The tech subs discover taxis
Kind of a dumb point. I suspect you didn’t really have much experience using taxis pre-uber. This is all about trying to replace the uber/lyft model with a similar thing, but where most of the profits go to the drivers and not uber/lyft.
All you need to do is find a way of getting people in touch with you for your service. Mainly the reason I hate these companies is because they do provide a valuable service for the drivers in that they have a system to get the people who need a ride connected with the people who give rides; but they demand too much of the profit for what work they actually provide. The ones doing the real work get peanuts and the tool provider is taking in the big bucks.
I mean, I’m sure we could get a non-profit started that offers the exact same service. Just get drivers to take on the responsibility of covering any accidents, etc. It could run on donations like Wikipedia. The drivers get 100% of the profits…I’m sure there’s be unforeseen snags, but I really wish we could start “disrupting” industries by literally taking these tech fucks’ share of the market and redistribute that shit to drivers.
Rides would probably be cheaper, no surge pricing, and a good ol’ stick in the eye of the tech industry.
Holy shit, why not just read the article? This is exactly what the interview is about.
Why do people read the comments, but not the articles? I don’t get it.
The insurance is part of why it works. I looked up commercial insurance rates for a taxi and it’s like $2,000 every six months. And while that’s doable if rates are the same or only a little lower it’s still one hell of a gut check. Because you don’t know if you’re going to get customers. Uber and Lyft absorbed that risk.
So what’s likely to happen in the near future is uninsured or under insured open source ride-sharing that will need to crown a winning app or two before it gets predictable enough for people to pay that.
And that means it also needs to survive that stage with Uber and Lyft strongly messaging normal people about safety and quality concerns.
a lot of people use rented vehicles
Best of luck to them.
It’s true in essentially all industries, but it’s especially obvious in rideshare that there’s a layer of parasites who get paid far too much money for nothing beyond the fact that they won the fight for the position of “parasite who gets paid far too much money for doing nothing.”
Anything that might even just decrease the number of overpaid parasites would be a benefit not just to the concerned industry, but to society as a whole.
I bet what they all have in common is that they all used advertising in order to get to their position.
The middle men are everyone but the driver and passenger though
Yeah exactly - the proposal here is to have a driver-owned worker cooperative run the app.
I present to you: https://eva.coop/
It’s a little bit cryptobro-y, but the intentions are good.
Isn’t crypto a good use case here actually? No cental database.
Stop using “crypto” as a synonym for Blockchain. Crypto means cryptography and it’s used in the communication between your browser and websites.
If it has anything to do with crypto the intentions are not good.
Nah it’s just that it uses blockchain technology for some reason (hype I guess), but it’s not coin related. (Blockchains can be used for other purposes than money).
The Blockhain idea is actually great, crypto-currency is the scam. People need to learn differentiate.
Yup, for example it can be used to provide distributed authentication
Or leave an audit trail for a logistics business for example.
There are a gazillion use cases, most overlooked because of the coin stench.
That’s a great idea, if someone can bring the software and enough advertising to make it successful. It’s really hard but possible.
It has already been done, that’s what the article is about: https://drivers.coop/
Currently based in NYC, but getting ready for a big launch in Minneapolis in response to the incumbent rideshare companies pulling out of the city in protest of increased rideshare regulation. Big opportunity to seize some marketshare without needing that much startup capital if your better financed competitors are removing themselves from that part of the market.
Cities should socialize ride shares, delivery shares, bike/scooter shares.
Sure some guy invented an app to make them all slightly easier, and he made a ton a money. Cool. Good for him. Time to make the technology work for people.
cities should socialize. the rest of the comment is unnecessary actually so is cities everything should socialize everything
Am I crazy or is everyone just describing car service? Lots of major cities have private storefronts with a group of drivers and a single person that answers the phones.
The only thing those businesses were ever missing was a good online presence and/or a smartphone app.
The only thing those businesses were ever missing was a good online presence and/or a smartphone app.
Which is, of course, no small thing and the thing that makes uber/lyft thousands of times better than the car service model.
I disagree with this. Uber and Lyft just did it at scale. My local car service can make a website with payment processing without knowing any coding. They don’t need a full service app with a global presence. It’s not trivial but totally doable.
How old are you? Did you spend any time in the pre Uber days trying to get a cab? Wrong part of NYC? Good luck. Out in the suburbs and you don’t know a local cab company’s number? Lol never going to happen.
The electronic payment system is not what made it such a big improvement. It’s the ability to instantly call a cab almost anywhere, at any time, with no knowledge of anything local. It’s the connection between the drivers and the passengers that was the big leap.
I grew up in New York City, called the same car service from my neighborhood wherever I was to get home. The main problem is the suburbs, I agree.
In my suburbs, if there were enough of us around, there was someone who knew the local cab company’s number too. Although that was also not great late at night. The issue is that when you are not from the area and don’t have someone who knows the number. This is what Uber (mostly) fixed.
