[profmonocle]

I'm not sure how it was in the early days of Uber, but these days Uber does background checks on drivers, and IIRC they have for quite some time. Is there really any reason to believe that cab companies would do a better job of weeding out horrible people than Uber? I can't imagine they do much more than a background check.

[munk-a]

There is legal oversight and reporting required from conventional cab companies. And yes this was very much from the early days of Uber - when people cheered on the fact that they identified regulators and refused to book rides for them so they couldn't formally record violations.

[profmonocle]

Oh holy christ, I hadn't heard of them doing that. Doesn't shock me, sadly.

[munk-a]

Oh, a source[1] - this is why I'm extremely skeptical of the goodness of disrupting. Building a new competitor that can straight up out compete existing monopolies is one thing but beating existing companies by refusing to play by the same rules removes the power of law from society.

It was super depressing at the time to hear the Libertarian crowd come out in staunch defense of this program.

1. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/uber-uses-secret-pr...

[CamperBob2]

Building a new competitor that can straight up out compete existing monopolies is one thing but beating existing companies by refusing to play by the same rules removes the power of law from society.

Look up the definition of "regulatory capture," and you'll see a photo of a taxicab, or at least you should. When the law does not respect the people, the people will not respect the law... nor should they.

[aaronfitz]

They run the background checks, but they might not take any action on the result of them. A friend of a friend is a registered sex offender who drives for them. They stalled him for about 6 months, but ended up allowing him to drive when he was still willing to after the long delay.