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

Just landed at Bergstrom. Would love to catch a cheap and safe ride to my hotel downtown, but instead I'm sitting in the back of a filthy cab.

Thanks Austin.

Idiots.

 

Not to worry!

You can go on Facebook and post that you need a ride. Just negotiate everything there and I'm sure it's just as convenient and safe as Uber or Lyft.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/06/07/ho...led-the-void-left-by-uber-and-lyft-in-austin/

How a 30K-member Facebook group filled the void left by Uber and Lyft in Austin
Posted 8 hours ago by Fitz Tepper (@fitztepper)

Exactly a month ago, Uber and Lyft paused operations in Austin after voters defeated Proposition 1, an attempt to overturn mandatory fingerprint-based background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers in the city.

With almost a million residents of the 11th largest city in the United States now void of the reliable transportation option that is Uber and Lyft, no one really knew what would happen.

And while a few law-abiding apps sprung up to take Uber and Lyft’s place, it seems that a good deal of demand has shifted to an unlikely provider – an unregulated, peer-to-peer Facebook group.

The group is called Arcade City Austin / Request A Ride, and now has over 30,000 members. So how does it work?

Riders post their requests, which is typically a pickup and drop-off destination as well as desired time (most as ASAP). Then, literally within minutes, potential drivers will respond with an ETA, price, and phone number to call to confirm the pickup. Riders are then instructed to delete the post after confirming a ride, as not to clutter the page.

screens-2

Drivers have even starting posting custom “brochure” graphics, that typically have a picture of their car, screenshot of their Uber or Lyft account (showing they have been through a background check), and phone number.

drivers1

Although it operates totally peer-to-peer, the group was created by Arcade City, a new ride-sharing app that while not yet launched, hopes to eventually provide a totally decentralized ride-sharing solution that includes payment, identity, and reputation management.

What exactly does this mean?

Well, Arcade City will allow riders and drivers to decide on a cost and process the payment on their own – whether that is cash, Venmo, or hugs. While the app will process credit card payments as a convenience feature, this isn’t a necessary or even encouraged method of payment.

While this seems like it may work, decentralization gets trickier when you start trying to figure out background checks and identity verification. But Arcade City is confident they have a solution that will protect riders, while still remaining decentralized.

The startup explained that each driver will have a profile that can embed a Facebook or Twitter profile, background check, FBI check, driver’s license, proof of physical address, and more. Each driver can attach as few or as many of these verification options as they like, and the app will use these to compile a score that summarizes trustworthiness for each driver. Essentially, since riders will always be able to pick their driver, drivers who choose not to verify should be weeded out of the platform.

The decentralized model also means they company won’t provide commercial ridesharing insurance, but will show users if their driver carries it personally, so they can make their own decision before getting in the car.

This of course leaves the door open for major safety liabilities, like the potential that a rider may choose a driver that wasn’t verified or insured. Even though Arcade City is shifting responsibility to the rider, their PR would still suffer if there was ever an incident.

Not to mention the huge liability that this Facebook group is. Even though drivers post images of their Uber app to show they were approved and background-checked by the platform, these images can easily be faked. There will always be a definite risk that you are getting into the car of a literal stranger, someone who never had a background check or may not even hold a valid license.

But for now, the group seems to be working. By creating the Facebook group Arcade City was able to capitalize on the void in transportation that Austin has faced over the past month, and now had an eager customer base of over 30,000 that it hopes to migrate to its app once launched.

 

yup sucks that uber doesnt want to pay what every one else pays. or maybe it just sucks that austin and all the other things of having a business like operating expenses suck. Im more at the part still where taxes suck.

Theres that pesky thing that uber doesnt want and thats called 'liability' dern operating costs will get ya every damn time!

Uber cares! Its classic how anti establishment folks try to get on this until an actual accident happens. I mean lets just not require any insurance on a commercial level and start calling ourselves manila. Since apparently no one wants to pay for it. Insurance is totally a pile of horsecrap and there should be special operating discounts afforded to some businesses because they have s cool name. Fight the power man

 

No one is forcing Lyft/Uber to put self regulations on themselves. That's a level playing field. Are you seriously advocating that the government start regulating the quality of customer service that companies provide or am I misunderstanding what you are trying to say?

Level playing field is simple. Same regulations for everyone. Then the company that best runs their business should win out in market share.

 

Exactly. And I still find all of this strange because even with the taxes and regulation, Uber/Lyft would probably still win.

 

The Uber/lyft business models don't work with finger printing. Waiting months for the city to approve a new driver breaks the model becaus they need to sign up new drivers quickly and constantly to offset the churn. Many or even most just drive part time and intermittently, unlike with taxi drivers

Hence them leaving regardless.

Austin went from protecting a big crappy incumbent (taxis) to doing nothing about an unregulated black market (arcade city) while running off the best product in the business (Uber and lyft). That's some competent work

 

So, you don't need an underground Facebook group to get rides in Austin anymore. There are a few competing ride-hailing apps that have launched since Uber and Lyft left town. A guy on /r/austin even made this handy price comparison engine:

https://ridefinder.io/

So fare, it looks like Fasten has the cheapest prices and best UX. Fare is definitely more expensive, but seems to have a large network of drivers. For airport runs, Wingz has launched. GetMe was the initial lone wolf and seems to be the worst service: they show way too many cars on the map view so that you can't even see where you are and they're the most expensive of the bunch according to RideFinder.io.

 

I've never used nor do I care about ride sharing...but I'm very curious to see how these new businesses fair (fare?) in Austin. If they succeed it kinda makes Uber/Lyft look like the dicks in this situation.

 

This is simply not true. Ignoring the fact that it doesn't take months to get fingerprint approval, Uber/Lyft's models work in cities with more or fewer drivers because it's supply and demand driven. The churn of people leaving and coming in will be about even over time, even if there is a delay on the drivers coming in. And if it's not, prices will simply go up and bring more drivers in. So you might have a month of higher prices - which is not a problem to their model at all - and then return to normalcy.

It's funny to see people simultaneously claim that Uber is a revolutionary technology but that a few week delay and $40 cost for it's drivers completely makes it unviable. If that's true and it can't even adapt to a slight change in the rules, it's not really all that revolutionary a service. It's just one that found a regulatory loophole and exploited it but could do nothing more.

 

I stayed away from Get Me because of all the problems the company is struggling with (high prices/buggy app/inconsistent driver onboarding). I rode with Fasten and Fare last week; Fare's app has been hella buggy, but I didn't experience any issues with it on my iPhone and I like the company's referral system; Fasten has cheaper rates, but a driver told me that they were going to be raised because very few riders were able to get rides without "boosting." Fasten's app is going along smoothly. Love it

"Boosting" is Fasten's optional surge, so if the wait time is getting to be an issue, you can shorten it somewhat by agreeing to a surge (and pay higher rates), which is what I had to do last week. Luckily, the surge was only 1.7x normal rates. Of course, Fasten's commission model is to take only $1 for each ride completed. Of course, the longer rides that are given, the less that dollar commission is percentage-wise, which makes it better than the rates that U/L were taking off their drivers.

Fare has a unique referral system where you can constantly earn ride credits when you refer new riders with your code; when your referrals sign up with your code and take rides, you get a credit equal to 10% of the ride fare on every ride; it's akin to MLM without all the scam factor. Fare also lets you schedule rides up to a week in advance, which could be game-changer for airport trips. I'll have to use that feature sometime.

 

Hmmm, checking... yeah, still don't care they have a fragile business model.

 

Some asked before, but most Yellow cab drivers are contractors. It's usually printed on the side of the vehicle. I don't see Yellow Cab threatening to pull out of Houston.

 

Precisely...

But thats not what uber wants and the reason they left austin or any other city. The hipster neckbeards dont get that part. Many here dont either.

Level playing field is what america is about supposedly. But not for uber.

Uber doesnt want to pay what it costs period. Insert any example of any business that isnt just opening a dba. In fact even a simple dba is too much for uber. Just start your car and its on like donkey kong.

Its comical how they trick the hipsters.. the hipsters go do their work in the name of some movement or whatever joke they are foed into believing on behalf of a company that doesnt want a level playing field for profit entity. This is not ride sharing. Its an illegalcommercial operation being supported by misguided hipster. Really a head scratcher.

im going to throw wings on my el camino and call myself an airline. Screw delta and those guys Im going to do it illegally with no normal costs and take my ball home when anyone tries to bring me normal perating costs. Of course minus the rubber bands and chewing gum I used to put my car plane together. Well maybe I can get sequoia to float me that too.

You are looking at NORMAL costs like business license, insurance, commercial insurance etc. in any normal business. Its not that hard people.

This as usual is about money and uber wanting yours. Anything else and you literally have no clue.

I too was an idealistic 20 year old once then pulled the curtain back and see here obvious illegal cash grab. Pretty funny how the guy started it as an 'aww shucks' ride sharing. That sounds so precious and sweet for what really is a for profit commercially illegal business. Good for him. I guess I could make fast money doing something illegal too. Thats part of why its fast money..ITS ILLEGAL...DUH!!

If you have no shame then by all means do it, there are MILLIONS of opportunities for illegal businesses.

 

Taking a page from ubers book, we should all start a hipster movement to get rid of car insurance in general. Damn gubmint telling me what to do all the time. Since there are no car accidents ever its all good.

Also I would no longer have to hear about saving 15% on insurance. We are farmers bum bu dum bum bum bum bum

 

Quit making things up.

There's no indication that Uber would have left if Austin had relaxed Taxi cab regulations to mirror that of rideshares.

 

I used GetMe the other day with the promo code saferide for 50% off. It took the guy about 10 min to get there but it was cheap.

 

Uber wouldn't have left if Austin had completely caved? What a revelation.

 

I was in Austin last month attending a graduation. Having no Uber or Lyft sucked big time. Also those cabs suck.

 

It took 30 minutes after I "called the cab" for the cab to arrive. Granted, it was at 3 in the morning. But that's just ridiculous and unacceptable that this is the only option available.

 

Sounds like there are other options now, though I'm sure it will take a little bit for them to grow. But clearly these businesses think they can be profitable while still complying with the city requirements.