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Comment by hueving | Hacker News Reader

Paying the driver directly still sucks. In the US you constantly deal with the "I don't take cards" bullshit and lack of simple feedback for when they take you on a scenic tour.

I would be fine with taxis if I didn't have to interact with the driver at all when it came to payment and could provide feedback right in the app.

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>In the US you constantly deal with the "I don't take cards" bullshit

Sounds like a free ride, to me. In my city cabs have to accept credit cards by law. This means if the machine is broken, the cab is unfit for service. If a driver refuses to take a credit card, you don't have to pay them. If they're rude about it, you can call 911, there's a whole division of the PD dedicated to dealing with cabs. The threat of having an officer show up and a possible fine or suspension is probably enough to "fix" their machine.

Personally I prefer a simple feedback system that kicks out bad drivers to confrontation and a need to call 911. Not to mention that there's quite a gap between good service and service that complied with the law. If a driver is rude, swears at me, drives dangerously, what can I do about that? Spend part of my day calling a hackney division that probably doesn't care?

A rating system is actually superior to getting the government involved.

You might be right but I'm js you do have some recourse. You can file a complaint and your leisure. It only takes a couple complaints to trigger a fine.

Not exactly appealing... The last time I went through that, I ended up with a cabbie following me down the street in his car, making threats and watching where I was going, in a town with police response times of 20+ minutes.

A ride experience where I don't have someone threaten me while I call 911 is worth some money to me.

For me the main advantage of using Uber in Europe is payment. It doesn't even matter whether it's card or cash - once I'm at the destination I just want to get out of the car. And having to think about tipping is even worse. And I don't mind paying a fair price.

"I don't take cards" or "It's broken" results in me walking out of the cab. Irregardless of if it's the beginning or end of the trip. All but one time did they change their tune.

In Germany and Budapest, and certainly Sweden, drivers are required by their dispatchers to accept credit cards. "Cash only" drivers will be a thing of the past soon. Look at what happened with the London black cabs: they all accept credit cards these days.

Not everywhere in Germany and even in places where they are required to, for many drivers the card reader is somehow always "broken" when you try to use it. I now use taxi-calling apps with built-in payment as those are really convenient.

This is true in some US markets, not true in others. In NYC it's very easy to pay by CC and requires no interaction with the driver, because they installed CC readers in the back seat of every cab years ago. And if the reader is broken, they're required to tell you before the ride starts.

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