New York taxi regulator tries to ban digital tablets in rideshare vehicles

Summary:

New York taxi regulator put a stop to a new, intrusive, advertising mechanism.

The people responsible for the advertising - set to financially gain from it - are unhappy, trying to portray the issue as something else and get people on their side.

"Good luck with that." ;)

Personally, I'm glad there's one less advertising mechanism able to gain traction. Otherwise it would likely spread elsewhere.

Trying to outlaw is such overkill. Let the rider simply turn off the device. The Taxi and Limousine Commission are grasping at straws and will do anything to fight rideshare programs.

This opinion piece doesn't read like public interest advocacy.

It reads like a lawyer for a company trying to kill public interest regulation.

(Though the writer says their organization is not involved in this case, they are in the business of related cases.)

I suspect that an impartial scholarly article, written for the layperson, would be much more useful to HN.

Leaving ads aside - I respect New York taxis. I feel safe riding in yellow cab. The moment i step into yellow cab - I feel that this whole industry is so heavily regulated - there is very little chance to stumble upon some "random weirdo" driver or deviate from intended direction for some shady reason.

I tell my wife to take yellow cab in NYC airports, not Uber-X.

The problem with yellow cabs is that 90% of them look like run down shit. They're no cadillacs. The problem ends here. We get predictable pricing and predictable person and predictable drive. In airports they're just there. No disappointments with trusting Uber's misleading arrival times that typically grossly exaggerated, no shady callbacks from Uber mafia driver trying to figure out where you're going to find excuse not to take you there.

Try to take Uber Black in LA airport. You'll get immediate callback from armenian mafia driver with attitude pulling all kind of BS to judge whether take you or not. 75% of chance he'll insist that you need to cancel the ride (not him of course).

Relevant quote:

> Under the First Amendment, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) cannot prohibit rideshare operators from installing tablets to display truthful commercial advertisements. Commercial speech is protected by the Constitution, and restrictions on commercial speech must serve a substantial governmental interest and be no more extensive than necessary.

I wish antitrust authorities were given the budget that is provided by taxi authorities worldwide... That would achieve much more.

I'm not convinced that this is a 'blatant violation of the First Amendment'. How is this any different from banning billboards, which is currently the case for Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine?