Uber - who has used it ? Interesting article in the SMH

[aps1080]

Uber - who has used it ?

I have been keeping an eye on Uber, not so much to use but it is a classic case of a new smarter technology rapidly taking over an old system that is fat, slow and expensive.

In addition, I am never at the bleeding or even leading edge of technology - I stil use a Nokia 95

but the use of the Uber App in this article below (from the SMH) is why I might one day need to upgrade !.

So, has anyone used Uber ?

Interesting article in the SMH

It's survival of the fittest in Sydney's taxi ranks, and Uber's form looks hard to beat

Since just before Christmas, I've been breaking the law. Or at least aiding and abetting a criminal act.

This is where it started: Saturday night Christmas Party, beachside suburb of Sydney. 1am. Time to go home. Or time to stay and get ugly. We decide to go. I use the m2 taxi app. I enter the address. I enter where we're going. I book. A tag comes up reading "WAITING FOR DRIVER TO ACCEPT". Nothing happens.

I wait 10 minutes. Nothing happens.

Earlier in the night I'd registered for Uber. I open Uber. The address I'm at comes up instantly. I tap in the destination, it figures out I want my home address. I book. Instantly I'm looking at a map showing an animated swivelling school of Uber vehicles. Seconds later I get a message from a driver who says he's three minutes away. His vehicle separates from the school and starts heading to me. His phone number pops up. A little portrait of him arrives. I get  a countdown. Two minutes away. One  minute away. At the moment of arrival, he rings me. We're already at the front gate.

We get in with Paval and head off in his '90s Toyota Camry.

Illegal it may be, but it's so much better than a cab. Perhaps it's not paying tax here, but neither is it creating a strange monopoly market of taxi plates. Yes, there's been a slew of complaints about some of Uber's operating practices in the United States and its sudden algorithmic lunge for profit during the Sydney siege was ghastly - but at 1am last Saturday night, it worked like something of the 21st century and not something rooted in horse-drawn hansoms.

My expectation today is that things should work instantly and keep me immediately informed as to what's happening. When I log onto m2 app, it's the same as calling the cab company on the phone. I get no information except that they've taken my booking. But that doesn't mean they have a cab for me, nor are they able to say if they'll ever be able to get a cab for me.

Uber responded instantly and the flow of information was constant and live.

Uber works because it lowers our expectation and changes the dynamic with the driver. In the old cab world, the driver is someone who is meant to be professional, knows exactly where to go, keeps a clean vehicle and understands instructions. As soon as the vehicle smells or the driver doesn't know where to go, we get sullen and resentful and the whole journey becomes a torture. The driver is similarly resentful of us. We do not understand the driver's plight, we are demanding too much and we are not customers who will ever return. At journey's end we feel like we're paying too much and they feel like they've barely earned a living wage.

With Uber we also feel in a small way that we've fought back against the constant tide of tiny charges and surcharges that are ripping us off. In NSW, the credit card surcharge has been halved but it's still 5 per cent. Why? Why does the cab have to pay a $4 toll on entering Sydney Airport, which we passengers then have to pay to the driver? Why does Sydney Airport, a private corporation, profit from the use of a public road?

If someone in their Toyota is rocking about and is happy to pick me up, I don't expect him to know where to go. In fact he gets a route map delivered to him and we can both agree on the journey. I'd like the car to be clean and for him to be polite. That's all.

At the end of this journey, I paid $14. I haven't paid $14 for a cab journey anywhere in Sydney for 20 years. And the whole transaction was carried out via a card I'd already registered. We opened the door, said Merry Christmas and got out.

Of course this is creating disruption in the established world of cabs. But the cabs need to realise that the disruption has occurred and it's permanent. And it's occurred because it's better. The Uber App is better than the cab apps. It does what you expect a modern smartphone-based booking service to do.

If I want to ring someone and give them $20 to drive me home, I'm not sure why that needs to be illegal.

There isn't a single industry in the world that doesn't have to deal with this kind of rupture. If the new thing doing the rupturing is better, then the old thing needs to improve. Fast. 

James Valentine presents Afternoons on 702 ABC Sydney.

[lloydslights]

That'll be handy in the NT outback.

Would there be Police checks done on both the driver and passenger to be registered with Uber?

DEB

[i-need-a-martini]

I've used it in the US. Works well there. Particularly in LA.

But the few times I have called them in Sydney, no one ever shows up or it takes forever.

[tezza2844]

What happens if the driver is involved in a accident and you (the passenger) is hurt?

I think that carrying a passenger for money negates your comprehensive car insurance .