<story><title>The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/11/uber-files-whistleblower-lobbyist-mark-macgann</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s funny though: cabs have gotten better and Uber has gotten worse.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve switched back to taking cabs from the airport.  Ubers are slower (cabs are sitting there just waiting) and much, much expensive now (like 2x the cost of a cab).&lt;p&gt;The product isn&amp;#x27;t any better anymore.  The cars are rundown and often smelly.  It is nice to be able to put in an address and not deal with a credit card payment at the destination -- but that&amp;#x27;s about the only benefit left.</text></item><item><author>yupper32</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s also important to realize that the reason Uber and Lyft were able to crush the taxi industry is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers.&lt;p&gt;The simple act of being able to know what I&amp;#x27;m going to be charged beforehand, and know that the driver has little ability to scam me out of as much money as they can extract from me at my destination made Uber and Lyft SO much better. That should be the bare minimum, and yet the taxi industry couldn&amp;#x27;t figure that out for the most part.&lt;p&gt;I do not care about them breaking taxi laws or regulations. Their treatment of their &amp;quot;employees&amp;quot; absolutely needs improvement, but my god I do not care about the taxi industry as a whole.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwyawayyyy</author><text>I didn&amp;#x27;t realise this until going through JFK recently. Cabs: no wait, fixed price, professional driver. Uber: long wait, twice as expensive, driver and car a complete crap-shoot.&lt;p&gt;Feels like the economies of scale only work when you own the taxi fleet itself. I.e. you have dedicated mechanics etc etc. As soon as the consumer has to pay the true price of a taxi ride, Uber crumbles. There&amp;#x27;s another world in which Uber was a whitelabel app for cab firms, making millions but certainly not worth billions (so, making millions rather than losing billions!).</text></comment>
<story><title>The Uber whistleblower: I’m exposing a system that sold people a lie</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/11/uber-files-whistleblower-lobbyist-mark-macgann</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s funny though: cabs have gotten better and Uber has gotten worse.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve switched back to taking cabs from the airport.  Ubers are slower (cabs are sitting there just waiting) and much, much expensive now (like 2x the cost of a cab).&lt;p&gt;The product isn&amp;#x27;t any better anymore.  The cars are rundown and often smelly.  It is nice to be able to put in an address and not deal with a credit card payment at the destination -- but that&amp;#x27;s about the only benefit left.</text></item><item><author>yupper32</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s also important to realize that the reason Uber and Lyft were able to crush the taxi industry is in part because the taxi industry was absolutely horrible to consumers.&lt;p&gt;The simple act of being able to know what I&amp;#x27;m going to be charged beforehand, and know that the driver has little ability to scam me out of as much money as they can extract from me at my destination made Uber and Lyft SO much better. That should be the bare minimum, and yet the taxi industry couldn&amp;#x27;t figure that out for the most part.&lt;p&gt;I do not care about them breaking taxi laws or regulations. Their treatment of their &amp;quot;employees&amp;quot; absolutely needs improvement, but my god I do not care about the taxi industry as a whole.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bearjaws</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;ve switched back to taking cabs from the airport.&lt;p&gt;Yup cabs are way better experience at the airport and the same price or cheaper. I haven&amp;#x27;t tried using our local cab app, but its been on my mind.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile Uber drivers still haven&amp;#x27;t figured out where to park, or stop in the middle and wave you to run out to their car... while everyone honks at them.</text></comment>