Post: #26

(09-23-2017 12:50 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  I just hate how now I'm supposed to tip Uber drivers...fucker, if you don't like what you make go find another job. I never had to carry cash to tip you and I don't need to now. Some drivers will give you a 1* rating if you don't give a tip.

Why does your rating matter? I've noticed my rating as a customer going down but what do I care

Post: #27

Fuck the black cabs, they're a massive rip off. Those bastards can fuck off with their "knowledge"

I remember flying in to London about 8 years ago and having to get get a black cab - it was the only option and this fucker charged me GBP45, (around USD $70) to drive about 6 miles. I haven't lived in London for a while, but there were always minicabs available at reasonable rates in addition to black cabs. About 15 years ago I had to take a black cab with my mum (she found it hard to walk) about half a mile and I was charged GBP 13 (USD $19)

There's been a 24 hour tube service running on the weekends for a year so the black cab drivers probably lost some business there, and Uber must be killing them too.

Post: #28

(09-23-2017 03:08 PM)BallsDeep Wrote:  

(09-23-2017 12:50 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  I just hate how now I'm supposed to tip Uber drivers...fucker, if you don't like what you make go find another job. I never had to carry cash to tip you and I don't need to now. Some drivers will give you a 1* rating if you don't give a tip.

Why does your rating matter? I've noticed my rating as a customer going down but what do I care

If your rating goes down too low, drivers will refuse you service and you'll effectively be banned from using the app.

You could work around this by simply making a new account, but it's still annoying.

Post: #29

It's worth noting that this is the same Khan who said Brexit will be a disaster for businesses, yet he has just supported the loss of 40,000 jobs.

It is honestly just union cronyism. A leftover relic of the 60s and 70s.

If I were in Khan's position, I'd advise Uber to get the message across that their drivers aren't highly qualified, often don't speak good English, and there is the potential that they are a nasty piece of work. But you know what? People will still choose Uber. That's how a free market economy works.

The main concern I have with Uber is if it is going to financially implode or not. It has never made a profit, due to it creating artificially low prices to attract initial interest in the app.

Post: #30

Cabs where always expensive but they used to at least know directions and be polite.

Most cabbies today are immigrants who can't find any address and constantly ask you which way and many times they "entertain" you with their stories of criminality or bitch and moan or shout.

Absolutely horrid experience.

UBER is a globalist company too of course and I do support eventually banning them and replacing with local national apps.

Post: #31

In many ways the whole "Uber is not nice to its driver" point is moot and those who know - who really know - know this.

Why? Because drivers are simply a means to an end for Uber right now. In a decade (or maybe a little more) every taxi cab is going to by autonomous, self-driving, and much safer and much cheaper to boot. Uber's invested billions in this (along with Google and many other tech behemoths). Soon there's going to no such thing as a human driver, whether for taxis, 18-wheelers, or FedEx/UPS/USPS delivery trucks.

Politicians and society are in an uproar that Uber is not fair to the drivers, but that's such a myopic and short-term view because it doesn't really matter once the robots take over. When viewed in this long-range perspective, the politicians and SJWs are barking up the wrong tree. They would be much better off figuring out how to utilize the millions and millions of people who will be unemployed before the AI/robot revolution leaves everyone without a job and none of the leaders know what to do with all the jobless.

Post: #32

Once taxis adopt uber characteristics (pricing that is not inflated or take passengers the long way etc) then uber will have more competition. For example, in bogota Colombia cabbies refuse to take passsengers, rip them off, rob them in cohoots or charge extra for a trip. I had to pay extra just to get the sucker to take me to the airport. This is why I support uber as these incidents are less likely.

Post: #33

(09-23-2017 04:04 PM)monster Wrote:  In many ways the whole "Uber is not nice to its driver" point is moot and those who know - who really know - know this.

Why? Because drivers are simply a means to an end for Uber right now. In a decade (or maybe a little more) every taxi cab is going to by autonomous, self-driving, and much safer and much cheaper to boot. Uber's invested billions in this (along with Google and many other tech behemoths). Soon there's going to no such thing as a human driver, whether for taxis, 18-wheelers, or FedEx/UPS/USPS delivery trucks.

Politicians and society are in an uproar that Uber is not fair to the drivers, but that's such a myopic and short-term view because it doesn't really matter once the robots take over. When viewed in this long-range perspective, the politicians and SJWs are barking up the wrong tree. They would be much better off figuring out how to utilize the millions and millions of people who will be unemployed before the AI/robot revolution leaves everyone without a job and none of the leaders know what to do with all the jobless.

I was interested to hear from my last Uber driver that as a former minicab driver he loved Uber.

It gave him a degree of control over who got into his car and where he went with them, as well as ensuring he got paid.

When he was a minicab driver, he had people attack him, threaten him, jump out of the cab and run off without paying in the middle of nowhere. He had to bear all these costs himself, with very little support. Because an Uber is not anonymous, and because payment is automatic, there is a great deal more protection for drivers. Losing a 70 quid fare in the middle of the night as some geezer does a runner would be heartbreaking to a guy who relies on the odd bumper fare to make ends meet.

Post: #34

(09-23-2017 04:06 PM)tomtud Wrote:  Once taxis adopt uber characteristics (pricing that is not inflated or take passengers the long way etc) then uber will have more competition. For example, in bogota Colombia cabbies refuse to take passsengers, rip them off, rob them in cohoots or charge extra for a trip. I had to pay extra just to get the sucker to take me to the airport. This is why I support uber as these incidents are less likely.

(09-23-2017 04:12 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  

(09-23-2017 04:04 PM)monster Wrote:  In many ways the whole "Uber is not nice to its driver" point is moot and those who know - who really know - know this.

Why? Because drivers are simply a means to an end for Uber right now. In a decade (or maybe a little more) every taxi cab is going to by autonomous, self-driving, and much safer and much cheaper to boot. Uber's invested billions in this (along with Google and many other tech behemoths). Soon there's going to no such thing as a human driver, whether for taxis, 18-wheelers, or FedEx/UPS/USPS delivery trucks.

Politicians and society are in an uproar that Uber is not fair to the drivers, but that's such a myopic and short-term view because it doesn't really matter once the robots take over. When viewed in this long-range perspective, the politicians and SJWs are barking up the wrong tree. They would be much better off figuring out how to utilize the millions and millions of people who will be unemployed before the AI/robot revolution leaves everyone without a job and none of the leaders know what to do with all the jobless.

I was interested to hear from my last Uber driver that as a former minicab driver he loved Uber.

It gave him a degree of control over who got into his car and where he went with them, as well as ensuring he got paid.

When he was a minicab driver, he had people attack him, threaten him, jump out of the cab and run off without paying in the middle of nowhere. He had to bear all these costs himself, with very little support. Because an Uber is not anonymous, and because payment is automatic, there is a great deal more protection for drivers. Losing a 70 quid fare in the middle of the night as some geezer does a runner would be heartbreaking to a guy who relies on the odd bumper fare to make ends meet.

Good points.

Uber is not a good company for the everyman though because they're backed by a cabal of people who already dominate their respective industries. Their financial and lobbyist resources is a huge reason Uber swept so easily across the world.

The goal of Uber, as monster points out, is monopoly. Tech monopoly leading to market monopoly and the goal for sure is self-driving cars.

Their method of operation should be adopted by taxi companies though. I've talked to many cabbies about Uber and many agree that they are too expensive. Some have suggested that they should simply cut fees in half and then market the hell out of it. In addition to everything to what you mention H1N1, taxis also have a lot of downtime waiting around. Like hanging out for hours in the airport until they get their turn. If prices were slashed and adjusted to demand, there would be far less downtime and they would make up the lost revenue by having more fares.

Monopolies always end up like that.

Post: #35

Tons of uninformed posts in this thread, especially OP.

Uber driver's aren't employees, they're independent contractors. You are essentially a self employed cab driver using the Uber platform. Uber takes 20% for overhead and you get the remaining 80% of the fare.

Anyone who's "struggling to make minimum wage" as an Uber driver in a decent sized city is dumb, lazy, or both.

Post: #36

(09-23-2017 04:56 PM)wi30 Wrote:  Tons of uninformed posts in this thread, especially OP.

Uber driver's aren't employees, they're independent contractors. You are essentially a self employed cab driver using the Uber platform. Uber takes 20% for overhead and you get the remaining 80% of the fare.

Anyone who's "struggling to make minimum wage" as an Uber driver in a decent sized city is dumb, lazy, or both.

Tell us more about your experience as an Uber driver.

Post: #37

(09-23-2017 12:37 PM)rpg Wrote:  Self driving cars on public roads will never be a thing no matter how much people try. A moving car has to be under the legal responsibility of someone. Someone that can be arrested, jailed and sued. When a driverless car runs a kid over who is going to jail? There will be no work around for this.

Big government gets what big government wants.

Kid gets run over? People will just shrug.

"...shouldn't have run onto the road in the first place."

"...drunk drivers used to kill far more per year so it's still a win."

"...kid came from a red/blue state so fuck them anyway."

"...yeah, but they've assured us that the latest patch on the OS will stop this from happening again."

Meanwhile the corporations making billions will simply pay off the parents with the implicit threat that if they pursue charges that their lives will be turned inside out. The public prosecutor will take his orders from above. "Accidents are accidents and everyone has been compensated fairly in accordance with industry standards."

On the flip side, who do you think is going to protest on behalf of a kid here and an old woman there? Nobody.

Most other large scale corporate industries have operated this way for decades. Driverless cars will be no different.

Post: #38

(09-23-2017 07:36 AM)kavi Wrote:  Companies like Uber do nothing but create a race to the bottom.

Asinine comments like yours do nothing but create a race to the bottom.

Post: #39

Remember that the algos running driverless cars will decide who lives and dies.

Female in reproductive age in one car vs NEET male.

Who gets out alive? Stay tuned and find out.

Post: #40

Autonomous cars will be hooked up to your personal life. The "internet of things" and all that stuff. Alexa. Siri. Drop boxes. Cloud drives. Even on outlook/hotmail if you send an attachment to someone, it AUTOMATICALLY uploads it to your cloud drive then sends that link to the attachment, you have to specifically request not to do that.

We have seen youtube videos dissappearing, internet domains and email accounts getting frozen for various reasons. Some obvious, some arbitrary. Either way, if you are member of society, you are tied in to the internet. When your Google/uber controlled car fines out your racist/sexist, they will simply ban you from their services, which in this case means you don't have access to a car anymore.

Sounds like a fun exciting technology to me.

Post: #41

(09-24-2017 12:22 AM)TooFineAPoint Wrote:  

(09-23-2017 07:36 AM)kavi Wrote:  Companies like Uber do nothing but create a race to the bottom.

Asinine comments like yours do nothing but create a race to the bottom.

Your response has no substance whatsoever. Please try to argue like an adult capable of expressing a well thought out response, e.g. provide examples of how his comments were purportedly asinine and how you disagree.

FWIW, I am seeing an increasing amount of hamster wheeling, finger pointing, and emotional outbursts on this forum. Not sure what exactly has changed over the past few months but a lot of old valuable commentators apparently have left.

Post: #42

(09-24-2017 09:05 AM)redpillage Wrote:  

(09-24-2017 12:22 AM)TooFineAPoint Wrote:  

(09-23-2017 07:36 AM)kavi Wrote:  Companies like Uber do nothing but create a race to the bottom.

Asinine comments like yours do nothing but create a race to the bottom.

Your response has no substance whatsoever. Please try to argue like an adult capable of expressing a well thought out response, e.g. provide examples of how his comments were purportedly asinine and how you disagree.

FWIW, I am seeing an increasing amount of hamster wheeling, finger pointing, and emotional outbursts on this forum. Not sure what exactly has changed over the past few months but a lot of old valuable commentators apparently have left.

Do you respond to each foolish thing everyone around you says with an essay?

If so, I suggest that's a waste of time.

Post: #43

(09-23-2017 05:25 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  Tell us more about your experience as an Uber driver.

That shouldn't be difficult for wi30.

Post: #44

(09-24-2017 09:09 AM)TooFineAPoint Wrote:  Do you respond to each foolish thing everyone around you says with an essay?

If so, I suggest that's a waste of time.

And once again you instinctively resort to hyperbole. The tone on this board is growing increasingly hostile and accusatory. It's getting old and as a result serious contributors will simply begin to stay away. And in the end what you get is one big echo chamber not unlike what we're seeing in the MSM today.

Intelligent discourse requires effort and care. Either you are here to talk with people or you are here to talk at or down to people. I cannot speak for others here but I am not interested in the latter.

Post: #45

I have absolutely no problems against Uber for some of the same reasons already outlined.

I live around a large Midwestern US city. Uber drivers are excellent compared to cab drivers here. That's been my experience, and since my experience has been good, I have no reason to intentionally malign them. I have a tough time believing that experiences in other cities are different, having used Uber in a few of these myself.l

As far as those accusing Uber and other companies of being "SJW," I quite honestly could give two shits if they are or not. If they provide me a good service consistently, I'm not going to find a reason totally unrelated to my experience to malign their reputation.

I wholeheartedly recommend Uber to anyone who has not used it, especially as an alternative to street cabs. These are my $.02.

Post: #46

(09-24-2017 09:20 AM)redpillage Wrote:  And once again you instinctively resort to hyperbole. The tone on this board is growing increasingly hostile and accusatory. It's getting old and as a result serious contributors will simply begin to stay away. And in the end what you get is one big echo chamber not unlike what we're seeing in the MSM today.

Intelligent discourse requires effort and care. Either you are here to talk with people or you are here to talk at or down to people. I cannot speak for others here but I am not interested in the latter.

Just respond to threads that have decent comments in it. As nature goes, we create worlds and cities within other cities. It comes to a point where some actually create a thread and only certain types of posters go within that thread to discuss certain things. There are threads I never go into, occasionally I glance into them but once I see how the comments are and see what the comments are like (the same), I bow right back out again.

Post: #47

(09-23-2017 05:25 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

(09-23-2017 04:56 PM)wi30 Wrote:  Tons of uninformed posts in this thread, especially OP.

Uber driver's aren't employees, they're independent contractors. You are essentially a self employed cab driver using the Uber platform. Uber takes 20% for overhead and you get the remaining 80% of the fare.

Anyone who's "struggling to make minimum wage" as an Uber driver in a decent sized city is dumb, lazy, or both.

Tell us more about your experience as an Uber driver.

Most of my advice is location specific, but I'll be happy to answer any questions.

I've been driving Uber for a while. Did it full time for about a month and a half while in between jobs.

Post: #48

(09-23-2017 09:48 PM)Leonard D Neubache Wrote:  

(09-23-2017 12:37 PM)rpg Wrote:  Self driving cars on public roads will never be a thing no matter how much people try. A moving car has to be under the legal responsibility of someone. Someone that can be arrested, jailed and sued. When a driverless car runs a kid over who is going to jail? There will be no work around for this.

Big government gets what big government wants.

Kid gets run over? People will just shrug.

"...shouldn't have run onto the road in the first place."

"...drunk drivers used to kill far more per year so it's still a win."

"...kid came from a red/blue state so fuck them anyway."

"...yeah, but they've assured us that the latest patch on the OS will stop this from happening again."

Meanwhile the corporations making billions will simply pay off the parents with the implicit threat that if they pursue charges that their lives will be turned inside out. The public prosecutor will take his orders from above. "Accidents are accidents and everyone has been compensated fairly in accordance with industry standards."

On the flip side, who do you think is going to protest on behalf of a kid here and an old woman there? Nobody.

Most other large scale corporate industries have operated this way for decades. Driverless cars will be no different.

Leonard is close to right. It'll be handled like vaccines are handled now: there'll be a fund set up (By taxpayers? By the companies themselves? Not sure.) and any accidents caused by the driverless car will be paid for by the fund. The companies will never be sued themselves, they won't go bankrupt, and they'll be under no risk at all.

It's a shame everybody's so corrupt, because it's a beautiful technology and it has the ability to improve countless lives. That's what sucks about living in a cyberpunk dystopia though, I guess.