Uber will feature NYC taxi cabs in its app under groundbreaking new deal | Hacker News Reader

Uber will feature NYC taxi cabs in its app under groundbreaking new deal

theverge.com

21 pointspseudolus21 comments

Before people come in chiming for the good 'ol yellow cab days. A few things from a guy who lived in NYC for 24 years over 4 boros:

- Good fucking luck getting a yellow cab in the outer-boros or Manhattan above 96th st.

- Good fucking luck getting a cab in the rain. Why are their meteres turned off and why they are all suddenly OFF DUTY? Could it be the drivers are gouging desperate people with off-metered fares? No way, they'd never do that...

- Good fucking luck not getting ripped off on the route. A ride from Greenwich Village to Park Slope shouldn't involve the West Side Highway ...

- Good fucking luck getting one if you aren't white.

- Where did these cab driver clowns think the money for those $1 million+ medallions is going to come from? Cheaper oil prices? sky-rocketing inflation? Sucker customers?

E-hail (Uber, Lyft, Gett, Juno, etc) was a breath of fresh-fucking-air. The yellow cab industry did themselves in. That industry ddi themselves in and went down with their king Gene Freidman [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Freidman

When my son is old enough to visit the morass that is NYC, and old enough to understand, I will show him what getting a cab was like in the dinosaur era.

"A ride from Greenwich Village to Park Slope shouldn't involve the West Side Highway"

This is exactly the route I would take, from the West Village down to Battery Tunnel into Brooklyn if I wanted to avoid local traffic. Of course there is a toll with the tunnel as appose to the Brooklyn Bridge but that route would cost you more time.

"The yellow-cab metered fare is calculated under a different rubric, meaning cab drivers may earn less, more, or the same as Uber drivers, depending on the trip. Unlike Uber drivers, taxi drivers will see expected earnings before a trip, meaning they can decline rides if they don’t think it’s worth it."

This and another line from the story makes me think Uber is worried they're running out of drivers.

Maybe not drivers, but growth? Where does a massive company grow once you've got all the market you can get with your initial approach?

They must be. Gas prices being what they are, how's anybody supposed to make money driving for them?

Uber has included regular licensed cabs in many countries for ages. The same is true for regional rivals like Grab and Ola. But when New York is involved, it's somehow groundbreaking.

Not only this, but I can fairly clearly remember hailing yellow cabs with Uber in New York between 2010 and 2014. Maybe it was a different app?

Edit: Yep https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/nyregion/as-ubers-taxi-ha...

Given the politics around cabs, especially in NYC, it is indeed ground breaking. More like earth shattering. I had to read the article headline twice and my brain still tried to reject it.

One family has controlled Taxis and limos in Vegas for decades and abused consumers the whole time - watching Uber and Lyft dismantle them in less than two years was glorious.

I don't like the word groundbreaking in this sense, but it is a big deal that this is happening in the US.

If this means cabs will be forced to:

* pick you up

* take you where you're going

* not say "the meter's broken"

Then Uber has done a very good thing here.

When does "the meter is broken" comes into play? When the ride is about to start (so that you can hop off without paying yet), or when it is over (so that you can hop off without paying either)?

Ive been saying this for years Uber and Lyft path to serious money is to license their logistics tech. That is 100% of the value of these companies. There are so many businesses that could use the smart phone summon a service tech, easy money.

Reminds me of Technicolor. The movies company that became a logistics provider once their main vertical went kaput. That's a good way to adapt

https://www.businessinsider.com/e-hailing-taxis-curb-increas...

> Because of cabs' lower prices, Gross said the platform also benefited from its inclusion in Transit, a New York City transportation app that compares prices between ride-hailing, taxis, and other forms of transportation.

>Riders will pay the same fare for taxi rides as they would for an Uber X trip, the company said

Paying Uber prices for a cab? That won't go down well with folks who use Uber because...they want an Uber

Although the article only mentions Uber made a deal - perhaps 'we won't send a cab' just became a Lyft feature?

Fingers crossed this doesn't seriously impact the availability of taxis which can be hailed from the street as usual. For most trips, hailing a taxi is far cheaper than Uber.

Uber had NYC cabs in the app in 2013. I know it is the case because I used it. It disappeared sometime in 2014, i think

Yup, disappeared because cabs thought they could do better on their own. If COVID didn't force their hand who knows if this would have still happened.

Uber costs as much as a cab in Toronto at least. Has been the case for about a year, maybe a bit longer. Guess the Saudi + Softbank money ran out and investors want to see some profitability.

"Disruption" is increasingly nothing more than VC-subsidized predatory pricing and regulatory arbitrage.

In a world where cab drivers pay $1m for a license to operate maybe regulatory arbitrage is not such a bad thing.

Where does that $1m "value" come from?

That regulatory arbitrage you seem to hold in esteem. Ugh. So glad Uber and Lyft were able to finally break that and force true competition.

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