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Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

I've been noticing more drivers going independent. When I landed at LAX recently and waited at the taxi area for a Lyft, there were a bunch of drivers coming up and offering people rides, but not through Uber or Lyft. I thought "why not", took one of these independent rides home, and paid the guy through Square. It wasn't a "cheap" ride, but it was cheaper than the Lyft ride I cancelled and I'm sure he made a greater profit than through a "ride share" company.

That's just one example, but I've noticed this drastically increase in the last year. Whether I'm at the airport, a train station, or a bus depot, I've been seeing way more independent drivers.

What's stopping more drivers from doing this? If it's the "trust" aspect that comes from Uber, then surely there's some system that can meet us halfway that doesn't apparently need large sums of VC money and high fees but at least provides trust and safety for riders.

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There’s the risk they take you somewhere and rob you. Happened to someone I know in NYC.

I’m all for scrappy bootstrapers but the middle aged adult in me just sees a licensing and insurance nightmare.

Yeah, no. I will pay the premium to Uber/Lyft for safety.

Doesn't that make you an illegal taxi?

What do you think Uber was for years and years?

It's different when you're a large company with a legal team doing something not clearly illegal - than when you're a single individual doing something clearly illegal.

You didn't have to have a taxi medallion to be a black car driver and pick people up at locations upon request - which, originally, is what Uber was, exactly.

The whole point of a taxi medallion is to be able to pick people up off the street - which is what these independent drivers at the airport and train stops are doing.

> It's different when you're a large company with a legal team doing something not clearly illegal - than when you're a single individual doing something clearly illegal.

If this is sarcasm it’s too subtle for me to recognize.

I mean, even beyond the OP's point, it's the difference between something going wrong and being able to pursue a company with assets for recompense / damages versus some random guy on the street.

It's not.

Black cars picked up people upon request. They weren't taxis. That was Uber's core business. It wasn't regulated.

They don't pick people up off the street. That's the taxi business. It's heavily regulated.

It was never clear Uber was an illegal business, and it's never been ruled that it is.

Legality also depends on the jurisdiction.

However, to pretend that Uber is now not a taxi company is difficult to comprehend. The original name was UberCab. The intent is clear.

The medallion system was to limit the cars that wandered around the roads cluttering them up while looking for riders, as taxis do. Uber/Lyft/etc are prearranged rides that go directly between points. That's where the grey area is: black car services aren't taxis, they also work with prearranged trips between points instead of roaming the streets, but Uber/Lyft/etc can do that so quickly by app that it feels more taxi-like than black-car-like.

Not insured. Not tracked. Who knows whose car you’re getting into.

i did that a few times at DFW. times were not reliable. sometimes you'd get a ride right away; others, you're waiting a while for no reason. also depended on how well the driver knew how to use square...which you definitely couldn't rely on. also, didn't feel like i'd have much recourse if they did something crazy.

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