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Comment by ryguytilidie | Hacker News Reader

As much as I agree with you in loving Uber, your 10% more calculation is insanely low.

I have done comparison drives twice. Once I took a cab from SOMA to Pac heights: $8.35, Uber back to the same spot: $15.95

SOMA to Dolores Park. Cab: 7.90. Uber: 15.25

Clearly not 10%. I guess the big thing for me is that I really don't care about bottles of water or the type of car the person shows up in. I just want an on demand service that gets everything done in a sensible way. If there was a cheaper version of Uber for regular cabs I would be all over it.

The bigger picture though is how much people will fight to keep crappy businesses in business. We will hear the argument about how we cant lose jobs right now when unemployment is so high, but for the love of god, this is progress people. If some cab drivers lose their jobs in the name of progress is this really worth hurting society over?

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There is a cheaper version of Uber, it's called UberX[1].

1. http://allthingsd.com/20120702/a-status-symbol-moves-down-ma...

(Check out side.cr and lyft.me! I've been calling them Uber for poor people.)

or InstantCab, which works directly with cab drivers - who are motivated to provide good customer service, instead of cab companies which are generally glorified car rental companies that only provide customer service for legacy reasons and don't care about it.

Last time I tried InstantCab some kid (who was clearly not a cab driver) in an old Toyota (which was clearly not a cab) showed up to pick me up.

Could have been me, I drive an old(ish) Toyota, but I would have asked you about 280 North. So it must have been someone else.

We are still in beta and so we usually have a backup driver, often one of us, who'll go and pickup customers if there is no taxi nearby. It's been quite interesting meeting people this way. I think I have had 5 "office hours" with Justin Kan this way :)

I asked the driver if they worked at InstantCab and it sounded like a part time thing for him. It might not have been a Toyota.

Anyway, I wouldn't have minded if I had expected it. My girlfriend was skeptical, and I wouldn't expect her to get in some random car if I wasn't with her.

I'd suggest asking riders if they're ok with a backup driver picking them up first (assuming this is even legal...)

I'll give it another try. I hope you guys succeed. TaxiMagic and Cabulous never work for me precisely because drivers will cancel your pickup at the drop of a hat if they find a closer pickup, and there's no feedback mechanism to discourage this.

Thanks!

The average cab driver skips a couple of hails to pick up someone a few blocks away. So, in addition to the feedback mechanism (which is coming), the driver needs an assurance that the customer will be there when they show up. By asking you for a credit card when you register, we do this a little bit better. With some competitors, even when the customer registers with a credit card, the money first goes to the taxi company, not to the driver. The company deducts a processing fee (often over 10%, 5% in SF), and may hold the money for several days (3 days in SF for some companies, two weeks in other places!).

We fix this mess for the driver, and they are incentivized to provide better service because of this. These are interesting times in the ground transportation space, with all the activity from Uber, taxis, and ridesharing folks and there is much debate about regulation. Ultimately, I hope this results in a better, sustainable solution for everyone involved.

I call them uber for fun people! Even if lyft cost the same as uber, I would still take a lyft. Being able to joke around with the driver is worth more to me than leather seats and a free bottle of water.

It's fun until there's an accident. Then it wouldn't be fun at all. I'll gladly trade "joking with the driver" for a driver licensed and insured to drive other people. Companies like Lyft make a point of saying they aren't affiliated with the drivers and have no liability. That means you're depending on the driver's personal (likely state minimum) insurance.

For me, choosing to ride with vetted drivers who have the proper insurance is an easy choice. I'm willing to pay much more for that. If I feel the need to joke around with someone during the ride, I just bring a friend. It certainly costs more (all other things being equal), to have a properly insured driver come pick you up. I think it's worth it.

For me, "Fun" comes far down the list of things I look for in a transportation service. Safe cars, vetted drivers, quick pickups and professional service are all much more important to me than riding with a driver who is "fun" (or who put a mustache on the front of their car with the hopes of appearing fun). I've had a couple UberX rides now, and honestly, that's the sweet spot for me (affordable ride, clean cars, professional drivers, timely service, environmentally-friendly and properly insured). It hits all the things I'm looking for in a transportation service, at a price very close to a Taxi.

And Cabulous app basically provides you the same level of service as a regular cab, but you get one quickly and can track it on your phone as it arrives.

I rarely have a good experience with Cabulous or TaxiMagic in SF. Drivers will drop your pickup in an instant if they see someone hailing a cab on their way to you. I usually go through 3 drivers or so before one actually picks me up.

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