[rufus_foreman]

>> I’ve basically described an old-fashioned taxi dispatch company—the kind that dominated the industry before Uber and Lyft came along

Unfortunately for you, Timothy B. Lee, I am old enough to remember the old-fashioned taxi dispatch companies, and I have to say, rarely was an industry more deserving of being disrupted.

Nice slatepitch though.

[binarybits]

I'm old enough to remember them too! I'm not saying that system was better. I'm just saying it's weird that the new system is so much more expensive to run.

[coredog64]

Around 2014, I spent about 6 weeks in Dublin on business. While there, me and the other out-of-town folks used the “Hailo” app to get taxis. You were getting a real licensed taxi, you got real-time updates on location, and you could pay through the app or directly in the car. (If the driver was great we usually paid direct because he got more of the money.)

That doesn’t fix medallion extortion, but something like that goes a long way to fixing the taxi industry.