[arghIdontwantto]

would you care if every transaction you did on your bank account also fucked you out of 2 cents?

We (me in Portugal but a lot of Europe as well) have laws to prevent this kind of fraud. Gas stations, scales in supermarkets, etc all have to be 'validated' every year to make sure no funny business is going on. If you end up fucking up, the fines can/will probably make you close shop.

You may not care, but if for each litre of petrol the station sells, it pocketed one cent, we are talking thousands of euros fraud per day. If most shops do this, the customers are being defrauded of millions.

You still think it is ok?

[tyingq]

I think it's okay in this case, with taxi meters. The Uber app shows you the route and cost before you commit to it. And, you can verify the calculation with other free tools if you want. A meter in the taxi is actually less useful. It accurately measures distance, but doesn't tell you if the driver took the shortest route.

[mikewhy]

Taxi charges continue while the car is at rest. So the shortest route doesn't mean much if the traffic is barely moving.

[bmelton]

The difference here is with Uber, you see the route and the fare before you accept it. So, if we're trying to pull your example away from hypothetical and more towards practical, it's like getting fucked out of ATM fees every time they wish to withdraw money.

To put it simply, as we've seen, many people are happy to be screwed out of amounts well in excess of 2 cents per withdrawal.

[wayn3]

if every transaction on my bank account cheated me out of 2 cents, that would amount to a low single digit sum. Yes, I'd probably be cool with that.

Do you guys realize that the armageddon you are trying to paint isnt all that armageddon-y?

I mean, fraud isn't cool. But if you want to scare me, you may at least try to scare me. Losing 5 dollars in a year to "fraud" sounds more enticing than losing 70% of my income to - taxes which are totally not theft because the law says so - theft.