How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it?

Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by paulddraper on Thursday June 08, 2017 @12:45PM (#14515361)

> In March, it was revealed that the company had been “greyballing” law enforcement, hiding vehicles from them in an effort to fox attempts to catch drivers in cities where the app is banned.

Is that wrong? If there's a police car set up on 6th, can I avoid it and go on 7th? Or does that mean I'm a criminal with something to hide?

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Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by AnimalMuppet on Thursday June 08, 2017 @02:14PM (#14515962)

Yes, it's wrong.

If Uber is banned in a city, that means it's against the law. Dodging cops while you're doing something against the law... yeah, that's wrong. It's wrong to be doing the thing that against the law, and you're proving that you know it by dodging the cops.

But you may argue that the Uber service is fine; the law itself is wrong. And that's a reasonable argument. (Not necessarily right, but at least reasonable.) But the correct way to respond is with civil disobedience - deliberately disobey the law, and accept the consequences, trying to win either in court of law or in the court of public opinion. You can't do that if you dodge the consequences.

Don't dodge bad laws. Either obey them (even while you're working to change them), or publicly disobey them. Dodging the cops is not the answer.

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Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by throwaway35775 on Thursday June 08, 2017 @03:12PM (#14516384)

I don't think the company makes any secret of operating in any city. As far as I know they are quite public and let elected officials know they are going to operate in their city. This means that the city can quite trivially subpoena the company once it starts operating. The drivers are just trying to earn a living. So basically the company was practicing civil disobedience, but was kind enough not to try and keep individual drivers just trying to make a living out of it.

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Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by foxyv on Monday June 12, 2017 @12:25PM (#14538499)

Avoiding the police is perfectly okay. The thing that is illegal is that Uber is facilitating the operation of illegal taxi cabs. In this case, Uber's avoidance of police demonstrates a sort of 'mens rea' a mindful violation of the law.

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Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by SilasX on Thursday June 08, 2017 @06:33PM (#14517681)

NAL, but my understanding is that it's legal to avoid police, or kick them off your service, but it's not legal to lie to someone you specifically believe to be a police officer in order to hinder their investigation.

My biker bar analogy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270214

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Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by qq66 on Thursday June 08, 2017 @02:55PM (#14516258)

If you're not breaking the law, then avoiding police is perfectly legal. If you are breaking the law, avoiding police, depending on how you do it, can be an additional violation of the law, and can be a criminal addition to a civil infraction.

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Re:How low does Uber have to go before we stop using it? by randomanybody on Thursday June 08, 2017 @12:54PM (#14515418)

Maybe not strictly against the law, but if I'm riding in your car and you are purposely ducking cops, I'm going to feel a bit suspicious.

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