[cognaitiv]

I feel like the people who complain about Uber/Lyft from a service perspective never used taxis extensively. Living in Chicago (Lakeview) for years while traveling for work made me absolutely hate taxis. When scheduling, they would no-show at 5 in the morning causing missed flights. Rides from the airport would require standing in line many times over an hour, especially on a Thursday night. They all absolutely reeked of body odor. The drivers would consistently scam “card machine broken, cash only” or “I forgot to turn on the meter” and unless you threatened to report them, they would take advantage of passengers. Drivers were sketchy and rarely matched the credentials on the taxi medallion.

I’ve also lived in areas where taxi service was essentially nonexistent. I wonder how many DUIs and related accidents have been prevented by ride share apps.

Traveling abroad in Europe the apps work simply regardless of my command of the local language to explain my destination and keeps the drivers honest so they aren’t taking “the long way”.

How is anyone supporting taxis as superior to this? There was absolutely no accountability.

From an business model perspective, I would wager that eventually you could get this to a point of sustainability that doesn’t require armies of engineers and various support staff, a la Twitter.

Just don’t try to say taxis were better.

[perardi]

Living in Chicago (Lakeview) for years while traveling for work made me absolutely hate taxis.

Hello from up here in Edgewater.

I realize there are huge problems with the finances and liabilities of Uber…but taxis before ride shares were a pure nightmare, from a UX perspective.

Uber brought us…

* Deterministic pricing (for the most part)

* Flawless ubiquitous credit card transactions

* The ability to point to a random location on a map and just magically have a car take you there

I know Uber’s finances are shit…but you know what? I would gladly pay more, because you get a car right to your door that delivers you to an arbitrary location with nobody extorting you for extra physical cash.

[Fatnino]

I used taxis in LA plenty of times and in general it was nothing like what you're describing.

I only ever had one no show and that was because a lot of us ordered taxis from the same place around the same time so dispatch though it was some sort of prank.

Getting a taxi from LAX was as easy as grabbing my stuff from baggage claim and strolling out the door directly into the first taxi waiting at the curb. Usually there was a person there on the sidewalk directing the taxis too.

When I was new at this, I just gave the driver the address I wanted. One of the first taxi rides I took, the driver handed me a book of paper maps and asked me to find the place for him, lol. After that I learned to say "take me to (address), it's by (street) and (cross street). It's not far from (big street) and (other big street)" Worked 100% of the time.

On arrival I'd pay in my preferred method (cash) and tip the driver knowing he would get the entire tip.

Nowadays, I've had at least 5 lyf/ber cancel on me. Getting one out of SFO involves dragging my bags all the way out to the top floor of the parking structure where I get to wait around for 45 minutes in the rain while other people's rides arrive in random order. The rating system is useless because if I rate anything other than 5 stars it's the same as asking for the driver to be fired. Any tip I leave in the app is getting a sizable chunk shaved off the top by the company. At least my destination is automatically in the driver's GPS. Unless I'm going to Stanford which is notoriously hostile to cars and GPS often directs the driver to the wrong place...

[version_five]

Agreed. I take taxis now in many places because they're now better than uber, but pre-uber they were not. What I used to like best about taking uber was sticking it to the taxi industry. They were a textbook "disruptor". I'm glad there's a credible threat to taxis that means they had to improve and look over their shoulder. In the markets I travel frequently, uber sucks now though, and I've gone back to taxis, which also suck, just less, and are way better than the pre-uber days.

[NegativeK]

I used taxis in Chicago maybe three times.

But while rideshares can be better for me than listening to some taxi driver go off on some misogynist rant, that doesn't mean that they're better once you start taking into account wage problems, increase in CO2 production, etc.

But seriously, taxis in Chicago can get fucked. They were so terrible.

[cognaitiv]

I don’t buy wage problems because my estimate on Chicago taxis was most medallions were held by investors who were not drivers and most drivers were undocumented with less protection than Uber provides.

I buy the CO2 aspect. Many cases where Uber is now more convenient than public transport vs. El is better than a taxi

[engcoach]

Taxis in SF were the absolute worst. I haven’t tried them since Uber rolled out and rightfully stole business

[gardenhedge]

Some taxis use apps which give all the same benefits plus any local regulations in place.

[dmd]

Show me one taxi service anywhere in the world that did that before Uber forced them to to compete.

[gardenhedge]

I won't because that is unrelated to what I said

[ever1337]

Anecdotally, ive personally lived in areas (california central valley, rural new england) where lyft and uber were virtually nonexistent and local taxi companies were the only option. ive had horrible experiences "reserving" rides with uber and lyft only to have nobody show up at the designated time, leading to missed trains. Taxis have always been far more reliable for me in rural areas, provided I call in advance and within their hours of operation. when i'm in cities, I find public transit to be more sensible terms of cost and reliability than any other option. I don't mind paying cash, I prefer it.

I cant help but feel as though a lot of the people defending these 'rideshare' companies on HN are living in coastal city bubbles. It's simply not an option in many places, and the apps will outright lie to you that they're able to get you a ride.

[monetus]

I live in a rural area, where the taxis, Uber, and lyft compete. The taxi companies don't offer calls in advance, or reserved rides, not one or four companies that could cover my area. You would have to hire a limosouine driver. Lyft is by far cheaper on average, but consistently fewer drivers. Hilariously, Uber is the reliable service for reservations.