this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Uber was supposed to help traffic. It didn’t. Robotaxis will be even worse (www.sfchronicle.com)
submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology
91 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Uber was supposed to help traffic. It didn’t. Robotaxis will be even worse::px-captcha

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Uber was supposed to help traffic?

[–] dhork 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The original concept of Uber was ride-sharing, where it would match up riders going to a similar destination, like the airport. But I haven't seen that option pop up in quite a while.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Just like AirBnb, both the company and car/home owners figured they could make more profit by making it a full time gig...

[–] landlordlover 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The original concept of Uber was ride-sharing, where it would match up riders going to a similar destination, like the airport. But I haven’t seen that option pop up in quite a while.

Wrong, it started as "Ubercab" and you could request a black luxury cab. It eventually turned into the app we have now with people trying to make ends meet. It was and is a taxi service.

Straight from Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber#:~:text=Following%20a%20beta%20launch%20in,times%20that%20of%20a%20taxi.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/111015/story-uber.asp

[–] PrettyLights 1 points 1 year ago

This is how I remember it in the early days on the East Coast. Uber was pretty expensive and always a large black luxury car. The drivers were very professional too and dressed up.

[–] Snapz 4 points 1 year ago

The original concept of Uber was ~~ride-sharing~~ undercutting traditional taxis by operating at a loss until the taxi model was essentially dead and then using newfound monopolistic power to juice profits from every angle with reckless disregard for people or the environment they live in until/if regulators stop us.

That wasn't the original concept, you're confusing the phase 1 marketing pitch for the "concept".

[–] itwasawednesday 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah that's a silly statement, guarantee there was little altruism when they, like most, started their business.