Comment by AdamJacobMuller | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AdamJacobMuller | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

AdamJacobMuller

It also sucks for the riders and I really can't imagine Uber likes the situation either.

It's a really annoying situation because you end up arguing with some driver over text or worse in person about it.

They don't want to cancel because cancelling a lot impacts their rating with uber and they will get less rides.

I don't want to cancel because after a few minutes I'll be charged a cancellation fee and now I have to start all over with another driver and a dice-roll if i'll get another driver who refuses to go to NYC again. If I want my $5 back I also have to argue with some AI customer service rep for an hour.

Terrible user experience.

Lyft seems to do better with assigning only TLC cars to NYC rides, but, not 100% -- Uber also biases towards TLC cars for NYC routes but there isn't always one available of course so sometimes you get assigned another one, just anecdotally Lyft seems to get you a TLC car more often.

TLC are the only ones winning here.

> It also sucks for the riders and I really can't imagine Uber likes the situation either.

I think the question is what does Uber do when it doesn't like a situation? Does it try to create the best user experience given the constraints, or does it make the situation shitty for everyone except themselves (maybe until it can force whatever change best serves Uber's interests, nevermind anyone else)?

It sounds like it's totally within Uber's capabilities to make this situation better (add a "TLC car" flag to their system, and only use those cars for NYC rides), so why have they chosen not to do that?

Question is how many of these needs to be added for all the rogue cities

> Question is how many of these needs to be added for all the rogue cities

"Rogue cities," seriously? I've seen some twisted propaganda ("PR") in my life, but that takes the cake.

Help me understand this as I'm not in NY and I use uber about 2-3 times a year. When you use Uber you put in your destination up-front - so everyone already knows where you are and where you're going, why isn't this information used by drivers to make a decision on whether or not to accept?

Evidently it varies by region how much information about the destination is given to the drivers.

You are describing an example of how Uber works in your region. That is not how it works in every jurisdiction. Uber often hides information from drivers to prevent them from choosing only profitable rides. Other gig companies do the same thing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com