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Comment by treis | Hacker News Reader

>So instead of taking the time to prepare to meet the new requirements of a law that to some extent was directly aimed at them, the current ride-sharing incumbents decided to play legal chicken and not prepare re-tooling for the change.

That's not true. They've implemented changes in CA to give drivers more power to set their prices and choose their customers. Also have given more power to customers to choose their preferred drivers.

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Really? How can I choose a driver on Lyft? I've never seen this functionality offered before (but I admit I don't use these services too often). I'd love to be able to choose a driver I know and trust. That sounds really cool!

I don't know if Lyft has it but Uber does. After the ride, you get an option to "like" the driver. Surprisingly, Uber has made a lot more driver friendly changes than Lyft recently.

That sounds more like putting lipstick on a pig. It's trying to inch towards the idea that these are legitimate business transactions rather than an essentially comoditiesed transactions.

Could you clarify your definition of "legitimate", especially given that you used "commoditized" as an antonym to it?

Purchasing gasoline from a gas station is a highly commoditized transaction; what makes it more or less "legitimate"?

If the gas station claimed their pump attendants were self employed then it would be equally dubious. They have no really ability to differentiate themselves in the market place, availability trumps all else and the station sets the pricing.

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