Start by ditching the term “sharing economy” because there is no “sharing”, person A pays and person B provides some service, so it’s just “economy”.
I thought of an app to facilitate this based off of a review system of past customers. Take a dollar off of the ride to encourage reviews. Leave a tip option to give the dollar back if the passenger liked the ride. Baltimore could benefit from this. Cheaper transportation that connects people that is.
What a catastrophically bad idea..
Firstly, what is societal neutral? Is it where a person is able to indulge in their vices without affecting others, or causing cost to the community? Because if so, drug addiction (of prescription, or legal drugs - alcohol and tobacco - and illegal drugs) fails the test.
Speaking as someone working on the front lines (emergency departments) of societies care for vulnerable people, addiction is an enormous scourge that causes immense harm - particularly with ice which is highly destructive to the individual, their families and the social fabrics of communities.
It really depends on how you measure cost - the current regime of punishing it, or treating it as a character weakness is clearly not working - plus moving sustained addiction outside of a care network to the black market, also clearly isn't working either.
Everything we do has a cost to the community, the question is, since we know we can't eliminate the cost, how can we reduce it?
It's pretty common to assume that addicts are just pieces of inferior shit. Hell, I felt that way before I was one. That was a rather rude awakening.
I've know many current and former addicts in my life - and I don't look at it as a character failing at all - its just an unfortunate luck of the draw when it comes to biology, genetics, and life experience.
[0] https://www.badabring.com/ (link in Danish)
SideCar closed in late 2014 though :-/ (And there was a recurring cut paid to SC.)
I already benefit from it massively. Before my roommate got me into using Uber a few years ago, I was hesitant to travel to new cities or even go somewhere new or unusual in my own city because of being intimidated by having to figure out where and how to hail a taxi or having to figure out the bus routes. Now as long as I have my phone and I'm in a somewhat populated area, I have no fear.
I'm not familiar with he US, but taxis in most European countries have an app these days. Even >20 years ago you could just call their phone number and they would pick you up from (or drop you) anywhere, even in remote villages, even at 4am. Never had a problem. I find it hard to believe the same isn't true for the US.
Sure public transport isn't as flexible route/time wise but I don't see how Uber is different from regular taxi service - apart from the price.
As a service they are great, reliable. Thats all you need to be a successful business you dont need to innovate. Let google and Microsoft think about AI. All Uber needs to do is make sure I get to my destination on time.
When you think about impact, you might say Uber has topped all tech companies. Sure Google AI can be the best chess player, but Uber give mobility to me and many others in an easy to use application which is much more effective in my day to day life.
Instead, perhaps we can focus on how we can fix this sharing economy, so that we can all benefit; not just the ones who happened to raise the most money from shareholders.