Uber and the future

[smilodon]

At least one person in the European Parliament isn't a complete fool.

My view on today's taxi protests and what it means for the sharing economy
Neelie KROES EC vice president 11/06/2014

Let me respond to the news of widespread strikes and numerous attempts to limit or ban taxi app services across Europe. The debate about taxi apps is really a debate about the wider sharing economy.

Many people know how outraged I was by the reaction of authorities and drivers to the emergence of services like ‘Uber’ in Brussels, Berlin, Milan, Madrid and more cities across Europe. (there are plenty of European competitors and complements by the way, like: DJump, Taxipal, Taxify, Hailo, BlaBla and more). But it becoming clear that there's a wider significance of this debate.

The debate about taxi apps is really a debate about the wider sharing economy. That debate forces us to think about the disruptive effects of digital technology and the need for entrepreneurs in our society. And that’s what the Taxi protests are really about.

It is right that we feel sympathy for people who face big changes in their lives. Drivers need to feed their families and plan for the future â€" but how can they if that future includes not only price competition from Uber, but also driverless cars? It can clearly be a tough profession to work in. Many are also locked into an expensive licensing system, where the license effectively forms part of their pension. So I don’t think it helps to be dismissive of real concerns that cab drivers have about new forms of competition. But we cannot run away from these debates either.

Whether it is about cabs, accommodation, music, flights, the news or whatever.  The fact is that digital technology is changing many aspects of our lives. We cannot address these challenges by ignoring them, by going on strike, or by trying to ban these innovations out of existence.

That is why a strike won’t work: rather than "downing tools" what we need is a real dialogue where we talk about these disruptions caused by technology.

We need to see that even if the change requires adjustments, it also is a sign of much needed entrepreneurs, and it is a boost to all of us as consumers. And all of these perspectives need to be accommodated.

I believe it is a fundamental truth that Europe needs more entrepreneurs: people who will shake and wake us and create jobs and growth in the process.

We also need services that are designed around consumers. The old way of creating services and regulations around producers doesn’t work anymore. They must have a voice, but if you design systems around producers it means more rules and laws (that people say they don’t want) and those laws become quickly out of date, and privilege the groups that were the best political lobbyists when the law was written.

That is old-fashioned compared to a system that helps all of us as consumers, and encourages entrepreneurs. We need both those elements in our economy; otherwise we will be outpaced to our East and our West. We’ll be known as the place that used to be the future, but instead has become the world’s tourism playground and nursing home. I don’t want Europe to have that future. That is not the world I imagine by grandchildren growing up in.

So that is why I have been vocal about taxi apps. Because the disruptive force of technology is a good thing overall. It eliminates some jobs and it changes others. But it improves most jobs and it creates new ones as well.

If we don’t use digital technology then millions of jobs will simply move elsewhere and Europeans will get angry that they are denied the conveniences that people in Asia and Australia and America and Africa take for granted.  Many of the people making those innovations will come from America and other places, but just as many will be home-grown innovators that the rest of the world is jealous of.  All of it will contribute to our prosperity.

People in the sharing economy like drivers, accommodation hosts, equipment owners and artisans â€" these people all need to pay their taxes and play by the rules.  And it’s the job of national and local authorities to make sure that happens.

But the rest of us cannot hide in a cave.

Taxis can take advantage of these new innovations in ways consumers like â€" they can arrive more quickly, they could serve big events better, there could be more of them, their working hours could be more flexible and suited to driver needs â€" and apps can help achieve that.

More generally, the job of the law is not to lie to you and tell you that everything will always be comfortable or that tomorrow will be the same as today.  It won’t. Not only that, it will be worse for you and your children if we pretend we don’t have to change. If we don’t think together about how to benefit from these changes and these new technologies, we will all suffer.

So it’s time for people at local and national levels to sit around a table and come up with reasonable accommodations of innovation.  We cannot criminalise a whole class of citizens, or drive tourists away from places that need money, in order to protect a few industries that think they can be exempt from the digital revolution. It’s not fair on everyone else, and it’s not realistic.

If I have learnt anything from the recent European elections it is that we get nowhere in Europe by running away from hard truths. It’s time to face facts:  digital innovations like taxi apps are here to stay. We need to work with them not against them.

Disclosure - I have little time for London black (s)cabbies. Generally they are ignorant, selfish and aggressive drivers. So I'd love to see a new technology arrive that would obsolete them completely.

My prejudice aside it is great to see the EC actually doing something worthy by looking out for the interests of ordinary people.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[Tutonic]

I haven't used any of these new apps, but they seem like fair and legitimate competition to me. If taxi drivers react to that by trying to get them shut down instead of adapting their own services to compete, they'll be obsolete before they know it.

Personal predjudice disclaimer: I've also had many run-ins with cabbies who were total jerks. One once started berating me for not having a 'proper job' when I stood up to him trying to rip me off. He went very quiet and apologetic when I told him the names of the organisations I work with....

[GhostMjr]

I have used uber a few times here and abroad in the usa (I was introduced to it by a friend). the price is quite often a 10th of the price of a yellow cab in usa or black cab here.

So what is it? Well its effectively a posh taxi/ car rented by the driver from uber who is issued with an iphone so you can see when the driver will arrive and he can easily locate and pick you up.

Add in the fact you can then spilt this fare with friends/ family in the cab and you can seriously save money!

Uber is mainly in London in the UK but in the USA in places such as Florida and LA it's really taking off.

Occasionally a uber car might be close by your location outside of London and will pick you up from your preferred location which you define by dropping a pin on a map in the app.

If you fancy trying uber inbox me and I will give you a code that enables you to get £20 off your first ride.

[Tutonic]

Oh, I used Uber for the first time in NYC.

It's awesome, and better than a regular cab in just about every way.

[smilodon]

Shame Uber has turned out to be a rather controversial and some would say unethical company. That aside the concept is solid and only an idiot or a taxi cab driver thinks that in the 21st century just waving your arms about in the street is a suitable way of booking a ride to you location.

[Penfold]

Personally I blame Toby who suggested we use Uber.

I sent someone to a meeting from White City to a location 1.6 miles away...... here is the result.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3809[/ATTACH]

Man that's hacked me off.

(and no, it wasn't a one way street !).

[albert]

You can create a complaint case as you have the evidence of the route.

[BrotherTobious]

You can tell them the route to take its the same with a cab.  But in London if I had to use a cab it would be a black cab.  I use uber down in Portsmouth and it works.

[Penfold]

Complaint made and we'll how (if) Uber respond.

Regardless of anything it's incompetent at best and fraudulent at worst.

[suicidal_monkey]

More innovation and competition in the market is good for consumers, but we must not blindly accept ideas for the sake  of it. The ideas must be acceptably implemented. Uber allows these private-hire cars to operate more efficiently for users by making them essentially as easy to catch as ad-hoc flag-a-cab-down licensed taxis. Only without the same licensing as a check. I'd like to see more regulation and responsibility with uber: a better guarantee that my driver is properly licensed, has some degree of navigational ability, and is unlikely to be dangerous.

...I'm finding the cabbie bashing rather prejudiced towards "that one time when..." problems: i.e. unjustified. SWMBO and I use cabs in London regularly and have done so for years. If at all possible we use black cabs (Hailo works nicely for them in London) likewise their equivalent in other towns/cities. We find that most officially licensed cab drivers are friendly enough and know how to get from A to B fast. Of course there will always be some bad ones, and ymmv, but you need a decent sample size before you judge them all! Our experience with private-hire cabs (the ones that are not licensed to pick you up ad-hoc) is the opposite: they turn up late, tend to be unfriendly much more often, take weird routes (usually unable to navigate without their satnav) and generally they have less pleasant cars in worse condition. They are also much less regulated so the quality and safety is pot-luck.

I also spent several years cycling daily Paddington-Islington during rush-hour. Black cabs were, on average, much better and more courteous drivers than any other road user, and I encoutered many of all types. Cabs are assertive but not dangerous. Vans were generally iffy. Private cars and other cyclists varied massively from polite to psychopathic so hard to honestly average out. Worst of all by far however was the old private-hire behemoth addison lee, which uses the same subset of drivers who seem to end up on uber. ...I avoided routes with buses.

[Penfold]

Complaint made and we'll how (if) Uber respond.

Regardless of anything it's incompetent at best and fraudulent at worst.

Well, to be fair, they came back quickly and reduced the bill by about 2/3.

Toby, I would also normally get people to take a black cab but sometimes they're not in abundance outside of central London and I don't want the girls hanging around on street corners waiting at night. (Not that they go often and not as though I've got oodles of staff).

[smilodon]

That's an interesting observation. I drive in London a lot both during the day and through the night (photography work not curb crawling!) I hate to stereotype but I tend to find Black Cab drivers to be the least courteous, most aggressive, most unforgiving drivers and most likely to break traffic rules of any group of road users. Again it's purely anecdotal but a couple of traffic cops I know cite them as the worst drivers in central London as a group. Obviously there are many who are nothing like this but enough drive badly to give them something of a reputation.

All mini cab drivers now have to be licensed - which means they are over 21, have a full UK driving licence held for at least three years, have taken an enhanced criminal records check, passed a DVLC group 2 medical examination, passed an english language fluency test (pretty basic) and attended a 'topographical' training course (no ideas what that is). It's not 'The Knowledge' but frankly with the invention of the GPS system and Google Maps with live traffic updates 'The Knowledge' is pretty irrelevant. I'm something of a dab hand and cross processing E6 and C41 in the darkroom...... and no one gives a monkey's as it stopped being a 'thing' about ten years ago.

I'm no real fan of traditional mini cabs either for the reasons mentioned. But what is the killer feature for me and apparently millions of others is the whole idea of booking a ride on a phone from wherever I happen to be, seeing who my driver is, when they will arrive, my exact route, most importantly how much it will cost, paying for it automatically from the app and not having to tip anyone..... I hate tipping on principal. No one tips the photographer so I've become bitter and twisted on the subject  :norty:

If that comes by way of a Black Cab then great. But I really don't think we'd see the Black Cab industry doing any of this through choice. Left alone they'd have been happy to stay in the dark ages with a 'best for us but not for you' system. It's taken Lyft and Uber and their like to mix things up a bit.

[BrotherTobious]

The reason purely is the knowledge they know the cut through etc and all the jazz where as most Ubers are reliant on the sat nav.  And if you are sat in traffic it can rasie the cost etc.  Just my thoughts

[albert]

I've seen as many black cabs and licensed taxis out there who ask me for directions to my destination as I have those who know their way around. In fact the last dozen or so black cabs I've caught if not in The City have no clue whatsoever. They gear their service up for business people not the regular Joe needing to get home.