What do you guys think of Uber's threat to leave Houston

Uber's leaving cuz they want to. They were doing just fine without any changes.

 

I'm curious would Uber had do better going to a vote in Houston instead of Austin? Houston to me seems more business oriented with a little night where you would have somewhat of a balance of both user and non user voting . Austin on the other hand is the 6th St, keep it weird, college party town where I would assume most Uber users are not registered to vote.

 

Exactly.

It's like me going to my GF and being like "I need to check your phone before you leave and as you arrive... Then I need to flip through the phone of every number you add. I trust you understand. It's for my protection."

Of course, she's going to flip me the bird and move on to Round Rock

Now Mayor Adler's like "Hey! I'm trying to compromise! I've contacted her and let her know that she can now just link her phone device to my iPad so we won't have to check before and after anymore! She'll be good to go as she pleases! I can't understand how she's passing this up?!"

$hit made me come out of retirement.

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This guy finally decides to post.

Beat was raw bee tee dubs.

 

But Austin changed the regs

Uber and their competitor lyft are leaving because of stupid regs passed by Austin counselors, not because they want to

 

I'm not sure it will come to a vote. Our new mayor is captured by the taxi lobby

 

Yeah I dun fell off.

I do wanna start posting consistently again tho.

What have I missed?

 

No, they aren't. The regulations haven't even been defined or taken effect. They chose to leave out of spite - they could easily have kept operating without ANY changes for now if they wanted to.

 

Are all background checks equal in your mind because they have the words "background check" in them?

 

The amount of corporate **** sucking going on in this thread is sickening.

Sorry, but Uber is the monster in the closet here, not regulators.

 

http://www.twcnews.com/tx/austin/ne...ules-allow-criminals-to-drive-passengers.html

 

Thats ridiculous. It makes no sense to keep hiring drivers and operating when they have to pull out soon anyways.

Has nothing to do with spite and everything to do with stupid regs that makes the business model unworkable

 

Yes major, that's my argument.

 

They also recently passed a law called ban the box that forbids background checks for certain jobs until an offer is about to be made

 

I've skimmed 13 pages and I don't live in Houston or Austin, but this seems like the equivalent of the hypothetical boogeyman rapist in the gender neural bathroom argument.

These drivers have apps that track their every movement, have their vehicle title, insurance, and bank information for payment. They go through an initial background check.

If a driver is going to commit a heinous crime, they get one go at it. They aren't going to build a safe driver record and high rating within the community so that one day they can fulfill their desires of committing easy assaults on drunken passengers.

And what about the potential for passengers to assault drivers? Why are we not upset about vetting passengers? How do you think current or potential female drivers feel about this?

 

God dammit. Foiled again.

 

I actually feel less likely to be raped by an uber driver than say someone coming to repair something at my place.

What's the uber driver gonna do, climb into the back seat? I can see what he's doing but he can't see what I'm doing.

Are movie theater employees fingerprinted? Seriously, people are distracted in dark rooms, having food and drinks that could be roofied. Clear rape risk. I'm looking forward to the new Bourne and I don't want to be raped.

 

This is a good point in that Uber/Lyft are very transparent with the driver and passenger's location, along with requiring that drivers do a good job to increase their ratings. If the driver was to commit a crime, law enforcement would have GPS tracking and other forensics to prevent the same driver from committing that crime.

However, there's also the argument that drivers with previous serious felonies should not be drivers to begin with, which Uber has failed to screen. Those felons are more likely to commit another serious crime and shouldn't be allowed to have passengers in such a vulnerable position.

 

uber and lyft are leaving b/c they did not get carte blanche from the people of austin to do whatever they want.

lets review the timeline here...

U & L began operating in austin illegally, ignoring city regulations.
city council adopted a TEMPORARY ordinance that was largely written by U & L.
city council creates permanent regulations and U & L begin a PR blitz and ad campaign to fight it.
city council adopts the new regulations on an overwhelming 9-2 vote.
U & L form a PAC to repeal the new regulations and go back to the temporary ones, which again, they wrote. they also form another PAC to seek the recall of the council member who created the new regulations.
city council and mayor offered to work with U & L on compromise, but they refused. it was their way or they leave town.
U & L spend almost $9 million, the most that has ever been spent on a city election. compared to the $200,000 or so spent by the anti-prop 1 people.
U & L still get their asses kicked in the election.

there are currently multiple ridesharing options in austin right now.