Uber Debuts Safety-Focused Update, Citing Positive Impact on Drunk Driving

[longterm]

Still, the company mentioned that "it's heartening to see that these incidents are declining over time." It also cited its own survey data, released today, wherein 90 percent of riders said Uber helped generally reduce drinking and driving, and 80 percent said it helped personally on the same issue.

I really like Uber; I've used it a lot in NYC... but... they refuse to do simple fingerprint background checks here in Austin, where the city made it mandatory if Uber and Lyft were going to stay in this city.

A referendum failed to pass, meaning that ride-sharing companies must perform fingerprint background checks; Uber and Lyft refused and have left town (for now). If their employees were safe enough to be Uber drivers, I fail to see why a background check (something that is routinely done in many industries, including limo services and others) would be a problem for them. Clearly they had something to hide, so chose to leave Austin and millions of dollars rather than do the right thing.
[doublepost=1467210046][/doublepost]

F**k Uber, their unbelievably sleazy corporate culture, and their self-serving BS. You have to be a real piece of crap for me to side with taxi drivers over you, and Uber has managed that. More cities should follow Austin's example.

I agree totally. I've used Uber a lot in the past, but hate the way they've used sleazy tactics to compete with other carriers (in S.F. I believe?). Here in Austin, where they were making millions of dollars, the void has quickly been filled with other ride-sharing companies, and Uber is not being missed. They were stupid to think that they could refuse fingerprint background checks and get the public to support them. The referendum easily failed...
[doublepost=1467210151][/doublepost]

wowwwww. I thought Uber was unanimously loved and celebrated! I love Uber. I am technically a driver but I have only given 4 rides in the last couple of months. But I have used it several times and thought it was great.

You're kidding, right?

 

[electorate]

I'm a huge fan of what Uber's doing. Here in Melbourne, Australia, our taxi service has been disgraceful for as long as I can remember, with taxi's that smell, driver's not showing up when ordered via phone, drivers who almost fall asleep at the wheel, drivers who don't accept short fares (illegal but rarely policed as it's difficult) etc. With uber there's accountability, for both the driver and the passenger, it automatically sorts out payment and is very easy to use with the app.

In Melbourne, it's caused a major upset to the taxi industry as you need to buy an expensive license in order to drive a taxi, so taxi drivers are upset, but rather than banding together to create a great service that people want to use instead of Uber, they just protest and complain. I'm all for monopolies with very mediocre service being taken over by companies like this who can provide much better service in an easier way, with cheaper costs.

 

[lederermc]

DUI numbers were already heading downhill before Uber came along. It's easy to take credit even if it isn't directly related.

Correct. For this chart to have meaning we would need to see the same data for a city that has no Uber service over the same period.

 

[JungleNYC]

Why is this on here? I know Apple is supposedly making a car, or an enclosed super-slim iBike, but this feels off focus for this site. Just my HO.

 

[dewski]

I really like Uber; I've used it a lot in NYC... but... they refuse to do simple fingerprint background checks here in Austin, where the city made it mandatory if Uber and Lyft were going to stay in this city.

A referendum failed to pass, meaning that ride-sharing companies must perform fingerprint background checks; Uber and Lyft refused and have left town (for now). If their employees were safe enough to be Uber drivers, I fail to see why a background check (something that is routinely done in many industries, including limo services and others) would be a problem for them. Clearly they had something to hide, so chose to leave Austin and millions of dollars rather than do the right thing.
[doublepost=1467210046][/doublepost]

I agree totally. I've used Uber a lot in the past, but hate the way they've used sleazy tactics to compete with other carriers (in S.F. I believe?). Here in Austin, where they were making millions of dollars, the void has quickly been filled with other ride-sharing companies, and Uber is not being missed. They were stupid to think that they could refuse fingerprint background checks and get the public to support them. The referendum easily failed...
[doublepost=1467210151][/doublepost]

You're kidding, right?

No. I genuinely had no idea that anyone had bad feelings towards them. Seems like capitalism at its best to me. I just didn't know. I had never heard of anyone having a bad experience with it. I'm in Houston, though. We don't have a big demand for cabs. We all have multiple cars and its too spread out. Learn something new everyday.

 

[simonmet]

I'm a huge fan of what Uber's doing. Here in Melbourne, Australia, our taxi service has been disgraceful for as long as I can remember, with taxi's that smell, driver's not showing up when ordered via phone, drivers who almost fall asleep at the wheel, drivers who don't accept short fares (illegal but rarely policed as it's difficult) etc. With uber there's accountability, for both the driver and the passenger, it automatically sorts out payment and is very easy to use with the app.

In Melbourne, it's caused a major upset to the taxi industry as you need to buy an expensive license in order to drive a taxi, so taxi drivers are upset, but rather than banding together to create a great service that people want to use instead of Uber, they just protest and complain. I'm all for monopolies with very mediocre service being taken over by companies like this who can provide much better service in an easier way, with cheaper costs.

Exactly. I get that people have concerns about Uber but anyone that's lived in Melbourne or Sydney knows that Uber is like a saint compared to the taxi industries here. I can't tell you the number of disgustingly filthy boots (trunks for you Americans) I've had the displeasure of having to put my luggage into. Not to mention drivers that drive slowly and deliberately take long or congested routes.

I'm glad there are cities and countries whose taxis are much better than ours and are worth protecting (like Berlin) but I can't even describe how bad they are in Australia because it gets me angry. By comparison my first Uber experience, which was only recently (I'm late to the party), was astonishingly good and not to mention cheaper.

 

[deeddawg]

also provide a new "speed display" in the driver app to alert them of potentially passing the speed limit.

LOL. On Atlanta highways you're begging to get rear-ended if you're not doing at least 10mph OVER the limit.

 

[Botts85]

I hope uber doesn't start enforcing speed limits on their drivers.
I don't mind it if we do 20-30km/h over an absurdly low set freeway limit. After all, it's not me who's getting a ticket if we get pulled over.

 

[deeddawg]

DUI numbers were already heading downhill before Uber came along. It's easy to take credit even if it isn't directly related.

Hey, politicians do it regularly. Why not Uber?

 

[iShater]

Uber has forced the quality of cabbies up a little here due to the competition.

The OP reads like Toronto..

They ( Cabbies ) drive like tw@ts, smell, ask for directions ( when they have a GPS in front of them! ), talk on the phone ( not hands free ), cause congestion due to illegal and inappropriate u-turns and parking. Not to mention, the interior of the car, smelling and dirty. Payment machines "not working today", because they want cash only.

The last few times I've had to unfortunately use a cab, they've cleaned up the interior and doesn't smell like crap.. so Uber have raised the standards, just a little!

The taxi industry isn't doing well and quite frankly, have bought it on themselves by treating its customers like garbage.

You just entered two contradicting comments. I haven't seen any of this stuff in 2 years using cabs in Toronto. Downtown can be different?

I am not sure that the standards in the countries that those drivers came from and the standards that Canadians are accustomed to are the same. That may be part of the problem, there tends to be a bit of a cultural divide I think

What BS comment. Trying to make this thread go to the political/social wasteland?

uberrumors.com???

No clue why this is Mac/Apple news.

 

[Mcmeowmers]

That makes sense if they just want to show a correlation, although it may misrepresent the actual numbers of pickups vs DUI's. They would probably need a left and right axis ti keep the same relative size while showing the actual numbers.

But it's deceitful. One can not critique their method then. In my opinion a flat average line could fit their data!

I would assume the y-axis in length is proportional to positive integers.


But the thing everyone is missing is that the rise in Uber pick ups is not necessarily from potential DUI suspects. It could be the public in general and the popularity of the app.

 

[Stella]

I've used cabs in Toronto for more than two years.. .. Cabbies are no different between different areas of Toronto. All the same.

You just entered two contradicting comments. I haven't seen any of this stuff in 2 years using cabs in Toronto. Downtown can be different?



No clue why this is Mac/Apple news.

Because it's an iOS app. No matter how loose the association is!

 

[Howyalikdemapls]

I've used uber several times and have never had a issue! works really good!

Ya I'm really not understanding where all this hatred is coming from suddenly. Everyone hated taxis, and Uber was there in every way that taxis failed. I've used it a few times and it works super well, and the drivers are always very pleasant and offer free bottles of water.

And this post is showing DUIs going down while Uber usage is going up and all the comments are just talking **** about Uber. I don't think Macrumors is an accurate representation of the general public though.

 

[jlc1978]

But it's deceitful. One can not critique their method then. In my opinion a flat average line could fit their data!

I would assume the y-axis in length is proportional to positive integers.


But the thing everyone is missing is that the rise in Uber pick ups is not necessarily from potential DUI suspects. It could be the public in general and the popularity of the app.

All true, and not having the scales, especially if they are different, is highly misleading as expel would issue Uber is picking up as many rides as the DUI reduction. As always, correlation does not imply causation and there are many confounding variables that need to be considered; that never stopped someone from making the argument, however. For example, that is just one data set; what about her cities and how do they correlate. If DUI and Uber goes up does Uber encourage DUIs?

[doublepost=1467223954][/doublepost]

A referendum failed to pass, meaning that ride-sharing companies must perform fingerprint background checks; Uber and Lyft refused and have left town (for now). If their employees were safe enough to be Uber drivers, I fail to see why a background check (something that is routinely done in many industries, including limo services and others) would be a problem for them. Clearly they had something to hide, so chose to leave Austin and millions of dollars rather than do the right thing.

My guess it's to avoid having to do that everywhere; so giving up Austin is cheaper than having other cities impose or demand they do the same there s in Austin.

 

[thats all folks]

I am not sure that the standards in the countries that those drivers came from and the standards that Canadians are accustomed to are the same. That may be part of the problem, there tends to be a bit of a cultural divide I think

people from any country in the world can be courteous, clean and competent. it is the industry itself that attracts the worst kind of people (Canadian or otherwise) and repels anyone you would want driving your cab. for the most part, taxis operate as a regulated limited resource without real competition. in this environment, there is no punishment for bad service and consequently no real reward for trying harder. you will make the same amount of money whether you are terrible or awesome. sure you can not tip the driver but as the general population is a better class of person than the average taxi driver, most people actually tip out of politeness rather than as a reward for a job well done. and once it's established that most cab drivers are terrible people, no one that isn't wont want to work as a cab driver, that is, wont want to associate with other cab drivers.

it's the same issue with racist cops (in the US at least). no police force seeks out racists as recruits but like attracts like and it becomes self fulfilling. and anyone who isn't and becomes a cop, if they find themselves surround by racists will either assimilate or leave. and eventually the majority of cops are racist. the majority of cab drivers are unwashed jerks.

Uber is a terrible company but they created a framework that encourages good service, requires the driver to use GPS, sets a clear and knowable rate structure, and that punishes bad drivers. when your ride completes and you are asked to rate your driver, that has consequences. I know that, for a time at least in New York City, any driver that rated below a 4.6 out of 5, was booted. and that's it. result, good drivers in clean cars.

 

[NoahK17]

Until Taxi Drivers can beat the Uber prices I'm offered, I'll stick with Uber (and Lyft for that matter).

PS. Can someone make a Chrome plugin that replaces all instances of Uber with "DVD" and Taxi Driver with "VHS"?

 

[yankinwaoz]

I read yesterday, I can't remember where, that there has been a spike in DUI's in Austin since Uber/Lyft were banned. That, combined with the Atlanta graph, should be pretty convincing that these services reduce drunk driving.

However, these services also reduce two import revenue streams to governments.
(1) Taxi medallions
(2) DUI fines

Part of me thinks that the cities and counties are more interested in protecting their revenue stream from DUI's. DUI's, parking, and speeding, are the only profitable crimes that law abiding, fine paying, jail avoiding citizens may commit in their life. Most of the other crimes are committed by people who have no money, will never pay a fine, and cost heaps of tax dollars to convict, punish, and treat.

 

[ThatsME.mr]

When I first saw the diagram I thought that this shows the increase in temperature in the carribean due to climate change causes a decline in piracy in this area during the course of the last 300 years.

 

[BvizioN]

F**k Uber, their unbelievably sleazy corporate culture, and their self-serving BS. You have to be a real piece of crap for me to side with taxi drivers over you, and Uber has managed that. More cities should follow Austin's example.

Uber the victim driving service

I love Uber.

It seem to be a trend now days to hate anything that gets a big name. I have used Uber many times and I have to say for me is far far better then the traditional taxi drivers who are so ignorant when they drive and think the rules on the road don't apply to them, cheat with fares, take you longer distance and what not.

 

[barbu]

It seem to be a trend now days to hate anything that gets a big name. I have used Uber many times and I have to say for me is far far better then the traditional taxi drivers who are so ignorant when they drive and think the rules on the road don't apply to them, cheat with fares, take you longer distance and what not.

I guess if you haven't or don't want to look into the corporate culture and history of Uber, then it's easy to dismiss the 'haters' as easily as you have done here.

 

[jlc1978]

I guess if you haven't or don't want to look into the corporate culture and history of Uber, then it's easy to dismiss the 'haters' as easily as you have done here.

Yup, It's interesting to see how many of today's companies follow the model setup by Carnegie and Rockefeller.

However, Uber's, Lyft's , et l's ride sharing model is here to stay and unless cab companies adapt to it they will find themselves increasingly less relevant. The ride share companies and cities will eventually figure out a way to split the money made by providing rides, removing a major challenge to the companies' growth.

 

[Lemon Mac]

Whenever ice cream sales rise, so do shark attacks.

 

[BvizioN]

I guess if you haven't or don't want to look into the corporate culture and history of Uber, then it's easy to dismiss the 'haters' as easily as you have done here.

I don't give a rats ass what kind of bs media feeds people with. It's all based on my experience and based on my own personal experience dhe traditional taxi service sucks a big time and uber like type of service is the future. I live in UK and taxi drivers here are the most careless drivers I have seen on the road, leave the cheating fares aside. With uber I know how much it costs me before I order, I know my route, I know my driver and I know that if I forget something in a car I have a chance to get it back. Can't say the same about traditional taxi services.

 

[idunn]

Sorry Dave . . .