As Uber Comes to New York, Its Legality Is Questioned

A telling quote from the Betabeat[1] article:

Uber has 10 to 15 yellow cab drivers pre-registered to use its app, whereas Hailo has 2,500. A representative from Uber scoffed at that number. Reached by phone, Hailo confirmed both its planned launch and the number of registered drivers in New York City

It'll be interesting to see if just being the first into market will allow Uber to overcome odds like this, but that is a giant difference. 10-15 cab drivers is nowhere near enough to satisfy demand from New York customers.

[1] http://betabeat.com/2012/09/uber-launch-yellow-cab-taxi-app-...

1. It says something about the quality of what you're doing when the competition has to selectively enforce laws (or change them as the DC City Council tried) in order to compete effectively.

2. Probably a good move for Uber - basically adding a ton more data about pickups/dropoffs in the city across NYC's taxi fleet (which would be insanely useful if they ever launch a p2p service like Lyft has done) and, even more crucially, gets them to a more mass-market price point.

In a few years we'll think about hailing cabs by whistling or flagging them down in the same way. Plus, the taxi drivers won't be able to bypass particular minorities with quite as much immunity from being caught anymore. "You accepted the hail, we have the record for that, but then decided not to pick the passenger up. Why?"

Our cab ride was during the morning rush hour and since I had the time, I was checking out google maps and other traffic info. Looking at the route the cabby was taking, I asked him why he was going all the way up to the Williamsburg Bridge in order to get back down to Battery Park (basically hitting Midtown to have to go back downtown). He was rather indignant and said he had been driving for 20 years.

He asked what direction I would take, I mentioned a few streets and one of the more southern tunnels or bridges. After sitting in a bunch of traffic, he mentioned that I was probably right, but that going surface streets in Brooklyn isn't always popular.

Experience certainly means a lot, but realtime data can trump that. I think choice is a good thing and Uber will help with that. However, with highly concentrated markets like NYC, leveraging technology could provide even more benefit.

Does anybody honestly do anything but stick their hand out (Statue-of-Liberty style)?

On a more serious note:

I'm surprised they're even attempting this with medallion cabs. I honestly don't see the need here - Uber's availability in NYC is decent... could be improved, certainly, but there are well more than enough gypsy cabs/car services around to tap into, it seems.

The NYC medallion system is one of the few that I think works well. Unlike in other cities, the rules that Uber would potentially be violating are those which only affect medallion cabs, and explicitly exclude car services like Uber. (The intent is to have the medallion cabs resemble a 'public' transportation system more, in that they cannot refuse service to anywhere within the boroughs, cannot refuse passengers etc.), while the private cab companies can do whatever they damn well please, more or less.

I'm not sure what Uber has to gain by doing this - it's a hefty risk, especially since the forces they're probably up against here in New York are very powerful and very well-funded, and the laws are already rather lenient - they've been able to establish a successful business already without pushing the envelope.