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Comment by jblok | Hacker News Reader

I can't speak for San Fransisco, but in London there is a clear difference in service between 'Black cab' regular taxi services and Uber taxis. The Uber drivers often have no idea how to get to where you want to go, and don't even have an idea of which direction to head, whereas black cab drivers have a great knowledge of the whole city. This may also be just my bad luck but I've been in Uber cabs where their driving practices have been 'questionable' at best. I feel like a lot of the drivers are new to Uber (fair enough), but perhaps even new to driving.

The huge difference in price leads me to use Uber semi-regularly, whereas before I would use a taxi almost never. That's an obvious benefit to me. However the old adage 'you get what you pay for' holds true in my opinion.

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London is somewhat of a unique taxi market because of the driver knowledge required. The black cab tests are potentially the hardest in the world. In the US cities I've lived the drivers probably know the general area of where you're going, but probably don't know the final directions.

At this point, why care about directions from the driver. Uber has built in driver GPS to tell them where to go.

I wouldn't expect an Uber driver to know the final destinations to my home in the suburbs, but at least the general direction. Most of my Uber journeys are stationary for a couple of minutes while the driver works out the best way to go, rather than just heading off in the general direction and turning on the sat nav at a red light.

There is also knowledge that I'd expect a professional driver to have. I recall a journey I took once where the sat nav told the driver to go through a tunnel which I knew was closed. I told him to take the bridge instead to save a big waste of time.

My point is though, you do sacrifice quality for cost. I don't agree with this article that says they are cheaper and better.

I've never used Uber, but this seems easily solvable with code.

Why not have you put the destination address into the app while you're waiting, and as soon as you get in the car, the driver can just say "go", and the GPS will start?

I'm kind of surprised it doesn't already work that way.

It does work that way, but it's optional. You don't have to enter the address into the app before the driver shows up and it's therefore possible that a significant number of users don't do so. My experience is that it makes the trip extremely smooth to pre-enter the address.

It works exactly that way. Even in cases where you wait to tell the driver where you're going, it takes her only about 20 seconds to type the destination into their Uber app for directions, not the 'couple minutes' referenced above.

London is unique. They have to pass "The Knowledge" which gives them a great understanding of the cities layout and routes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_the_United_Kingdom

Can't stand Uber anymore. I want to sit down in a car, say a direction and get there. I don't want to be leaning over, looking where we're going, and answering the guys questions ever two seconds. I automatically 1 star any ride where I didn't simply get from A to B.

Not to mention I literally almost died twice because of severe driver incompetency.

I can't do it anymore, Uber drives are just absolutely horrible. People come from outside suburbs into the city and they get absolutely wrecked by vicious drivers and directions.

I've had three amazing experiences so far with Uber, the rest were god awful.

To be the voice of disagreement, Uber in London is absolutely fine if you put the destination in when you book the Uber. It'll then have the sat-nav which they require to navigate ready-to-go when you depart.

I don't mind them following sat-nav blindly at all - because it's good enough, and cheap enough for my London-navigating-by-proxy needs.

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