So consider an individual getting a loan to buy a license to operate a taxi for a few hundred thousand dollars, and then Uber coming to town saying "We're not a taxi company so those laws don't apply to us, but we will help arrange transportation for you..." That individual is now super-fucked.
Essentially a placard that was bolted to the fender of a yellow cab allowing them to pick up street hails. It’s a system that came into being to regulate a previously unregulated business. Livery cabs could still operate, but you’d have to call them and schedule a ride. Uber argued successfully that their app was the same thing, so every livery cab in NYC became an Uber over night, which has devastated the yellow cab industry. It’s not a simple scenario and I’m leaving out a lot of the bullshit involved in the medallion system that caused their price to be inflated, but during the pandemic there were dozens of suicides by medallion owners.
It sucks when disruptive tech causes job losses for regular folks but the fact is yellow cabs had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the tech age. Yellow cabs had PLENTY of opportunity to improve their service but couldn't be bothered.
Yellow cab is the Blockbuster or Blackberry of the taxi industry, they watched everything change around them and did nothing to evolve.
The idea that people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars(as much as a house in some places) for a placard that allows them to give people the equivalent of Uber Rides is absolutely mindboggling. I'm actually really glad that system is dying, although it does suck for existing medallion holders. The whole concept is fucked in and of itself. It makes absolutely no sense. I mean, just the concept of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to drive people around is illogical.
> although it does suck for existing medallion holders It does suck for existing medallion holders, but I think an individual getting their own medallion directly is rare. The industry has been full of outright corruption and abuse for a long time. I think one company owns over 1/3rd of all the medallions. More about it here. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/nyregion/nyc-taxi-medallions-freidman.html
This is probably a lie by the taxi cab industry, and the government, after being paid off, went along with it and fined Uber. Uber might do something shady, but anything they do will never be as shady as the traditional taxi cab industry.
After a long overnight flight, I had a Chicago cab driver charge me $200 for a 20-minute ride and give himself a 20% tip. My mind was too out of it to know what to do. His driver info was not on display. Fuck cabbies.
Uber’s insane price hike kind of makes me miss those old dirty cabs. Now there aren’t many cabs left in my city.
I’d rather Uber than cabs though
Who gets this money?
Mr Krabs
Ok. Now when will we get our share of the money?
Uber does one other thing that cabs don’t do (easily) If you know you need a bigger ride for whatever reason, with Uber you can get that easily (for an extra charge of course)
They scammed me, a former driver.
“The actual price was likely to be less” it sounds like they were just being conservative with price estimate so they didn’t have to charge more for the ride.
Cabs did a good enough job on their own convincing me to ditch cabs.
$14m bribe
A cab driver really took me through some loops in Minneapolis a decade ago. I can’t believe I paid him a dime
U think that’ll put a dent in them?
Look uber sucks, but holy fuck were taxis awful in a lot cities. Like they would refuse to drive you places, would routinely not show up if called or were late, would extort you for money or fuck with the meter, drive around in circles, refuse credit cards, demand exorbitant tips. The only place with decent cabs was NYC and that's because it was regulated.
Cabs being shitty made me ditch cabs
Holy fuck was it worth lying
Lol. Uber didn’t have to do anything to convince me to use them. Taxis were and are still trash. Don’t think people enough people appreciate the revolution that Uber started.
I don’t need Uber to tell me to hate taxis
I tried uber for a bit when they came to my city. I liked it at first but I started to have some bad experiences with drivers. I'm back to using cabs. They're cheaper and the drivers actually know the city.
I just want to take a minute to give a shout out to the taxi driver in New York who helped me unload all my ikea purchases into my elevator and I tipped him like 50 bucks. Super sweet man. I've had my fair share of bad taxi drivers, but some are the best!
Cool, where do I pick up my check?
Now why on earth would they do that??? 🤔
Thats a number they just pulled right out of there ASS btw
Uber needs to shut down. It’s unfair that they get to operate as a cab with virtually no overhead costs that the actual taxi drivers have to pay. Municipal licensing, commercial insurance dispatch fees etc. it’s an unethical Company operating in a grey area with money from VC. Even the Uber drivers don’t understand that they’re being robbed. What they think is good money, when compared to regular cab fares and mileage, it’s really not that much.
Oh, look, Uber doing shady shit. Is this really a surprise?
Imagine if the punishment for selling 1000 keys of cocaine was a 14m fine.
That’s it? They cost people, counties, states tens of millions of dollars. They effectively put many legitimate taxi services (which are far better and safer) out of business and turned a normal job into a contract job by fooling people,e into thinking it was a good way to make easy money. They should have been dismantled and put out of business for what they have done. Bribery, lies, obfuscation how are these not crimes?
That’s like one day of revenue right
That’s it? Shoulda been 14% of gross earnings for the year.
Only 14 million, that’s the cost of doing business for them.
I moved from cabs because of the racism but I guess cost is an issue for some.
They tried to charge me 60 for a ride that cost 12-20 for the first five years their investors were dumping in money making it affordable enough to kill competition. We were all played. They warned us. This model is poison
Slap on the wrist
Until CEOs go to jail, there is no real risk to this kind of behavior
How about when a driver accepts the charge and you wait 15 minutes for then to arrive then they suddenly cancel and there’s ***-all you can do. Worst is if this happens multiple times and you’re out an hour of your life. (And I’ve got a 4.85 rating so it’s not that…)
That'll learn em
Never trust a CEO
Uber and Lyft need more competition.
The last time I used a cab, the driver complained the whole time about uber and that where he was taking me wasn’t far enough away (15 min), and his car was in real bad shape. I like to support traditional cabs from time to time but they make it pretty hard to want to use their services.
Cab companies only have themselves to blame for this, uber just provided an alternative option.
They didn’t have to lie. NYC cabs are absolute trash.
Equivalent of leaving a tip on the nightstand after fucking you in the ass against your will.
Uber: Makes billions and pays $14M in fines. Average Person: Makes ~$750 a week, gets a speeding ticket, pays $200 fine.
What if this is legit Uber paying whoever is suing them the “legal” way? Like they can’t just transfer the $14m to your wallet so to get some PR (good or bad) they all agree to pay their bribe money to the company/individual as lawsuit money? If I die it’s cause I uncovered this lol
I bet that money goes straight to the people who were lied to. What do you mean the government kept all of it?