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Comment by jsiepkes | Hacker News Reader

> In 2015, Uber founder Travis Kalanick gave a TED talk in which he vowed the new rideshare business model would get “more people into fewer cars,” dramatically reduce air pollution and, as he put it, “reclaim our cities today.”

At the risk of sounding too skeptical but these are the kind of quotes dreamed up by the marketing department. The kind of quotes that have no connection to the actual mission of a company. There is probably no KPI anywhere to be found within Uber that says: "Traffic reduced %".

Even worse these quotes are often all based on "gut feeling" and "well sounds logical" kind of emotions with no factual basis whatsoever. Which probably isn't a surprise since it's marketings task to handle emotion.

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Uber was easily the single biggest improvement to my quality of life over the last 10 or so years. No, it didn't usher in a utopia of traffic free cities. But it made my large city accessible in ways that it was never before. Especially for a 20 something that wanted to go out on the weekends.

Yes. Uber has radically changed my enjoyment of big cities and traveling. Now whether I step off the plane in London/Chicago/Barcelona I open up Uber, throw in an address and away I go. No bs trying to figure out the local transport tangle or crazy language struggles.

Do all these cities have apps for their local transportation models? Of course! As a weekend visitor (or work traveler) do I have it? Of course not! I just want to go places and not fight with the mode of transportation. I don't give a fig whether its a bus/train/cab/pedal cart I just want to go to the places I want to go without fighting with transport.

Using cars of any form instead of the tube in London is a really bad way to get around it, FYI.

It varies a bit depending upon where you're going and when but I agree in general. Pre-pandemic, I visited London a lot and rarely took a cab/Uber. To be honest, that's true of most cities I traveled to if there was a decent transit system. Probably mostly to and from airports but, even in that case, there's often a good transit option and I usually travel light.

I agree with this and it's why the Uber/Lyft vs The World debate is a tricky one. They really did change how millions of people travel/commute.

But then the problem is: Deregulated taxi industry with smartphones, GPS, and an app can accomplish much of the same thing. So it's hard to argue these two specific companies should still be losing money and valued highly.

Uber and Lyft as entities are not required for this change in transportation to continue because the tech and software has become increasingly commoditized. But they did kickstart the change. Both of those things can be true.

Uber/Lyft ARE the “deregulated taxi industry with smartphones, GPS, and an app"

I second this. I would also add it negates my need to rent a car when traveling about 80% of the time.

And I used to get so much work done instead of driving.

Your time is precious and it's often better spent doing more important things than paying full attention to the road.

This. While maybe not the 'single biggest improvement', as a single woman who likes to travel in the city, cabs feel about as safe as buying drugs off a street dealer. Actually, I've often felt safer buying drugs in my 20's then I did getting in a cab as a woman.

Even without them coming on to you when you're trusting them to take you home at 2am, you'll always end up with them pretending to be confused or surprised that - yes - you want to use debit, and then them pretending the machine is broken until it somehow isn't... (I'm assuming they do this so they can pocket the money or do some sort of tax fraud?)

Cabs represented a combination of the worst service and experience I have not really seen in any other industry - say what you want about them - but Uber has a kind of accountability that cabs never have.

I hope cabs as they were just die. Good riddance. I'm so tired of the harassment.

The real benefit is that it gets people out of owning a car. The less people with cars, the more sensible decisions will be made. How many poor citymaking decisions are because of 'parking'? It is probably the number one concern of every NIMBY on the planet. If nobody cares about parking because they Uber, that is a good thing.

Agreed, seems as though even rubber gloves are "empowering a new limitless future."

Personally, I'd love a return to boring but accurate descriptions.

The assumption (or resignation?) that marketing language and tricks are somehow normal, immutable, and a fundamental part of life is wrong, especially to the extent we experience it today.

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