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Comment by fennecfoxen | Hacker News Reader

> Uber has crap service? I was under the impression the whole point of Uber becoming so ubiquitous as to become a verb was that you could actually get service at all in a timely fashion whereas cabs had a terrible reputation.

How quickly we forget. When I did traveling-consulting for a year and a half — a mistake — I heard horror stories from the quite recent past: for instance, the New York taxi driver who clearly wasn't supposed to be the one driving the cab and thus refused to take a credit card payment (as mandated by law) with the (working) credit card machine. Instead he demanded cash, and drove my colleague to an ATM against his will holding his luggage hostage. And the one time I took an actual taxicab home from LaGuardia — hoping to save the hassle of a pickup in the cold — my driver got pulled over for running a red light.

Yeah, Uber and Lyft are both sketch as heck, but they've got nothing on the world's taxis.

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And that's compared to Taxis in the USA... anyone who has used a Taxi here in Mexico know how shady, unclean and terribly maintained they are. There are cars whose back seat is teared down and the foam is going out. Cars literally without seatbelts. Taxi drivers often REFUSE to use the Taxi meter and charge you whatever the heck they want (I had a taxi driver turn off the meter just when we were about to arrive to a destination).

Freaking Taxis are mafias, and the people that drive them are part of it. I consider them part of the problem, specially now that there is an alternative.

Uber, Didi and others may be a lot of things (over here I feel they became more expensive), but bad service they definitely don't have.

Uber also engage in mafioso tactics, I am sure all here can agree on this. The difference is where the impact is felt. It's great that for now, Uber can ensure a higher-class experience than what was available to most previously. However, the luster is already quickly coming off of Uber & co.

Have you recently had to supply Uber with your photo for "mask proof," before requesting service? Are you comfortable with all the grotesque data mining they're doing with that in the name of "health & safety?" Have you read about Uber's horrific data mining practices, privacy violations, and generally bad-faith actions they've undertaken against individuals and drivers?

In places like Mexico especially, these sorts of things should concern you immensely. Perhaps it's still worth it for you - however, perhaps it's worth considering the lifestyle you and other Uber users live, and considering whether living in densely populated & corrupt major metropolises is actually a good economic decision in the long-term. Without these horrific starting conditions, the point of Uber's existence in the first place is highly suspect.

Why didn't your colleague call the police when the taxi driver kidnapped him? Are you sure he was taken against his will?

Because he deemed it less risk and hassle.

> Instead he demanded cash, and drove my colleague to an ATM against his will holding his luggage hostage.

This is kidnapping.

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