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Comment by gcb0 | Hacker News Reader

here is the main argument against uber in general: for taxis to keep their medalions, they must not refuse pickup/drop off on the worst parts of town. or for someone they don't like. and a certain percentage of licenses are given to drivers with vehicles that can accommodate handicapped passengers.

uber is fine when you are a white, able guy living in a good neighborhood.

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Sorry if I am missing any sarcasm, but this seems totally backwards! Taxis are famous for racial discrimination while Uber drivers accept fares sight unseen.

Also, taxis are well known (at least in San Francisco) for illegally refusing fares to distant neighborhoods. Uber drivers simply can't refuse.

Finally, flagging a taxi is nearly impossible in a remote location, but calling an Uber driver from the app will work pretty much anywhere.

> Uber drivers simply can't refuse.

Sure they can; I've had an Uber driver call me after accepting the fare to tell me to cancel and re-request.

Yeah, that's a trick drivers play on customers so they don't take a hit to their rating. If Uber catches a driver canceling too often, they'll boot them or freeze them from picking up more fares. (Conversely, if a customer is doing the same thing too often, a similar penalty of fees or the like will happen to them as well.)

So next time they try that, feel free to hold your ground by using Lyft instead or something. You don't have to cancel - they must, by their own rules, either cancel themselves, or pick you up.

And was your response "You cancel and take the hit if you don't want the fare" ?

I had an even sneakier issue on a full fat Uber (not X) fare where the driver called me, asked me where I was going, told me he'd be there soon (location 5 minutes away), and just never came (15 minutes). I didn't know what to do with that as I actually did want to go home so I just cancelled and re-requested.

Let Uber's customer service know. They're very pleasant and they want to make sure you're happy.

You can see exactly where the car is on your phone! I admit, not a great experience but certainly rare and obviously the sort of thing that Uber can minimize and regular taxi companies cannot.

OK, but Uber has mechanisms to abate that which most taxi systems do not.

Taxis everywhere are famous for trying to ask you your destination before letting you in the cab. I always say, "hold on, I can't hear you" and quickly open the door before they can drive away.

I'm black and live in a predominately minority neighborhood, Inglewood, CA in Los Angeles. It's not terrible, but does have some sketchy areas. I've requested rides to and from my home plenty of times with Uber, mostly without problems.

One time I got my request accepted by a driver(to leave my house), and they asked where I was going because they didn't want to go to a bad neighborhood. The driver mentioned I was lucky that they were "passing through" and they only pick up passengers in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Venice, Santa Monica, etc. The driver also said they turned down a white guy in a gang-infested neighborhood late one night.

They mentioned it helped that I had a good rider rating. Either way, they definitely considered canceling the ride based on location.

I've never tried to hail a cab from Hollywood or somewhere in LA headed in the direction of a black neighborhood, so I'm not sure if the experience is the same as it seems to be in NYC or other places for some black people. That ride did make me wonder how many Uber drivers actively avoid worser neighborhoods though.

I guess the cabs want customers that don't give them problems and use appearance as a proxy for that in the absence of other information. With rider ratings I guess that's better info than appearance. I chatted to one Uber driver who said he worked for another cab company before and had a problem with iffy customers just running away at the end rather than not paying which also is not an issue with Uber.

Not sure if I understand this, I've had issues with cabs that refused to drop me off at a location that wasn't convenient to them, yet never had problems with uber picking/ dropping me off anywhere, so don't feel like that's a valid argument against uber. I'm not familiar enough with handicapped accommodations/ laws, but are you saying the argument against uber is that they're unable to pickup handicapped passengers?

If an Uber driver did that I would 1 star him. And when Uber contacted me to know why, I would tell them.

When a cab driver is rude... its just normal.

I've had an Uber driver call me and ask about my destination after accepting the ride request and idling on it for 5 minutes. This was very late night, and he probably didn't want to have to drive too much outside of his home base.

Almost the exact opposite is true:

http://fee.org/freeman/detail/uber-against-racial-profiling

I wonder how often taxi drivers do shady things like refuse to pick up or drop off in certain areas, versus how often ridesharing drivers do that. Also, I probably shouldn't even ask, but what does being white have anything to do with this?

I sort of get the argument that cities have an interest in equitable transportation for all of its citizens. But interestingly, my guess is that an Uber-style service probably works even better for the "bad" parts of town. First, it's easy to identify the gap and start driving to fill it. All of the passenger vetting and geo-location reduces risk. Surge pricing helps smooth supply/demand curve. Feedback and monitoring ensure good behavior and that drivers don't skip too many rides. Right?

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