RIDEGURU
Smitten Kitten (SmittenKitten)
Ride Scholar from Washington DC
2098 RiderActivity
Posts by SmittenKitten
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Hackers Are Using The Uber App to SCAM Drivers!
I don't get it either.A new and insidious scam has popped up recently for drivers: scammers are using the … -
Building a Search Engine for Food Delivery [The Rideshare Guy]
Do you think this will work? or be successful?There are a lot of food delivery apps out there – … -
Can Uber and Lyft Fully Recover from the Pandemic? [RideshareGuy]
From the RideshareGuy:Uber and Lyft have been offering drivers big incentives to hit the road, mainly because of the … -
Another hiccup for Uber: Some drivers were being charged for giving rides [CNN]
Whatever happened to driver shortage and outrageous prices?(CNN Business)When a Chicago-area Uber driver checked his account balance after dropping … -
Uber ordered to pay $1.1 million after blind woman was denied rides more than a dozen times - CNN
Classic Uber moment.(CNN)Uber has been ordered to pay $1.1 million after an arbitrator ruled that the rideshare company's drivers … -
Users with fake names and no profile pics should not be able to use Uber
Whatever happened to accountability? How is this not obvious?https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-carjacking-rideshare-uber-lyft/10401859/ -
What history books will say about Uber
Not sure if it's "strange" but this will likely be true for econ books. -
Coronavirus is forcing Uber to return to its start-up roots [WP]
Good read.Coronavirus is forcing Uber to return to its start-up rootsFor years, Silicon Valley start-ups have built a … -
CDC: What Rideshare, Taxi, Limo, and other Passenger Drivers-for-Hire Need to Know about COVID-19
In case people haven't seen it. CDC has a formal posting.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused … -
Amazon Drivers Are Hanging Smartphones in Trees to Get More Work
Awesome. What time to be alive. Cell phones hanging from trees.Someone places several devices in a tree located close … -
Lyft is launching a car rental service. [The Verge]
Only available in two cities. San Francisco and Los Angeles:Lyft is launching a car rental service. Differentiating itself from … -
"Delivery-only" Restaurants Coming (SmartKitchen)
This reminds me of the branch-less banks that were so successful in the 2000-2010. There's been some consolidations and reversion … -
Uber founder Travis Kalanick has reportedly raised $400 million for his next act from Saudi Arabia.
He will make a few more billions by competing against his old company.https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-travis-kalanick-saudi-arabia-funding-cloud-kitchens-delivery-2019-11?utm_source=reddit.com -
Uber Says It Will Sue Los Angeles Over Sharing Scooter Location Data [Vice]
Uber is suing Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation asked Uber to start providing real-time location data for … -
The self-driving Uber that killed a pedestrian in Arizona wasn’t programmed to see jaywalkers.
How are they testing this stuff on our roads with our lives at stake? Human testing?Findings released by US … -
Uber lost $1.1 billion last quarter, says rides are profitable (sort of)
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/11/uber-lost-1-1-billion-last-quarter-says-rides-are-profitable-sort-of/?amp=1First time they are giving us more visibility into their revenue figures. Fun. Yet the company argues that things … -
Uber announced a series of changes to its app in an attempt to become the “operating system for your daily life.”
I can't read this with a straight face:The changes include giving users things to do other than call a … -
Ford executive says Full Self-Driving cars will last only 4 years on the road
Of course, this is in response to how people will stop buying cars once the autonomous vehicles are on the … -
Lyft: Not Disruptive Enough
Lyft's focus is mainly in urban ridesharing market in the US and Canada, while Uber is eyeing for global exposure … -
Uber and Lyft close at record lows as investors lose faith in ride-sharing companies
These Wall street investors...they should just be talking to the drivers. They could have told them this a long time …
Featured Answers by SmittenKitten
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As I read these responses, I think the answer depends on a few things:
a) How busy the night is. Yes, drivers do make money while driving and when the vehicle is moving. So, if it's a busy night, they'd rather be doing that. Some are saying, "it's better than making $0.00", but that logic only works if there aren't other passengers out there.
b) Whether the driver drives an UberX, UberXL, UberBlack, or UberSUV. The per minute fee is quite different between these services. In Boston, UberX makes $0.21/minute ($12.6/hr), UberXL $0.35/minute ($21/hr), UberBlack $0.45/minute ($27/hr), and UberSUV $0.50/minute ($30/hr). UberX drivers would be at a disadvantage and perhaps be grumpy, but UberSUV guys probably don't mind nearly as much.
c) Location probably matters. The per minute fee is also different from city to city. For example, Boston UberX drivers get paid $0.21/minute but those in San Diego make $0.15/minute. That's a big difference. You may argue that there is a cost of living adjustment, but $0.15/minute is $9 per hour before Uber takes its cut.
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Here's the driver edition:
Before:
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After:
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Here you go. two screens You first are prompted to leave a review, and then upon doing so, the tipping page opens.
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BTW, there used to be a "$0" option and someone told me there used to be a "No tip" option too. It looks like they updated that though. Perhaps the drivers didn't like it.
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The fact remains that Uber is in bed with all the law makers in NYC, so I doubt anything too negative will happen to Uber. Any measures that will be put into place will likely benefit Uber as they do have influence over this decision.
For all we know, this "change" was proposed by Uber. They too knew the sharp rise of rideshares would become a problem.
For example, thy will
- Limit the number of rideshares to exactly the # Uber wants on the road, after they carefully analyze the demand.
- Put some rules or emasures in place to "limit" the number of competitor driver apps in NYC, say make it more difficult to drive for multiple.
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Uber and Lyft both analyze the photo you submit, by putting them through an automated scan. They supposedly check for various properties of the photo to look for inconsistencies and associate a credibility score to it. They check for information such as when the photo was taken, what camera was used, etc. (more on that later)
Before you ask what exactly Uber checks (which no one except Uber knows), let me interest you on something you probably didn't know.
Your images that you take on your smartphones or digita cameras store various properties in its metadata. There are many fields that you probably didn't know you were sharing when you send your files around.
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Are you scared yet?
Yeah, you should be scared because this applies to any photo you share with anyone. (but since this is a ridesahre forum, I should stick to what Uber cares about.)
I was going to post a full list of metadata properties that you can identify, but that's a pretty lengthy list. I will pickup a few things below:
- Timestamp
- Date Created/Date Modified (If different, the image was "editted")
- GPS Location, such as lat/long and even altitude.
- What camera or smartphone was used
- Flash on/off
- Exposure
- Camera Lens
- Resolution, etc.
So how do they verify?
Since I don't work for Uber, I don't know exactly what they check. However, if I were one of their engineers, and I had to catch crooks, I would look for the following:
- Was the photo taken on a different day then when the rider occured?
- Was the photo ever modified or editted?
- Was the photo taken on a different smartphone than the one driver uses? If so, why?
- Does the photo match up with any other photos submitted by other passengers?
- Does the photo match up with the car that the driver drives?
Why so secretive about this process?
Well, it's because none of these things will *prove* that the photo is not authentic or that the incident didn't happen. If the file was modified or if the pic was taken by a different camera than the smartphone the driver conveniently had in his hand, you would start to doubt the authenticity.
This is why Uber won't tell you exactly why you are being denied the cleaning fees or that you don't have credibility.
I hope I have adequatey answers how Uber *must* be fighting back against this cleaning fees fraud. They do it because they can, and it isn't that hard.
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Vancouver doesn't have Uber or Lyft yet. There's a feud over this. Here's an article from June.
'Unfathomable': Vancouver tourism industry lashes out against absence of Uber
Excerpt
"Members of British Columbia's tourism industry are speaking out against the BC NDP for failing to deliver on a promise to bring app-based ride-hailing services to the province in time for this year's travel season.
"People come and go, 'OK, can I have my Lyft or my Uber?' and then turn on their app and there's no cars," said Ian Tostenson, a spokesperson for Ridesharing Now. The coalition is aimed at lobbying the provincial government to create a framework that would allow companies such as Uber and Lyft to operate alongside the taxi industry.
Before forming government last summer, the BC NDP promised it would pass legislation regulating app-based ride-hailing services in the province before the end of 2017.
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Where to wait during downtimes is something every driver needs to eventually figure out for each local market. This is a sign of you beoming a veteran driver! It's the rite of passage. :)
So, basically the question is where to wait during those slow times like mid-mornings and mid-afternoons. You have to think about how society works and who your target should be doing those times. Working people are at work, and students are at school. So who is out?
- Seniors and retirees
- Housewives or caregivers
- Tourists
- People who aren't working, running errands, going to doctors', etc.
So, What destinations are popular during the days. They are very different from busier times. so, try these places.
- Hospitals
- Grocery stores
- Strip malls, car dealerships, etc. (every town/city has these roads)
- Senior centers
Notice that downtown business districts and transportation hubs are relatively empty during the day. So, make sure to try out all these locations, and see if you have a better ping rate! Good luck!
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Here's a good articlef for the riders. It's tips on how to identify and finding your driver.
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/how-do-i-know-if-the-uber-driver-is-who-he-says-he-is
Right. They basically swapped the Cancellation Rates and Acceptance Rates on what gets impacted when the driver "cherry picks."
The fact remains that Uber is in bed with all the law makers in NYC, so I doubt anything too negative will happen to Uber. Any measures that will be put into place will likely benefit Uber as they do have influence over this decision.
For all we know, this "change" was proposed by Uber. They too knew the sharp rise of rideshares would become a problem.
For example, thy will
Here you go. two screens You first are prompted to leave a review, and then upon doing so, the tipping page opens.
BTW, there used to be a "$0" option and someone told me there used to be a "No tip" option too. It looks like they updated that though. Perhaps the drivers didn't like it.
Here's the driver edition:
Before:
After:
Yeah, the mentality of "anyone can do this job" comes from the fact that they think driving is a "commodity". It's far from the truth, but it's the Silicon Valley culture where they continously seek in a cult-like fashion to replace people and things by smartphone apps or crowdsource, all in the name of making the world a better place.
Personally, this is upsetting that they thought driving, which involves a special skill as well a customer service, should be a target.
I also find irony in this how the Uber app itself is a commodity and can be replaced. We are already seeing this now, where all drivers carry multiple rideshare apps. "Dispatching" is the commodity. Driving isn't.
And frankly, I think the other taxi aggregators like MeruCab, Didi, and 99 are doing it better how they become the virtual dispatcher of existing taxi companies. They realize that their app is the commodity and the driving isn't. This is why Uber will eventually fall.
This is a list from angel.co, which is a job-seeker site for entrepreneurs and start-ups.
So they are talking about real employees they are hiring.
Source?
Isn't their competition the consumers themselves? The most avid users of these scooters (like the ones we see in the video) would just go out and buy them, right? It's very different than a car where you have trouble parking it at home or work.
...or are they saying the economics work out where it'd be cheaper to rent than own one? That's the question, right?
Just to add some context, I posted this Infographic here:
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/distracted-driver-men-vs-women-infographic
Having kids in the car may be the cause to increased distraction.
This is a good quote:
"The ride-sharing companies already have the most relevant eyeballs — the most users of their app looking for a ride — and they have the logistics expertise to get supply to the right spot."
Also this. There are many multi-modal companies out there, and rideshare market has been paying attention for a while now.
"A similar motivation animates the desire to create a so-called “multimodal” transportation platform that integrates ride-sharing with access to public transit information and ticketing. Consumers who use scooters or public transit are also consumers who will use ride-sharing."
Well, these software and apps already exist. Local markets and neighborhoods are starting to embrace them. Like parents with kids, etc. I think that's a great idea, but they don't seen to be taking traction quickly, without the national backbone and issue solving.
There are bigger things at works here, things that are critical. There has to be insurance, logistics, liability, marketing, recruiting, etc.
Don't get me wrong. I want this to work. and eventually, perhaps we will go in that direction.
Think Napster or Torrents.
You mean like the Google StreetView cars?
like this?
Assuming it was he was using his own Uber account, yeah, Uber should have known who he was right away. I considered that to be a good first line of defense. Your name and account being associated. Drivers aren't picking up complete unidentifiable strangers.
Then again, the law is weird. Without the dashcam proof, there is a level of uncertainty that someone else could have used this man's account and called Uber. Potentially, someone else could have used the account, or someone could have jumped on the car before the account holder could.
Dashcam, where this man's face is seen committing the crime. That's hard evidence.
That is a pretty comprehensive plan to fix the current system. I'd vote for you as a CEO if this were a democracy.
There are multiple components here:
- "If Uber raises its rates, all the consumers will go to Lyft" - I feel like this is a problem with the leveraged economy. These start-ups are so used to working at a loss, that they don't even try to make profits or keep loses minimized. I feel like there is a slightly breakdown of capitalism here. Success company should be the company with good business and revenue model. However, every company seems to only be fighting for marketshare, and that's it. Is the system broken or is this just good firece competition? I don't know.
- "Very good reasons for the price of a taxi ride." - I can't agree more with this. Taxis rates were set very carefully through a democratic process and collaboration between government officials, economists, taxi companies and drivers. I was involved in when Pittsburgh was setting its rates several years ago, and i was impressed as to how much thought and discussion occured to justify the rates.
- Merging the taxi companies into Uber. I am surprised that Uber never took this approach to begin with. They had an opportunity to take over the entire industy with their technology. All they had to do was to share their technology and become the platform to which every taxi company would operate under. They instead took the selfish take-over route, where they went head-on, and tried to own the industry.
Some people argue that taxi companies wouldn't have played the game and that they would have slow down the growth of Uber. However, Grab, Ola, Didi, 99 and Meru are all doing great jobs at merging with local taxi companies. Sure, there are hiccups, disputes, and people clashing, but as a result, they have grown quickly and established roots in massive markets. Uber? not so much.
So what's next? Will there be an implosion with where the fare stands today? Will there be a reckoning day? ...or will Autonomous Vehicles save the day by eliminating the driver pay? Will the consumers take the blunt by paying more tips? Will Didi and Ola take over the North American market by merging taxi companies (including Flywheel and Cubr) and bring down Uber/Lyft?
What an exciting time to be alive.
it'll be super hot tomorrow. Taking the subway will be brutal, and many people faint on the platform. Just watch out for that.
There are plenty of Uber and Lyft. Bazillion of them. Way too many, and tomorrow is no exception. Surges do happen, but not that often. It's usually tied to very specific times and events. If you see a sudden surge, just wait it out or walk a bit. You can also fallback on taxis too. Just raise your hand and hail.
Here's more on this story.
"We believe this incident was an isolated occurance committed by a cold and calculated killer," Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley said. "With that said, we certainly encourage all service providers to invest in their personal security."
Authorities said Anderson has been outspoken about his dislike of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft.
He filed two lawsuits against Uber since 2015, saying the company was ruining his business.
Anderson spoke to Channel 3 News last year about his lawsuit.
"Basically overnight I had 30 or 40 calls a day and suddenly no calls, no business, so it just totally crippled the business," Anderson said in an interview in 2017.
Anderson also called on other taxi drivers in Northwest Florida to join a petition demanding legal action.
"We want a jury. We want to use the 7th Amendment and get a jury," he added.
Investigators tracked down the suspect through surveillance video caught on Kirilov's dashboard camera.
They also used fare records from Uber to link Anderson to the crime.
Investigators said Anderson had recently purchased the cell phone used to order the Uber ride.
"Had they not had that video monitoring, that security monitoring within his vehicle- that was our first big break- this thing might have gone on a lot longer," Sheriff Ashley said.
Sheriff Ashley said it's unclear if anyone else was involved in the crime or if any more arrests will be made.
What it would come down to is the fact that this would have to be enforced by Uber but Uber has very litte incentive to do so.
There are rules in place about how many for-hail services (i.e. taxis) can be on the road. This is the medallion system. Having this medallion or "license" enables a driver to pick up some one off of the street. "Hail" traditionally meant a person raising their hand, of course. Uber took a slightly different approach where people "hailed" or requested a ride off of a mobile app.
This semantic enabled Uber to skirt the law and ignore the medallion system all together.
but the passenger doesn't have the cool surge map on their phone, so they really cannot do that, right?
This is a huge problem in the America today. The huge misalignment of its workers' skillsets and the jobs that are available. I am glad that the economy is good and unemployment is low, but it doesn't mean people have the jobs they want or getting paid well.