News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on How Estimates of the Gig Economy Went Wrong. Parent comment

Re:How Estimates of the Gig Economy Went Wrong by thatoneuser on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @02:25AM (#18862951)
Yeah, the problem with the driving apps is the damn greed. They could have made an improved taxi service where people still payed a fair amount and in exchange you get a pleasant, on demand taxi (without the credit card machine being “broken”).

But they didn’t just want to compete with taxi. They wanted more. They wanted everyone to use their service. How do you do that? Offer it cheaper and pass the responsibility to the driver. If Uber and Lyft has stayed humble they could have had profit, happy workers and happy riders. Instead they wanted billions.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How Estimates of the Gig Economy Went Wrong by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @03:35AM (#18863247)
> They could have made an improved taxi service where people still payed a fair amount and in exchange you get a pleasant, on demand taxi

This was what Uber was. Then Lyft launched its product and, to Uber’s shock, didn’t get any regulatory pushback. (Most people in most American cities had horrible cab experiences. Also, the tech backlash hadn’t yet begun.)

Uber probably improved the pay laws for New York’s taxi drivers by bringing light to their plight. It also improved quality across the board.

This isn’t a simple “they got greedy” story.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How Estimates of the Gig Economy Went Wrong by m-ee on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @04:24AM (#18863458)
Uber originally was a black car service. Sidecar was the first company I was aware of to use the model that Lyft and UberX currently follow.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How Estimates of the Gig Economy Went Wrong by thatoneuser on Wednesday January 09, 2019 @11:25AM (#18865960)
Tbf Lyft is my major complaint. I’m less familiar with Uber.
[ Parent | on HN ]