[ajju]

or InstantCab, which works directly with cab drivers - who are motivated to provide good customer service, instead of cab companies which are generally glorified car rental companies that only provide customer service for legacy reasons and don't care about it.

[tlrobinson]

Last time I tried InstantCab some kid (who was clearly not a cab driver) in an old Toyota (which was clearly not a cab) showed up to pick me up.

[ajju]

Could have been me, I drive an old(ish) Toyota, but I would have asked you about 280 North. So it must have been someone else.

We are still in beta and so we usually have a backup driver, often one of us, who'll go and pickup customers if there is no taxi nearby. It's been quite interesting meeting people this way. I think I have had 5 "office hours" with Justin Kan this way :)

[tlrobinson]

I asked the driver if they worked at InstantCab and it sounded like a part time thing for him. It might not have been a Toyota.

Anyway, I wouldn't have minded if I had expected it. My girlfriend was skeptical, and I wouldn't expect her to get in some random car if I wasn't with her.

I'd suggest asking riders if they're ok with a backup driver picking them up first (assuming this is even legal...)

I'll give it another try. I hope you guys succeed. TaxiMagic and Cabulous never work for me precisely because drivers will cancel your pickup at the drop of a hat if they find a closer pickup, and there's no feedback mechanism to discourage this.

[ajju]

Thanks!

The average cab driver skips a couple of hails to pick up someone a few blocks away. So, in addition to the feedback mechanism (which is coming), the driver needs an assurance that the customer will be there when they show up. By asking you for a credit card when you register, we do this a little bit better. With some competitors, even when the customer registers with a credit card, the money first goes to the taxi company, not to the driver. The company deducts a processing fee (often over 10%, 5% in SF), and may hold the money for several days (3 days in SF for some companies, two weeks in other places!).

We fix this mess for the driver, and they are incentivized to provide better service because of this. These are interesting times in the ground transportation space, with all the activity from Uber, taxis, and ridesharing folks and there is much debate about regulation. Ultimately, I hope this results in a better, sustainable solution for everyone involved.