Comment by matheweis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by matheweis | Hacker News Reader

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This isn't unique to San Francisco, the entire industry is in a free fall nationwide... It is incredible to watch the effects of a little innovation and (effectively) deregulation.

Chicaco: "Once a sure bet, taxi medallions becoming unsellable" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9564478 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/17/taxi-medallion...

New York: "New York City Taxi Medallion Prices Keep Falling" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856231 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/upshot/new-york-city-taxi-...

Philadelphia: "Philly medallions fetch less than 17% of asking price" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9528301 http://observer.com/2015/05/the-taxi-industry-is-in-total-co...

Don't forget that the "innovator" is operating illegally in many jurisdictions and is actively trying to buy protection (i.e., lobbying).

>Don't forget that the "innovator" is operating illegally in many jurisdictions and is actively trying to buy protection (i.e., lobbying).

Don't forget their most unfair practice of kicking out rude and bad drivers that provide terrible customer service. If the cabs can do that, people would like them too, but that's just a totally ridiculous thought.

In most places it is completely legal. Street hailing is different than dispatch hailing in most jurisdictions.

In others jurisdictions it is gray territory and some govs err on the side of the taxis. But I don't really know of many jurisdictions were it is outright illegal.

In Toronto, it feels like the entire public is on Uber's side. But that could be good PR as well, since I can only poll my circle of friend-users.

A lot of my friends agree that Uber is a pretty bad company, but they are still tons better than Taxis.

Good PR or superior product + service?

Possibly all 3. Venture capital can buy a lot of things.

read: don't forget that innovation has been made illegal due to pressure by certain cartels and outsiders must form political alliances to circumvent them.

Gee. I'm sure that's not how the incumbent system was created in the first place, or anything.

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