I can do that with my local taxi company anyway so they don’t even have that to differentiate themselves.
Comment on Everything old is new again.
ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 week agoThe only thing it has “over” taxis is an app instead of a phone call to dispatch.
SonicDeathTaco@lemm.ee 1 week ago
ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
That’s cool. Where at? I mean, I haven’t seen any taxi in a place I’ve ever visited with an app.
And then there’s the issue of knowing what app before you get there, or just trusting the sign on the side of the taxi, and subsequently the app to not farm your data.
snooggums@midwest.social 1 week ago
Wait, you trust cab companies less them uber?
PunnyName@lemmy.world 1 week ago
When Uber first arrived, fuck yeah. Taxis would take stupid routes to run the meter up to overcharge you. Often the drivers were extremely belligerent or ornery for no same reason. Using taxis has been a terrible experience for many.
cm0002@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Fuck yea, fuck Taxis
An entire industry that’s playing the victim. People around here is romanticizing taxis, but the shit they pulled was just as bad, if not worse than what Uber does.
Biggest difference is their drivers were complicit in the shenanigans and primarily targeted their customers. Taking LONG routes because their customer “wasn’t local”, saying a route will “probably be 10$” and then it’s 50 and “the meter says what it says man”.
They literally used strict regulations as a shield to hold local monopolies for decades which resulted in terrible downright scammy service, cash only for an unacceptable amount of time, 0 innovations, dirty ancient barely running cars, a dispatch who would constantly say a car “was just around the corner” for 2 hours
The taxi industry doesn’t give a fuck about you, they’re just mad because they didn’t think to do what Uber is doing and now they’re dying.
Fuck Uber AND Taxis, they both can rot in hell, but I don’t mind seeing taxis get there first.
ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I don’t trust Uber either.
Jarix@lemmy.world 6 days ago
You can now… Because uber and lyft finally forced them to change
Krauerking@lemy.lol 1 week ago
I mean that actually was one of the things that made them so great. Tracking, arrival timer and an easy app.
Literally those being things that the taxi companies had to push to replicate is a good thing it’s a shame we had to give up the idea of properly funded labor and job protection to get it.
commandar@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Tracking, arrival timer and an easy app.
The fact that they would actually show up.
Before Uber, you needed to call the cab company at least an hour before you wanted to get anywhere (in a city where you can get anywhere in 15 minutes). The dispatcher would tell you someone will be there in 20 minutes and, if you were lucky, somebody might show up in 45. Before Uber, there was more than one occasion where I ended up stranded downtown until 4 or 5am after the bars had closed at 3:00.
Being able to request a ride, having someone reliably show up, and show up reasonably close to when they said they would was an absolute game changer at the time.
14th_cylon@lemm.ee 1 week ago
The fact that they would actually show up.
unless you see the uber car circling around you on the map, then canceling the ride and cashing in the “cancelation fee”
The dispatcher would tell you someone will be there in 20 minutes and, if you were lucky, somebody might show up in 45. Before Uber, there was more than one occasion where I ended up stranded downtown until 4 or 5am after the bars had closed at 3:00.
yeah, but this is not an invention of uber. it is just that technology allowed what was not possible before. yes, uber was faster to adapt it than traditional taxi industry, but they are not doing it for your blue eyes, they are doing it for profit and they do lot of shady stuff to achieve it.
commandar@lemmy.world 1 week ago
unless you see the uber car circling around you on the map, then canceling the ride and cashing in the “cancelation fee”
That’s a relatively new phenomenon as people have learned how to game the system. The reliability of Uber when they first launched was complete night and day.
yes, uber was faster to adapt it than traditional taxi industry, but they are not doing it for your blue eyes, they are doing it for profit and they do lot of shady stuff to achieve it.
I never said otherwise. I was merely providing an example of why Uber gained adoption early on. The service was materially better than what taxi companies were delivering at the time in many places. I experienced that first hand.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Which is both a good point and quite a different scenario from what’s being illustrated here which is just Uber’s version of a taxi stand.
snooggums@midwest.social 1 week ago
we had to give up the idea of properly funded labor and job protection to get it.
We didn’t have to, and we can always take it back.
jaybone@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The only reason I even started using Uber is because of taxi’s shitty dispatch system. All they had to do was write an app (or really some third party could have written it and then sold it to local cab companies) and they never would have been whining and complaining for years on end about how Uber turk der jerb.
14th_cylon@lemm.ee 1 week ago
has
had.
xpinchx@lemmy.world 1 week ago
In Chicago all the big taxi companies have apps
deathbird@mander.xyz 1 week ago
And a transparent price up front.
It’s annoying enough to get in a vehicle and not know how much it’ll cost by the end of the trip (would you do this on a bus? Would you let an airline change the price of a ticket mid-flight?), but there’s something viscerally galling about watching some asshole take a longer route just to pad out the fare. Last I checked, when Lyft or Uber gives you a price, that’s the price.
ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Thinking about this… I wonder if the fediverse could be used for an “open source” app, to then hail and track a taxi in whatever area you’re in…
Of course adoption would be the hardest part, but any taxi service could host their own server (even single driver operations) and anyone with an app that interfaces with the system could hail a taxi.
Privacy would be difficult, as, inherently you need to somehow inform the taxi where you are and possibly who to expect. And anyone in the system could potentially monitor anyone else.
I’d say that payments should be outright blocked from the system. Taxi should have to do that separately.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Not incorporating payments into the system makes fraud prevention a lot harder, though.
snooggums@midwest.social 1 week ago
Originally it was also cheaper for the customer because it was subsidized by venture capital.