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Comment by morganvachon | Hacker News Reader

> I don't want to see Uber fail, because I hate catching taxis

I want to see Uber in particular fail because of their horrible treatment of drivers, spying on (and publicly shaming the habits of) their riders, threatening journalists over negative press, and because of their shady business practices in general.

I want to see ridesharing as a service succeed, as I think it is the future of taxi service. But I want Uber to either go away completely, or else reorganize as a positive, beneficial company instead of a cancer with douchebags at the helm.

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Those are pretty strong words, "a cancer with douchebags at the helm." Any personal experiences that motivated these words other than joining in the hatred hive mind fostered by the media?

> Those are pretty strong words > joining in the hatred hive mind fostered by the media?

Pretty strong words on your part as well, but whatever, I'll answer. No, I decided a while back that if I ever need a ride, it won't be in an Uber car. This decision was based not only on what's in the regular media, but from reading personal experiences of riders and drivers in forums like this and larger media like Facebook and Twitter. I've read a few good, positive things about Uber in the past few years, but as a whole I consider them to be hostile and extremely slimy.

Simply put, I formed an opinion, as is my right, and it's a strong opinion so I use strong words to convey it.

Yes, personally I wouldn't go that far - but at the same I would never use Uber as management do, at the least, sound like jerks. I think this is an entirely reasonable position drawn on evidence presented across multiple media reports about Uber's behaviour, and quotes from management.

Hm... it might be a stupid question, but by "ridesharing service", do you mean Uber, or something else? To me, Uber doesn't seem a ridesharing service, merely a Taxi on demand with a nice phone+GPS app.

I thought that was the official name for Uber/Lyft/etc.

Uber's "ridesharing" service, UberX, is and will continue to be, its biggest business.

Yes. Uber can fail, but ridesharing/e-hailing/etc needs to succeed against entrenched interests while working towards sensible government regulation.

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