Hacker News Reader

Comment by magoon | Hacker News Reader

When gasoline is down 30% or more, those savings should go towards growth and competitive pricing. Uber seems to understand this, but the drivers complain. My how things always seem to come full circle -- before we know it, Ubers will be rude, yapping on their phone in unknown languages, and the cars will have torn upholstery and reek of incense.

View on HN

> before we know it, Ubers will be rude, yapping on their phone in unknown languages, and the cars will have torn upholstery and reek of incense

I understand that you mean to say that you expect the quality of Uber rides to drop, but can you do so in a way that doesn't draw upon negative stereotypes of other ethnicities?

I don't think it has to do with ethnicity as it does with the experience of every regular cab I've ever gotten into.

Eh, ethnicity wasn't mentioned. You took that leap yourself ;)

If "unknown languages" and imagery of incense isn't racially coded I'm not sure what is. The statement was plainly racist, whether it was intentional or not.

It's not really a stereotype if you're just accurately describing the inside of a cab (and not even mentioning any other ethnicity).

I suppose then English is an 'unknown' language and Americans as a rule burn incense?

Can you be stereotypical of every non-American culture at the same time with one phrase?

>yapping on their phone in unknown languages

I'm surprised more cities don't ban cell phone use by the drivers. It's the single thing I hate most about NYC cabs.

My question is what are they talking about on the phone. I can't imagine sitting on the phone talking to my friends or family for 8+ hours a day, everyday, which is what seems to be happening.

It's other cab drivers for the most part, sometimes friends and family. Driving around all day is extremely boring - as much as cell phone use sucks in general while driving, they do what they do to stay sane.

Besides the obvious boredom-killing, I've also heard of it being used as a safety feature. It wasn't that long ago that drivers would be robbed or assaulted (heck, an UberX driver here was just robbed a few weeks ago).

I had a parking lot attendant at work who for years was always on his phone when I arrived. One day I asked him who he always talks to. He says he has another business besides the parking lot. So maybe at least some of these cabs are having business calls as well. If you can hustle to be a cab driver, you can hustle in other ways as well at the same time.

Some people are absurdly chatty on the phone. I don't understand it myself, but different strokes, etc.

You could outsource your customer service to taxi drivers

New York banned cell phones while driving at least 14 years ago.

EDIT: Next time perhaps report your cabbie?

Wow, didn't realize that. That regulation is a bit of a joke then. There's even a NYTimes article from 2009 about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/nyregion/04taxi.html

We were in New Orleans last week, and took a dozen cabs, and not a single driver talked on their phone. Shows the importance of enforcing regulations.

The taxi service in the US must be very bad, German taxis are meticulously clean, have leather seats and are more often than not Mercedes http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi#mediaviewer/File:Taxis_at_....

Reply on news.ycombinator.com