Of these, I’d like to point out that unironically Uber is the obvious choice for Best. Hear me out…
Outside of the really big cities, taxi service was trash. You had to find a number and a phone, the price was almost impossible to figure out in advance, and none that I am aware of were doing anything to keep up with the times or improve anything. The competition that it hurt deserved some pain.
People can now paw drunkenly at their phone and generally arrive home safe. Easy access to rides has almost certainly saved lives. I don’t think you can say that about any of the others on the list.
But wait! I’m not saying that Uber is good. I’m just saying that, theoretically, you could start a service like Uber that isn’t hot garbage, that has employees or at least better paid contractors that take home a more reasonable share of the money. Hell, a local government could create a ride hailing app that passes the entire amount back to the driver, and it would be a net benefit to society. Though at that point, maybe they should have just been looking into better public transportation and planning instead.
Budapest banned Uber due to pressure from taxi drivers union which ended up implementing an app and matching services. It took a while to mature, but the quality of the service definitely beats that of Uber now.
Alas, public transit is already really good in Budapest, so mostly only people that were using Taxis before Uber existed are using the services now. Except that you are less likely to get scammed on fares and be the victim of CC fraud due to the streamlined app process.
Wait before you hear of inter-city transit and a company called BlaBlaCar. While by their own claims they just organize people to give someone a ride while going to the same town, the way to really min-max it was to get a retired, nearly scrapped bus, act like multiple virtual vehicles, and then carry 10+ people without any legal safeguards for them. The’ve got some pushbacks and the service now is less tolerant to such cases, but that’s still insane. Yet, for various reasons, people take it over dying public infrastructure like official bus depots, trains, for it’s cheaper and stops when it crosses town instead of being based in a distant station on the edge of city limits. They weren’t great, but they were at least career drivers looking into each other with some minimal checks, timetables, that municipal power could regulate. And then there’s a rando (even if ex-driver) who bought an old vehicle and drives it until it either pays off or they get asleep behind the wheel on a highway leading to dozens dead.
No Uber driver ever scammed me into paying double fare or refusing credit cards.
Uber is objectively a cancer upon society. They should legally employ their drives and pay a fair wage with prices to match.
All I’m saying is, it takes a real shitty industry for Uber to still be the better option. Every “innovation” in the picture is a complete joke and should never be used even for practical purposes, except Uber…
Of these, I’d like to point out that unironically Uber is the obvious choice for Best. Hear me out…
Outside of the really big cities, taxi service was trash. You had to find a number and a phone, the price was almost impossible to figure out in advance, and none that I am aware of were doing anything to keep up with the times or improve anything. The competition that it hurt deserved some pain.
People can now paw drunkenly at their phone and generally arrive home safe. Easy access to rides has almost certainly saved lives. I don’t think you can say that about any of the others on the list.
But wait! I’m not saying that Uber is good. I’m just saying that, theoretically, you could start a service like Uber that isn’t hot garbage, that has employees or at least better paid contractors that take home a more reasonable share of the money. Hell, a local government could create a ride hailing app that passes the entire amount back to the driver, and it would be a net benefit to society. Though at that point, maybe they should have just been looking into better public transportation and planning instead.
Budapest banned Uber due to pressure from taxi drivers union which ended up implementing an app and matching services. It took a while to mature, but the quality of the service definitely beats that of Uber now.
Alas, public transit is already really good in Budapest, so mostly only people that were using Taxis before Uber existed are using the services now. Except that you are less likely to get scammed on fares and be the victim of CC fraud due to the streamlined app process.
Wait before you hear of inter-city transit and a company called BlaBlaCar. While by their own claims they just organize people to give someone a ride while going to the same town, the way to really min-max it was to get a retired, nearly scrapped bus, act like multiple virtual vehicles, and then carry 10+ people without any legal safeguards for them. The’ve got some pushbacks and the service now is less tolerant to such cases, but that’s still insane. Yet, for various reasons, people take it over dying public infrastructure like official bus depots, trains, for it’s cheaper and stops when it crosses town instead of being based in a distant station on the edge of city limits. They weren’t great, but they were at least career drivers looking into each other with some minimal checks, timetables, that municipal power could regulate. And then there’s a rando (even if ex-driver) who bought an old vehicle and drives it until it either pays off or they get asleep behind the wheel on a highway leading to dozens dead.
No Uber driver ever scammed me into paying double fare or refusing credit cards.
Uber is objectively a cancer upon society. They should legally employ their drives and pay a fair wage with prices to match.
All I’m saying is, it takes a real shitty industry for Uber to still be the better option. Every “innovation” in the picture is a complete joke and should never be used even for practical purposes, except Uber…