[jnaglick]

My fairly worthless opinions as an NYC Startup Programmer:

1) 'Disruption' is just a code-word for skimming margins in legal grey areas

2) The founder of Uber's twitter avatar used to be the cover of "Atlas Shrugged" (update: it's now a picture of Thomas Jefferson.)

3) Only tourists and transplants believe using an app is in any way better than simply hailing a cab (with exception for storms, bad times, and bad locations)

No idea why this company ever deserved my trust in the first place.

[monksy]

> 3) Only tourists and transplants believe using an app is in any way better than simply hailing a cab (with exception for storms, bad times, and bad locations)

You don't get taxis very often. From my experience in Chicago. They're everywhere you want them to be. There are huge dead zones for taxis. (Webster/Clybourn, Grand/New Orleans, Western/Armitage anytime before 6pm, Humboldt park, 5am in Old Town [4am bars have a 5am cut off in Chicago on Saturdays]). They tend to be either: a. on the phone the whole freaking time speaking Hindi or b. blasting music.

They also tend to pull shit like: "Oh my CC machine is broken, please give me cash" (which is against the ordinance), they'll try to use their square payment reader instead (which is also a big no-no), etc.

Uber cuts that out. With Uber, despite my bad experiences, they're consistently better.

[untog]

You don't get taxis very often. From my experience in Chicago.

I'm pretty sure the OP was only referring to NYC.

And even then, only Manhattan. Uber and the like have made it a lot easier to book private cars, though it's difficult to know what the green "Boro" taxis would look like if the apps hadn't launched.

[chasing]

> 3) Only tourists and transplants believe using an app is in any way better than simply hailing a cab (with exception for storms, bad times, and bad locations)

Spoken like someone who never leaves Manhattan. ;-)

[random28345]

> Spoken like someone who never leaves Manhattan

That was my first thought as well.

For those who don't live in an "outer-borough", the way you obtained car services was by dialing a phone number, talking to a dispatcher, trying to communicate pickup and dropoff locations through the fog of accents, and then you have a 25% chance of the car showing up when promised, a 75% chance of it showing up no more than 15 minutes late, and sometimes 2-3 additional follow-up phone calls were required.

If I'm going from tribeca to the east village at 11pm, sure, I'm taking a cab. But if I need to come home from New Jersey, being able to press a button and get a car is a huge convenience.

[a-dub]

"1) 'Disruption' is just a code-word for skimming margins in legal grey areas"

+1

[Disruptive_Dave]

Curious as to what makes you believe #3. Transplant here, but many life-long friends are NYC born and bred, and nearly all of them choose Uber over cabs quite often. Maybe the locals you know have just become numb to how shitty cabs here are ("it is what it is") and are fine with it?

[potatolicious]

Life-long born-and-bred New Yorkers probably didn't grow up in Manhattan.

"New York City" is not synonymous and interchangeable with "Manhattan below 96th St".

[nicwolff]

I'm a live-long born-and-bred Manhattanite and I use uberX any time I'm not already on the street; it's roughly the cost of a yellow cab and much more convenient and pleasant. (And you get an SUV about 1/2 the time, even after they stopped forcing the SUV drivers to accept uberX calls.)

I also, just last week, took my mom to the hospital lying down in an Uber SUV which was (even at the 1.5 rate) a whole lot cheaper than an ambulance, and more convenient even than their own car which we would have had to get out of the garage and then park at the hospital.

[vithlani]

And what about the other stories about bad cabbies and other people's not-so-good experiences with the traditional system?

I reckon services like Uber are a good way to shake up the in-inefficiencies and built-in-slackness that accumulates within a protected service industry. There is absolutely nothing stopping the "real" taxi industry adopting apps and tech services to counter Uber -- in fact they would be way ahead in other more "background" aspects such as insurance, vetting drivers, heck, even brand name awareness among the general public. For example, we had taxi companies put out apps here in Australia long before Uber. In my experience they have been about 90% reliable (this was in the early days) and I'm certain they have improved now. And the taxi companies definitely have the pockets and data to drive this.

Once the shake-up is complete a set of equilibrium should be established -- as services like Uber would also be forced to implement proper checks on drivers, etc. At which point the idiots spouting off $18 billion figures should wake up from their dreams.

[schrodinger]

I live in NYC (and have for 8 years now), and most people I know use Uber here. It's cheaper, easier to split, and more reliable.

Sure, you can hail a cab pretty easily most of the time in NYC, but I've definitely had enough times where I've had no luck (they were all full) after waiting 10 or 15 minutes that I now prefer Uber.

[lonnyk]

>(with exception for storms, bad times, and bad locations)

I think using the app is justified b/c there are way more bad times/locations than good times/locations. If I'm outside in midtown I'd probably grab a yellow cab, but otherwise it's either subway or uber.

[abritishguy]

I'm not sure about NYC, but it is cheaper in London to get an Uber than a taxi.

[pge]

But at its core, Uber is a black-market taxi service (unlicensed vendor operating in a regulated market). Just like cigarettes and alcohol are cheaper in the black market where vendors don't pay taxes, one would expect Uber to be cheaper than the taxis that have to pay medallion fees and meet licensing regs. Cheaper doesn't mean right. If you like Uber, lobby to change taxi cab regulations (and I think you may find that while there may be room for improvement in their implementation, there are reasons for taxi cab regulations).

[wan23]

Here in New York all Uber drivers are registered with the Taxi & Limousine Commission and have to meet city requirement re: licensing and insurance. I'm sure Uber would be happy to comply with the regulations that cities eventually come up with as long as those regulations are focused more on protecting consumers and less on protecting the old taxi industry.

[fastball]

But why the need for the medallion and licensing regs?

I've heard that the bonus of London black cabs is that they have super knowledge of London.

I've found this to not be the case. Sure, it's good. But in all honesty I find google maps to be better.

[LanceH]

At its core, it is an on demand limo service.

[potatolicious]

Uber Black perhaps, but not UberX, which is by far the focus of Uber now. Around here Uber specifically advertises UberX as a taxi, and openly does price comparisons between it and taxi fares (as opposed to price comparisons against other limo services).

Let's also not forget that Uber started as Ubercab and was forced to change their name. I don't think they ever intended to be a limo service, and their current product offerings are largely not limo services.

[johndolan]

Would you mind expanding on point 3? Why wouldn't using Uber be better?