I see how using Uber is an improvement, but really, if no-one is using the existing service then I think the problem runs deeper than whether they need to talk on the phone to use it.
It's never been difficult to call a cab instead of drunk drive.
When you are inebriated, these steps can easily be considered overwhelming and lead to many people not wanting to go through the process.
In contrast to open phone > tap uber app > tap call cab. The difference is night and day, and I think that's why the program will succeed now when it has failed before.
This seems to be the central issue with Uber- it has solved a San Francisco problem, and is now trying to apply the same solution everywhere.
There are a great many cities (including NFL franchise cities) where getting a cab is far from difficult. Yet players still drink and drive.
Are there? In my experience, NYC is the only city where getting a cab is easy – and even there it's only easy in one borough.
edit: Chicago is the only one I can think of that comes close, but it's still only easy to get a cab there in a limited few neighborhoods.
Define "easy". I've had several infuriating experiences trying to get a cab in NYC, all of which ended in me walking or taking a subway instead. NYC has a lot of cabs, but they also have a lot of cab patrons.
Dealing with taxi dispatchers in Seattle is awful. They're rude, they don't tell you when your cab is coming, sometimes they just don't pick up.
Some taxi drivers aren't much better. They can be extremely reticent to accept credit cards, and I have been refused service before because I wanted to pay with one.
The introduction of Uber (and especially UberX) in Seattle has made deciding whether or not to drive a total no-brainer.
And if you're drunk and out past some contractual/implied curfew, talking to strangers is harder: there's some embarrassment involved. Pushing a button in an app depersonalizes the situation, helpfully so.
How much impact does this actual issue have? What is the over/under on how many marginal drunk driving accidents the partnership with Uber will prevent per year? 10?
The primary effect will be to set up these 1500 or so celebrities as examples for how to behave when drunk. If using Uber after a bender is good enough for John Q Sportshero, then it's good enough for you. And that may make a real difference for the other 300 million of us.
I'd bet this project came out of their PR firms rather than the biz dev department.
NFL players are some of the highest-paid in any profession in the world, most of which could rent a limo for the entirety of the night whenever they go out and it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket against their earnings. But, they don't...
Well to be fair, a lot of players in the NFL only make it in the league for a few years if they are lucky and make closer to the league minimum. I would think a lot of software developers stand to make more money over their careers than some of these guys do.
That's to say, not everyone playing in the NFL right now stands to retire with millions of dollars in the bank, especially if they have the mentality of renting a limo everytime they go out.
League minimum this year is $405,000. I think they can afford a cab on that wage.
What isn't considered is the thousands of players on farm teams that make 80k. However, they're generally not the ones ending up in the news (nor the ones that this benefit covers).
The NFL has no farm system:
> The National Football League, as of 2010, is the only one of the four major professional sports in the USA that does not have a farm system.
http://www.bucsdugout.com/2013/1/14/3874488/minor-league-bas...
They are far from being a developmental league where players hone skills with the hopes of "being called up to the big leagues", like what baseball, hockey, and to a lesser extent basketball do.
Sure, most anyone making a decent salary can afford a cab in most cities.
I was just pointing out that the caricaturization of all NFL players as multi-millionaires who could afford to rent limos every time they went out is unfair and not really true for the majority of them.
My understanding is the median household income in the US is approx. $50,000 - about 32 years' worth of work to equal the (minimum) earnings of an NFL draftee.
They're hardly struggling, even if the contract isn't renewed and they have to find another job.
NFL is actually probably the least player-lucrative major sport franchise, due to the relatively low number of games (compared to NBA and MLB) and high roster size. Minimum rookie salary is around $300,000, which sounds like a lot until you realize players are basically forced into retirement after less than ten years, face tremendous workplace risks, and don't get easily translatable skills.
There's a reason you hear so many stories about homeless former pro athletes, and its not because they're dumb jocks: the system isn't exactly tailored around long-term fiscal viability.
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201304/nfl-players-worry...
Depending on where you live, you need to call a cab to take you back, and depending on where that is, the cab may show up late, if at all. Then you have to hope that you car is still where you left it, and not towed or booted.
None of this excuses drunk driving, of course. The solution is to make plans, instead of just driving to the bar and assuming you'll figure out what to do later.
It has, however, been difficult to wait for over an hour outside of a bar at 3am and have no cab show up. :/ Being able to see where the car actually is and that it's coming to get you is a killer feature of Uber / Lyft / Sidecar / Taxi Magic / etc.
They are using it. The article states they they have received an average of 50 calls a month for it, and that is just the service the NFLPA offers, never mind whatever each team offers.
> (...) then I think the problem runs deeper than whether they need to talk on the phone to use it.
Okay, well when you come up with a plan of execution to fix society as a whole, then we can move forward with that instead.
> It's never been difficult to call a cab instead of drunk drive.
What is your point?
In the end, I said to myself, "Screw it. Just wait 5-10 minutes and call another cab." Fortunately the cab came to the right location and all was good.