[HN Gopher] Uber may stop letting drivers see destinations and n...
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Uber may stop letting drivers see destinations and name prices
Author : hardtke
Score : 8 points
Date : 2021-04-05 21:14 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sfchronicle.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sfchronicle.com)
| pmiller2 wrote:
| If they want to alienate drivers less, why don't they just issue
| new rules stating that drivers must accept X% of rides in order
| to stay on the platform? I thought they already had such a thing
| in place, anyway.
| lhorie wrote:
| Of note, this is specifically about California (in light of Prop
| 22 having passed in november)
|
| This one is a tough one. On the one hand, one is inclined to
| sympathize with drivers wanting more money since they already
| have to put up with so much crap as unskilled workers in an
| industry that was ravaged by covid. But on the other, their
| collective behavior significantly hurts the platform that they
| depend on.
|
| It seems like a tragedy of the commons situation: individual
| drivers want to cherrypick the most profitable rides, but if this
| happens to a significant enough degree, the reliability of the
| service as a whole gets impacted, which paradoxically leads to
| less customers in the long run...
| ssivark wrote:
| Well, but "independent contractors" totally have that right!
| OTOH, if their behavior is regulated "for the overall health of
| the platform" that is starting to sound a lot like being
| employed with the company operating the platform.
|
| I wonder whether the applicability of Prop-22 is dependent
| fixed conditions of engagement... it would be silly to apply
| the same rules even when the pattern of engagement has changed
| (substantially).
| lhorie wrote:
| > if their behavior is regulated
|
| That's twisting the facts a bit though, no? They can always
| turn off the app if they don't want to take jobs, or work for
| Lyft or Doordash or whatever; that's always been the case.
| The problem here is that a specific level of information
| symmetry causes a self-destructive collective behavior.
|
| This is akin to a hypothetical scenario where plumbers
| somehow get hold of some magic technology that ranks jobs by
| pay and then proceed to only accept the most profitable ones,
| eventually leading to a situation where people can't get
| plumbers and the entire town ends up becoming youtube-
| watching DYIers, making plumbing an non-viable trade in the
| town.
| woah wrote:
| Very confused. Why would a plumber need magic to be able to
| estimate a job? I had one come by my apartment and all he
| needed was a flashlight.
| lhorie wrote:
| > Why would a plumber need magic to be able to estimate a
| job? I had one come by my apartment and all he needed was
| a flashlight.
|
| Exactly, he needed to come to your place. That's how Uber
| used to operate (the destination was not known until the
| driver arrived to pick you up). The "magic" in this
| hypothetical case would be something that tells the
| plumber how expensive the job would be without needing to
| drive half way across town for something that a bottle of
| drano would have fixed.
| sumedh wrote:
| The plumber can lie to you and say that the job is more
| complex and will need more money. Uber drivers cannot do
| that.
| lhorie wrote:
| A driver-for-hire has always been able to decide not to
| take a job, or to lie about the cost. That's literally
| the two biggest complaints against taxis: "I called and
| they never showed up" and "my meter is broken".
|
| If you're advocating for drivers' "rights" to pull these
| kinds of shenanigans at the expense of riders, the market
| has some bad news for you.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| If they want to be classified as employees then this is what
| they get. Better for consumers not getting canceled on
| constantly too.
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(page generated 2021-04-05 23:02 UTC)