> "worries over the safety of consumers"
Can't consumers decide what their safety requirements are? If they prefer a different service, for safety reasons, can't they just use that service instead?
Can't consumers decide what their safety requirements are? If they prefer a different service, for safety reasons, can't they just use that service instead?
Contrary to Uber's propaganda, legislation around taxis is not there, for the most part, to increase the revenue of taxi operators.
Most would agree it is suboptimal if the first point you can assess the quality of your taxi service is after being raped and dumped out of town (or waking up deaf because your doctor was an alcoholic, which happened to someone I know; the doctor was of course struck off).
As to whether other systems like Yelp or Facebook are substitutes for the licensing process -- well, that is a reasonable argument to put forward. It's not the usual one we hear on HN though, which is just libertarian free-market-uber-alles ranting. One complaint I would have about using Yelp or Facebook is that they are private companies, and thus not accountable to the public in the way that government licensing services are.
I also have a PhD in chemistry, and I find this knowledge invaluable for assessing the potential for harm of all food additivies and environmental pollutants. I find this nicely complements my medical training, which of course helps me make the best decisions regarding my health, and my PhD in CS which keeps my data safe online. Of course my 15 years of MMA keeps me safe on the street, and my extensive knowledge of finance means I never have to worry about my bank's financial security.
I really don't understand why we need any governmental organisations!
How is the average customer supposed to be able to decide how much risk is involved in the fact that one vehicle hasn't had its breaks inspected in the last X thousand miles, and another has? In the Uber world, how does the customer even get hold of that information?
It sounds perfectly reasonable to me to compare failing breaks with contaminated food. Both have the potential to be highly dangerous.
Strictly speaking, there's nothing preventing Uber from making that information available when you book a ride. Not that I think that's a great way to deal with this...
If we were going to leave it up to the individual riders, building a profile to automatically filter for appropriate vehicles would make more sense - I reserve judgement as to whether it makes enough sense.
Regulations, society, governments, etc. don't make sense to the next wave of kids, but the themes of disruption and hacking are salient and seductive. Good on the next wave and each one after for seeing the world and thinking, "I can do better." That is the commandment within the religion of the technologist I appreciate.
Uber ceases to exist with driverless cars unless they become a car manufacturer and own the vehicles. You don't need the overhead of Uber to get driverless cars to your door. The companies working on driverless cars can wipe away Uber with far fewer indictments of CEOs. In Uber, I see a naivete in deploying disruption that will more likely place Uber on the heap of left coast bubbles than reward them with an institutional place in the firmament of global corporations.
It's time to get rid of the senior execs and let the investors run the house to extract maximum value until Google's driverless car subscription is pervasive. The leadership of Uber is too high a risk for the investors in Uber.
And, for the kids who don't need no rules, you will age to become us one day and see yourself in those coming to replace you. You will see them screaming to unravel the world while not realizing they are perturbing the world, not changing it. They are part of the world, not its master. They are the catalysts of churn but will repeat our mistakes. And another wave will crash on the shore...
To be clear, there is certainly information asymmetry around the insurance and bonding levels of a cab. And it's way too expensive to investigate before getting in the cab. It would be cheaper to just hire a car service.
Long story short, governments are losing a lot of revenue due to Uber and (similarly) Airbnb. Consumers won't abide that as a reason for shutting Uber down, though, so they claim it's less safe. Taxi companies are happy to play along with that.