<story><title>Uber is officially a cab firm, says European court</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42423627</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>themistocle</author><text>I traveled recently in a foreign country where I did not speak the local language. Uber allowed me to enter my destination and location without confusing the driver. I could never have done this with a traditional taxi cab.</text></item><item><author>baby</author><text>Cabs are shit in most places around the world. What&amp;#x27;s great with Uber is that you will avoid that while traveling.</text></item><item><author>collyw</author><text>Yours seems like a fairly usual reply when either Airbnb or Uber are discussed - &amp;quot;it works for me&amp;quot;. Great that it works for you.&lt;p&gt;I have never had a problem with the cabs where I live (and Uber is banned)&lt;p&gt;Anyway to add my anecdote as a counter to yours. I was back home in Scotland at Christmas last year. Private Cabs were all busy, so we tried an Uber wanted to charge nearly three times what the monopolistic black cabs (the ones you hail from the street) charge. My one and only experience with Uber and it didn&amp;#x27;t seem good.</text></item><item><author>hug</author><text>I take a bunch of ubers, by which I mean I take maybe 4 or 5 ubers a week. Before I took ubers, I didn&amp;#x27;t take cabs, I took the train. I walked five minutes to get on a tram to the train station, I switched to a train, and then I walked ten minutes home.&lt;p&gt;I never, really, took cabs. I can explain the multitude of reasons: Cab drivers with shitty attitudes, refusing to unlock the doors and just cracking open the window to ask how far it was you were planning to go: Too short? Don&amp;#x27;t want to take you, fare is too small. Too long? Don&amp;#x27;t want to take you, won&amp;#x27;t get a fare back. I mean, y&amp;#x27;know, cab drivers are legally obliged to take you on any distance journey but the lack of accountability meant that they wouldn&amp;#x27;t. Sometimes there were no choices: Cab home or you won&amp;#x27;t get there. In those cases, I&amp;#x27;d take cabs. The cab driver would be rubbing his eyes, swerving all over the road, tired after working a 16 hour shift, while talking on the phone to, I guess, whoever would listen. Doing anything they could not to pay attention to driving, apparently.&lt;p&gt;And now I take ubers instead. It&amp;#x27;s not because I like uber. It&amp;#x27;s not because I think that the laws around the cab drivers should be ignored and uber should be allowed to flaunt that however they like. It&amp;#x27;s because I think that, at least right now, uber works better than laws. At least right now.&lt;p&gt;Is the contractor thing a little bit on the suspicious side? Definitely. Should they pay their &amp;quot;driver partners&amp;quot; more? Definitely. Do I think that this problem is uber&amp;#x27;s fault? Most definitely not.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t have lyft available to me. If I did, I&amp;#x27;d probably use lyft. I&amp;#x27;m happy with being slightly conscientious and paying a bit more, knowing that I&amp;#x27;m not ripping off some guy who can&amp;#x27;t do any better. Anecdotally, most of my friends think the same thing.&lt;p&gt;But what I won&amp;#x27;t do is support the existing cab industry.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kbart</author><text>So people before Uber have &lt;i&gt;never&lt;/i&gt; used taxis in foreign countries?&amp;#x2F;s In most countries taxis already have apps comparable to Uber available on Google Play. Even before that, I&amp;#x27;ve managed to get a taxi in China without understanding a single word or symbol (could be said the same about driver and English) and successfully reach my hotel -- showing a hotel&amp;#x27;s reservation did the trick (I bet that pointing a finger on a location on a map would also work).</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber is officially a cab firm, says European court</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42423627</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>themistocle</author><text>I traveled recently in a foreign country where I did not speak the local language. Uber allowed me to enter my destination and location without confusing the driver. I could never have done this with a traditional taxi cab.</text></item><item><author>baby</author><text>Cabs are shit in most places around the world. What&amp;#x27;s great with Uber is that you will avoid that while traveling.</text></item><item><author>collyw</author><text>Yours seems like a fairly usual reply when either Airbnb or Uber are discussed - &amp;quot;it works for me&amp;quot;. Great that it works for you.&lt;p&gt;I have never had a problem with the cabs where I live (and Uber is banned)&lt;p&gt;Anyway to add my anecdote as a counter to yours. I was back home in Scotland at Christmas last year. Private Cabs were all busy, so we tried an Uber wanted to charge nearly three times what the monopolistic black cabs (the ones you hail from the street) charge. My one and only experience with Uber and it didn&amp;#x27;t seem good.</text></item><item><author>hug</author><text>I take a bunch of ubers, by which I mean I take maybe 4 or 5 ubers a week. Before I took ubers, I didn&amp;#x27;t take cabs, I took the train. I walked five minutes to get on a tram to the train station, I switched to a train, and then I walked ten minutes home.&lt;p&gt;I never, really, took cabs. I can explain the multitude of reasons: Cab drivers with shitty attitudes, refusing to unlock the doors and just cracking open the window to ask how far it was you were planning to go: Too short? Don&amp;#x27;t want to take you, fare is too small. Too long? Don&amp;#x27;t want to take you, won&amp;#x27;t get a fare back. I mean, y&amp;#x27;know, cab drivers are legally obliged to take you on any distance journey but the lack of accountability meant that they wouldn&amp;#x27;t. Sometimes there were no choices: Cab home or you won&amp;#x27;t get there. In those cases, I&amp;#x27;d take cabs. The cab driver would be rubbing his eyes, swerving all over the road, tired after working a 16 hour shift, while talking on the phone to, I guess, whoever would listen. Doing anything they could not to pay attention to driving, apparently.&lt;p&gt;And now I take ubers instead. It&amp;#x27;s not because I like uber. It&amp;#x27;s not because I think that the laws around the cab drivers should be ignored and uber should be allowed to flaunt that however they like. It&amp;#x27;s because I think that, at least right now, uber works better than laws. At least right now.&lt;p&gt;Is the contractor thing a little bit on the suspicious side? Definitely. Should they pay their &amp;quot;driver partners&amp;quot; more? Definitely. Do I think that this problem is uber&amp;#x27;s fault? Most definitely not.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t have lyft available to me. If I did, I&amp;#x27;d probably use lyft. I&amp;#x27;m happy with being slightly conscientious and paying a bit more, knowing that I&amp;#x27;m not ripping off some guy who can&amp;#x27;t do any better. Anecdotally, most of my friends think the same thing.&lt;p&gt;But what I won&amp;#x27;t do is support the existing cab industry.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>collyw</author><text>I have managed to take taxis in plenty of countries where I don&amp;#x27;t speak the language. Don&amp;#x27;t pretend that its something difficult.</text></comment>