Hacker News Reader

Comment by sergimansilla | Hacker News Reader

I take a fair amount of taxis and Uber. Except on some cases*, my experience with Uber is always vastly superior than it is with taxis: from the conversation to cleanliness, efficiency, etc. Specially in Spain.

I agree that Uber needs to have the same fiscal treatment as taxis do, but making the service illegal is beyond ridiculous, and a very sad way to try to stifle innovation (which will end up finding its way anyway).

View on HN

Why do you think Uber is an "innovation"? It's simply an unregulated, unsafe and uninsured taxi service. It's just like those illegal scalpers offering rides in any airport, except with a smartphone app. That's not innovation (useful and popular taxi apps existed before Uber), and whatever it is, it's not being stifled. Uber is free to apply for permits just like everyone else. I think that instead of being sad you should be proud that your country doesn't automatically adopt any potentially harmful idea that comes from America.

> unsafe and uninsured

What are your citations for those bold claims? The first one is subjective, and the second one seems objectively false: http://blog.uber.com/ridesharinginsurance

That's for UberX in the US, the discussion is about UberPOP in Spain.

Okay, do you have any citation for the claim that UberPOP in Spain is unsafe or uninsured?

This link seems to say that neither of those fears is true for Brussels: http://blog.uber.com/uberpopfactsbxl ... I can't find a similar post for Spain, but then, I'm not the one who bears the burden of proof.

I'm not either, pron is. I just pointed out that the link didn't apply.

They changed their coverage only recently after being pressured by the public and the government to do so: http://time.com/25397/uber-lyft-sidecar-insurance/ (and regulations will soon force them to do so). I'm not sure what the situation in Europe is, but the Uber's wording suggests that only actual rides are insured.

I don't know where you have taken taxis in Spain, but all taxis I've taken in Barcelona are incredibly clean and the drivers are incredibly efficient (given that I'm Spanish and know the best routes for these trips, too, of course)

Just upon arriving to Barajas Airport in Madrid, I went outside to the taxi area and could delight myself with taxis not respecting the queue (allowing clients instead of referring them to the head of the queue) and the image of two taxi drivers fist fighting for some clients. Yup.

Not to mention they wanted to charge me over 100 euros for going from the Airport to the main train station.

From my experience the taxi industry of Spain is highly inefficient and overpriced.

In Barcelona there is someone taking care of the queue always (I think if a taxi driver allowed clients without due respect to the queue he'd lose airport access rights, so lose a lot of money), and the price for airport-City centre is written in the windows so you see it before entering (and also seen in the inside, it's a fixed price with minor variability depending on day of the week) So, from what I've seen here it's unlikely I'll be taking taxis in Madrid, but will keep using Barcelona taxis when I need them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com