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There might be a delay in response if the UberHQ starts burning to the ground...https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/26/uber_sued_squandering_company_value/ posted:
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Sep 27, 2017 16:40
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unknown posted:According to Courthouse News, Uber had been sued 435 times this year, as of August 23. That amounts to an average of 1.8 lawsuits per day. With that many lawsuits surely they don't dick around in court and draw legal proceedings out to an unnecessary length of time... Uber attacked over pattern of ignoring police and victims before London ban quote:When Uber refused to comply with a warrant in a California sexual assault case, police, prosecutors and the judge were bewildered.  Q: If an Uber driver attacks you during a ride, will they at least refund your fare? A: No, because they are a trash company. quote:A Los Angeles woman, who filed a case anonymously as Jane Doe on Tuesday, alleged in a lawsuit that after she reported a driver fondling her in a car, an Uber representative told her: “Do whatever you want to about the incident.” And the silver lining for Uber's bad news day is that the latest executive stepping down is at least departing on good terms with them. Uber’s external affairs head Dave Clark is departing Doggles fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Sep 27, 2017 |
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Sep 27, 2017 17:13
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Doggles posted:With that many lawsuits surely they don't dick around in court and draw legal proceedings out to an unnecessary length of time... Following the link... quote:Before imposing a $1,000 sanction ... Judge Clare Maier blasted the ride hailing company for its history of failing to cooperate with law enforcement, and said she was “very concerned” the company had an “ulterior motive” for its noncompliance in the Beker case. Ugh. Don't judges have the ability to do basically anything when finding someone in contempt? I'm sure Uber will really feel that $1000, which is literally 0.014% of the money they lost that day.
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Sep 27, 2017 17:43
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God Is a Bot, and Anthony Levandowski Is His Messenger posted:In September 2015, the multi-millionaire engineer at the heart of the patent and trade secrets lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, founded a religious organization called Way of the Future. Its purpose, according to previously unreported state filings, is nothing less than to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.” "I'm thinking far too long-term to pay mind to your silly human lawsuits! Roko's Basilisk shall reward me for my dedication to the holy cause of e: To be honest, that aspect of the article made me feel bad for the guy; it sounds like it's more true-broken-belief than scientologesque-tax-scam. Luckily everything else it tells us about his life dries up that empathy pretty quick. e2: I'm looking forward to another wave of pseudo-anthropological pieces on millenarian "rationalists." Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Sep 27, 2017 |
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Sep 27, 2017 18:55
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unknown posted:Uber did not respond to a request for comment. ® I like to think this actually is a registered trademark.
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Sep 27, 2017 22:40
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Uber is the avatar of every sin a silicon valley startup has ever committed.
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Sep 27, 2017 23:03
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Their name is finally somewhat apropos.
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Sep 27, 2017 23:08
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There are not one, not two but THREE bike-sharing cons in Seattle right now, with hundreds of lime, yellow and orange beach cruisers littering the streets here. Daily I get updates from my friends on Facebook and Twitter with pics of bikes stripped for parts or disassembled in Tweaker Junction or just set on fire/thrown into the sound. Brings a tear of joy to my eye every time. I get ride-sharing, car ownership isn't for everyone, but when you're down to bike ownership being too aspirational for enough people for bike sharing to be a thing, maybe it's time to start murdering the rich.
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Sep 28, 2017 04:28
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it's not a bad idea - look at the success of the euro ones e.g. London
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Sep 28, 2017 04:30
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shrike82 posted:it's not a bad idea - look at the success of the euro ones e.g. London Or the American ones: Boston, NYC, DC, think they're in Chicago too. Like honestly a lot of the time when you got public transit and you're living somewhere it's a hassle to keep a normal bike like up a 4 story walk up with no safe lock points outside, it really makes a lot of sense. And they're great for tourists because you're hardly likely to ship a bike over on the plane or something. fishmech fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Sep 28, 2017 |
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Sep 28, 2017 04:32
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I see the lime ones in and outside the port all the time. They seem to be getting used.
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Sep 28, 2017 04:34
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Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:There are not one, not two but THREE bike-sharing cons in Seattle right now, with hundreds of lime, yellow and orange beach cruisers littering the streets here. Daily I get updates from my friends on Facebook and Twitter with pics of bikes stripped for parts or disassembled in Tweaker Junction or just set on fire/thrown into the sound. Bike sharing owns. There is a station a block away from my place and right next to the grocery store. I use it 3-4 times a week.
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Sep 28, 2017 04:57
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Bike sharing is good because you don't have to maintain anything and you don't have to deal with locking anything or dealing with when (not if) your bike gets stolen.
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Sep 28, 2017 05:10
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Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:I get ride-sharing, car ownership isn't for everyone, but when you're down to bike ownership being too aspirational for enough people for bike sharing to be a thing, maybe it's time to start murdering the rich. Most of them require a credit card and/or app to get the bike; they aren't there for for people unable to afford a bike.
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Sep 28, 2017 05:12
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fordan posted:Most of them require a credit card and/or app to get the bike; they aren't there for for people unable to afford a bike. Right now I couldn't really afford to replace my bike if it seriously broke or got stolen. I could totally afford a month subscription to my city's service though and it would work fairly well for me.
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Sep 28, 2017 05:21
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Watch in realtime as Uber discovers that leasing cars to people who can't afford to lease cars doesn't result in profit. Uber Closes Xchange Leasing After Losing $9,000 Per Car Averaging $9,000 loss on a fleet of 40,000 cars = $360,000,000 If only there was some major instance, or crisis perhaps, in the past decade about loaning people property they can't afford to pay back Uber could have used to predict this outcome... 
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Sep 28, 2017 17:54
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fordan posted:Most of them require a credit card and/or app to get the bike; they aren't there for for people unable to afford a bike. https://www.fordgobike.com/pricing/bikeshareforall quote:Bike Share for All provides a one-time $5 annual membership for qualifying residents. The program also includes a cash payment option for those who do not have a debit or credit card. Bike shares are great, gently caress "ride sharing." I own more bikes than I need, and I still use bike share bikes on a near daily basis. The idea isn't "oh people can't afford bikes so let's rent them" (though for some that is a valuable thing), it's more about having bikes available when and where they are needed so that getting around via bike is more feasible for more people. For example I use it to get from BART to my office; takes 5 minutes on a bike or 20 minutes walking. Taking Uber/Lyft/muni would be slower, more expensive, and all around stupider.
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Sep 28, 2017 18:05
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Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:I get ride-sharing, car ownership isn't for everyone, but when you're down to bike ownership being too aspirational for enough people for bike sharing to be a thing, maybe it's time to start murdering the rich.
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Sep 28, 2017 18:30
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I don't know if I'll ever use it but at least it's disrupting the regular bike rental industry, which is always a loving ripoff. A friend and I rented bikes in San Francisco once for a few hours to just go from Fisherman's Wharf across the Gold Gate bridge and back and it cost more than the drat Focus I was renting. Same in DC, except I just ended up walking because WTF.
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Sep 28, 2017 18:42
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There's a difference between public bike shares that usually use docks and provide subsidies for affordability, and the app-based private bike shares that just use gps and you can drop anywhere. While some people hate the public dock system since it's a bit more rigid, it ensures an even distribution across the region and that the rented bikes don't become an eyesore and a public nuisance when everyone dumps them in one place. They're also usually integrated into the transit system and have community consultation. Public bike shares also tend to have sturdier, more well-maintained bikes that are safer. The private ride shares usually have poor quality and unsafe maintenance since they're trying to squeeze a profit, and they're usually charging $1 an hour for rides whereas some public bike shares have annual unlimited memberships for less than $100. Plus the private bikes tend to crowd out bike parking for residents who own their own bikes, as well as being worse at rebalancing the system so there are enough bikes throughout the day. The business model started out in China and there are horror stories of hundreds of bikes blocking public areas because "surprise" the companies aren't at all integrated into the community. One bike share is good public service, the other is standard "disruptive" technology making a quick buck while ignoring safety, laws, and the communities in which they operate.
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Sep 28, 2017 20:25
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Honestly the only real thing I can think to say against the public docked bikes thing is that it's technically possible that a person gets to their destination dock and it's full and they have to find a correct place to put the goddamn bike. Which is probably a very rare case.
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Sep 28, 2017 23:42
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I can attest that it happens, from personal experience. Part of operating the system is redistributing the bikes over the course of the day.
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Sep 28, 2017 23:55
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I have also had to backtrack from my destination to find an empty slot for a bike in Oakland.
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Sep 29, 2017 00:01
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Doc Hawkins posted:I can attest that it happens, from personal experience. Part of operating the system is redistributing the bikes over the course of the day. Huh, I'd have almost expected that they'd have built the docks to have extra space and that a dock that has enough incoming traffic to fill the dock probably has decent outgoing traffic, but then again people do tend to stay around and it's unreasonable to expect that to synchronize perfectly. However, the fact that the operating system actually spends money to have someone evidently load up the bikes and schlep them about is an argument in favor of the public sector handling this because private probably wouldn't spend that cash.
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Sep 29, 2017 00:51
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i think we should brainstorm an app in this very thread and disrupt something and get rich. any suggestions?
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Sep 29, 2017 00:55
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Shugojin posted:Huh, I'd have almost expected that they'd have built the docks to have extra space and that a dock that has enough incoming traffic to fill the dock probably has decent outgoing traffic, but then again people do tend to stay around and it's unreasonable to expect that to synchronize perfectly. Most of the big systems in the US are privately owned but get some public subsidy under the public-private partnership model. They all rely on sending the vans or other vehicles out to redistribute bikes throughout the day. Some will pay their users to haul small bike trailers between stations on their bikes to get rental credit. The largest one, NYC's Citi Bike, has city department of transportation oversight but hasn't received public subsidy in several years.
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Sep 29, 2017 01:03
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The downtown docks in Toronto's financial quarter are so busy they have a staff member receive the bikes and take them out of service (ie: undock them and put them aside) in the morning so there's docking space. And the reverse in the afternoon (ie: constant replenishment of the dock spaces). Also interesting is they use a trailer on a bike to move bikes around.
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Sep 29, 2017 01:18
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I rented a bike for the first time today from the private company that just set up in the town I live in recently called dropbike and the left crank arm twisted completely around so both pedals were on the same side two minutes into the ride, luckily I was at the top of the hill and could coast the rest of the way home and also the rental was free
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Sep 29, 2017 01:34
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Shugojin posted:Huh, I'd have almost expected that they'd have built the docks to have extra space and that a dock that has enough incoming traffic to fill the dock probably has decent outgoing traffic, but then again people do tend to stay around and it's unreasonable to expect that to synchronize perfectly. Docks have about twice as many spots as there normally are bikes, but people tend to move in waves. There tends to be people who get off mass transit and then grab and take a bike close to their work in the morning and do the reverse in the afternoon. This means you need to bring the bikes back to the mass transit drop off during the morning and back from the mass transit pickup during the afternoon. Also the bikes do need regular maintenance, they are outside 24/7 through 6-8 months of the year.
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Sep 29, 2017 01:52
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Doggles posted:Watch in realtime as Uber discovers that leasing cars to people who can't afford to lease cars doesn't result in profit. I used to work around lease losses so I can expand on exactly what the $9,000 represents. When you lease a car there is a residual value (RV) written into the contract, representing what the car should be worth when you return it. For example, a car's MSRP is worth $25k when you first lease it, and 3 years later at the end of the lease term it should be worth $15k. When a customer returns a lease at the end of the contract, they have an option to purchase the car at the RV. If they decide not to, the lessor will sell the car (generally) at auction. The auction price is almost always below the RV, and the difference between the RV and the auction price is the "loss" on the lease. For major manufacturers (Ford, Toyota, etc.), their average RV loss is around $3k per vehicle. Not only did Uber perform 3x worse than the industry average, they were arrogant enough to think their losses would only be $500 per car! Also, not mentioned in the article but what probably caused such steep losses is Uber would let a lessee return a vehicle at any time for a minor $300 fee, and since driving for Uber must suck, lots of drivers probably leased a car thinking they'd make money, realize how terrible the gig is, and returned the lease a month later. Shorter leases always have higher losses, and a lease that lasts only a few months likely has an insanely high loss. Another example: 2 year leases used to be all the rage a few years ago, but once these contracts started ending, lessors were realizing they were losing a lot more than expected, so now not many manufacturers will lease you a car for less than 3 years. Euphoriaphone fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Sep 29, 2017 |
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Sep 29, 2017 18:06
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Euphoriaphone posted:I used to work around lease losses so I can expand on exactly what the $9,000 represents. When you lease a car there is a residual value (RV) written into the contract, representing what the car should be worth when you return it. For example, a car's MSRP is worth $25k when you first lease it, and 3 years later at the end of the lease term it should be worth $15k. Interesting. I didn't know residuals were that much higher than real market price. This makes leasing even more attractive to me, it seems like you do much better to lease a car for 3 years than buy it and sell it after 3 years.
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Sep 29, 2017 18:15
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Twerk from Home posted:Interesting. I didn't know residuals were that much higher than real market price. The amount you pay during the lease is probably way more than the depreciation Also if you buy a car the payments actually stop; not so with leasing. If you lease then buy you're basically paying a premium on the depreciation, then you have to pay the amount of salvage value (which will be above market) anyway if you wanna keep it Leasing is only worth it if you have a vested interest in driving a nice car, forever
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Sep 29, 2017 18:24
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Twerk from Home posted:Interesting. I didn't know residuals were that much higher than real market price. Well, as far as I know if you're a customer the manufacturer will require you to purchase the vehicle at the RV, which isn't going to be a good deal (not bad, but you're not gonna be able to make money on the arbitrage by selling the car immediately after buying it at RV). The auction are only to dealers, as well, so you can't try shopping at an auction. If you're planning on owning a car less than 5 years, and you can get a good deal through a manufacturer's special offer, leasing is an alright way to go. Always look for deals on the manufacturer's website, not something the dealer is offering. The manufacturer just wants to sell the car, and isn't really in the business of lending/leasing, they just do it to facilitate sales. This is also why they sometimes offer 0% loans.
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Sep 29, 2017 18:27
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the old ceremony posted:i think we should brainstorm an app in this very thread and disrupt something and get rich. any suggestions? We can probably disrupt the private tax consulting software companies. Those guys are extracting profits wildly over cost of business, it'd be easy to undercut them.
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Sep 29, 2017 18:27
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There is also the fact that you have to drive a lot with Uber to make money, and it would put serious wear and tear on the car. Since this is a leased vehicle, I'd bet that drivers also may have deferred essential maintenance. I would be extremely wary of buying a used car that had been used for Uber driving, and I would definitely ask for a significant discount.
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Sep 29, 2017 20:15
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So basically where it would have been kinda smart to poach people involved in fleet auto sales they just tech bro'd their way into the gutter on yet another project?
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Sep 29, 2017 21:05
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Shugojin posted:So basically where it would have been kinda smart to poach people involved in fleet auto sales they just tech bro'd their way into the gutter on yet another project? yeah, and it's only a matter of time before other stupid ideas like uber freight collapse as well
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Sep 29, 2017 21:06
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Discendo Vox posted:We can probably disrupt the private tax consulting software companies. Those guys are extracting profits wildly over cost of business, it'd be easy to undercut them. Now, that's a market that seriously deserves to have its legs kicked out from under it Well, really the H&R Block esque tax services but they're part of it
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Sep 30, 2017 06:44
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Wait, when you guys say that tax services companies should be Disrupted™, you do realize what you're asking for right? Because as far as I can tell, this is how Unicorn Taxes Incorporated would work: 1. you scan your tax forms in from home and upload them to UTI's servers, which are actually a poorly-secured amazon S3 instance 2. these get processed by UTI's independent contractors, all of whom signed up to work through the UnTax-App and checked the box labeled "I am a Certified Tax Accountant" with zero follow-up verification 3. your taxes are handled by one of these contractors, who is likely filling in random numbers to process forms faster so he can get more Uni-Points (with every 500 points he's eligible to enter a random draw to win a new 2018 Mustang!) 4. but these garbage forms never get sent in to the IRS anyways due to a bug in UnTax-App's javascript uploader 5. UTI blames the resulting chaos on out-of-date IRS technology and onerous regulations, gets $100 million in new investments from VC libertarians who believe taxation is theft
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Sep 30, 2017 07:34
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Klyith posted:Wait, when you guys say that tax services companies should be Disrupted™, you do realize what you're asking for right?
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Sep 30, 2017 08:08
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