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Comment by aianus | Hacker News Reader

> All drivers there are licensed by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), as required by law. Their vehicles must also be licensed with the TLC, and they have to carry commercial insurance.

This is going to negatively impact driver supply (making wait times higher, especially in the outer boroughs) and increase the cost of the service vs Uber.

> Juno’s drivers will provide better service because they’re happier, Marco said.

The only 'service' I want from a taxi driver is to show up, follow the GPS, and not double-swipe my credit card or claim the machine isn't working. Uber already has basically perfect service.

Unless they have some secret innovation I'm not seeing this is going to be a massive failure.

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All other things being equal I'll go with the service that gives more to the person doing the actual labour.

Buy anything from Amazon? Because they're infamous for treating their non-engineer employees terribly, yet I and most people I know still buy from them because they're cheap and have great customer service.

No, I don't. But I'm not in the US and Amazon doesn't really present that great a deal once you factor in shipping, taxes, duty etc.

I don't shop at Walmart though, because of their poor track record treating their employees well.

> All other things being equal.

But all things are most certainly not going to be equal, least of all cost and availability.

There's atleast 15% wiggle room on each journey, seeing as Uber takes 20% off the top. Aside from their expenses promoting and competing with other 'ride sharing' services I don't see where that cash is going.

> There's atleast 15% wiggle room on each journey, seeing as Uber takes 20% off the top.

Seems like a number pulled from nowhere.

> This is going to negatively impact driver supply

All professional drivers, including Uber drivers, already need TLC licensing, as do their vehicles.

I use Uber as shorthand for UberX, where the vast majority of drivers (at least in my city) have no commercial licensing or insurance. That's what enables them to be so cheap and ubiquitous.

Maybe NYC specifically is different, I don't know.

Yes, NYC is different. All for-hire drivers are required to go through the TLC. From Uber, itself: https://get.uber.com/cl/nyc/. TLC also regulates the types of vehicles that must be driven and mandates commercial insurance.

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