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Re:Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP... by throwaway91111 on Friday January 20, 2017 @03:04PM (#13446575)
Forced how? I have friends that eat because of Uber. What leverage do they have against Uber?

This is a tragedy of the commons problem: Uber is footing an addiction to cheap transport nobody knows how to satiate.

Re:Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP... by beguiledfoil on Friday January 20, 2017 @07:14PM (#13448016)
>Uber is footing an addiction to cheap transport nobody knows how to satiate.

Just ride a bike. Not an option in the burbs, for sure, but taking an uber is not an efficiency gain the way public transit or bicycles are.

IMHO low density communities will die. They cannot be saved.

Re:Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP... by throwaway91111 on Friday January 20, 2017 @07:34PM (#13448092)
Public transit isn't an option in the country. Neither is biking: you can't bike your father to the er when his hip breaks. Uber is, and it's displacing sustainable transit. What happens when they try to justify it? They're basing their world view on efficient economies, but they're getting there with a subsidized economy. The way this ends is either with a) starving drivers or b) unaffordable transport for those below average income.
Re:Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP... by beguiledfoil on Friday January 20, 2017 @08:27PM (#13448279)
>The way this ends is either with a) starving drivers or b) unaffordable transport for those below average income.

It ends with Uber running out of money. Higher interest rates would end Uber very quickly, unless it has some very wealthy patróns that aren't actually interested in making money.

Re:Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP... by poink on Friday January 20, 2017 @11:41PM (#13448845)
Bikes aren't an option in a lot of cities, either. I live ~1.5mi from my office in Atlanta, but I'm nowhere near crazy enough to ride a bike down Piedmont Rd.
Re:Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP... by devinj on Sunday January 22, 2017 @07:26AM (#13454886)
1.5mi is walkable, though. (My commute is 3 miles a day, every day, on foot. Bay Area.)