US Ride-Share Drivers Ready for Countrywide Strike Ahead of Uber IPO
thedrive.com
thedrive.com
Taxi drivers aren't protesting, it's the ride-share drivers who are protesting. Ride-share drivers have grievances with Uber outside of what's happening to traditional taxi drivers.
Taxi drivers are committing suicide;
Please read the article before you take a side;
If you had read and comprehended my post, and the post I responded to, you would have seen that the OP was taking offense to the idea that taxi drivers were protesting Uber.
Having read the article, it is clear that the OP is mistaken, because taxi drivers are not protesting.
Hope this helps.
Where does the other party's personal responsibility come in, exactly?
Things didn't "change", Uber barged in, elbowing left and right, burning VC money and failing to turn a profit. One could argue this is one more chapter in the ancient story of money and greed.
So Uber and Lyft either achieve self driving capabilities and get rid of the human drivers or go out of business and let the human drivers go. Either way human ride share drivers have no future. If anyone is looking at this occupation as anything other than temp work, they need a reality check.
Why is this inherently true? Taxi services were profitable and Uber/Lyft are better than they ever were. I don't see why Uber/Lyft raising fares a bit would lead to an entire market collapse.
The only issue is that the highest paid blue collar jobs left are in transportation and construction. Those are on the chopping block.
Then what?
What new system will we use to ensure those people have a life they find agreeable.
Modern solutions for modern problems.
After blue collar jobs are eliminated, people will need to skill up in order to create an agreeable life. The best that the state can do is UBI, but that's not an agreeable life - it should be at best, just life.
Starvation, if human history is any guide.
There’s no such thing.
I wonder how long it will be until people realize that “fully autonomous vehicles” in the context of an unmanned taxi service means complete human level brain-replacing AI.
It has literally nothing to do whatsoever with Uber or Lyft’s current business environment.
These aren’t edge cases they happen all the time and they require something pretty similar to full AI.
I’m not saying there won’t be semi-useful niche cases where “autonomous” vehicles are implemented before that, but “fully autonomous” taxis are like eleven steps away and there are no relevant prototypes at all today for that use case.
Waymo is on its way to doing it in phoenix
2) There was a marked Lyft pickup location because it is a local hotspot
3) I was on the curb before ordering the car.
Per the GPS, first car just never moved. Second one just kept driving further and further away while I waited.
Another possibility is that your ride wasn't subject to a primetime fare and they thought that they had a good chance of getting one that was by canceling and waiting for the next request. That doesn't justify poor driver behavior, but I'm just being realistic.
Apologies for implying that you were doing anything wrong, I only meant to give a driver's perspective of the valid reasons for avoiding rides.
That said, I've gotten the impression that I'm more 'honest' than most drivers so it's possible there are some scams or strategies which create weird incentives/behavior that I'm not aware of.
That is really significant and pretry equitable.
They are too poor and too desperate to be unemployed for long, they have no benefits, and many will be replaced with robots.
The gig economy is an underclass. They are serfs. Unless they rise up violently nothing will change.
They have the power to vote, arguably much more influential then money.
> They are too poor and too desperate to be unemployed for long
If they are too poor, they also qualify for food stamp and a bunch of other benefit that YOU are paying for ! Its a transfer of wealth from your work / pocket to rich Uber shareholders like Saudi Arabia.
> and many will be replaced with robots.
Unlikely, especially for last mile, and in cities ( where most people live )
> The gig economy is an underclass. They are serfs.
Most of us are "serfs" to somebody, unless you are retired or are living off your investments.
> Unless they rise up violently nothing will change.
Not really, they just need to vote, DJT is an example, Bernie maybe next.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/voter-turnout-2016-ele...
All Uber has to do is raise the wages of the drivers who don’t strike. This will encourage other drivers to give up the strike and start driving again. Once enough drivers are back, Uber will lower their wages again.
And they could probably automate this.
They do. It's called surge pricing. If there are not enough drivers prices go up. And yes, drivers definitely notice and go drive when they see surge pricing is in effect.
If these drivers actually think striking is going to do anything, they have no understanding of economics.
Uber gives them income they otherwise would not have (if they had better employment options they would use them - especially in the current excellent economy).
So why would they want to destroy their source of income?
When Uber and Lyft left Austin, a bunch of companies popped up very quickly to fill the gap. It isn't clear to me what you are investing in if you were to buy Uber shares.
You always get the best strategic advice on the internet!
The real answer is that they're a new category that doesn't fit into 20th century US employment law.
But until the law catches up to reality around 2048, I guess the category that's least wrong is "contractor".