Uber is bombarding us with painfully probing subpoenas, cries Lyft Lyft has asked a judge to block taxi app rival Uber from using the courts to cunningly extract information about its operations. In a filing [PDF] to the Northern California District Court, Lyft asks that Uber be stopped from getting any further internal memos and other details using subpoenas. Uber filed the subpoenas while …
Yep. Uber are, imo, a stunning example of Right Time, Right Place, Wrong Company. With easy, mobile Internet access and the technology to automate hand-off of requests for a service, applying that to taxis is all but inevitable. As Charles Fort said: "It's Steam Engine Time". I.e. when the appropriate technological basis and environment exists, some "inventions" just grow out of that environment almost inevitably.
The idea of Uber isn't original. Many have talked about such a thing long before Uber came to be. But it is the right time for this idea. I just think it's deeply unfortunate that a company as unpleasant as Uber are the ones who win the business lottery to get it.
Question - can a driver for Uber also be a driver for Lyft? Or are there clauses in the employment contract that forbid this?
"The idea of Uber isn't original. Many have talked about such a thing long before Uber came to be."
Not sure about the rest of the world, but here in the UK we've had "private hire" for many, many years. It's quite innovative. You make a phone call to a private hire company, they locate the nearest available private hire vehicle and dispatch it to your location. All very clever, innovative, possibly even disruptive to actual taxi companies. The only thing "innovative" about Uber is the mobile phone app. At least one of our local private hire companies were using a mobile app before I'f heard of Uber.
At least 10 years ago, one of our customers was a private hire company. They had vehicle tracking on computer and other clever stuff to get the car to the customers as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The first has a clear history of being a slim-ball corporation run by petulant children. Same sort of full-diaper stench is now coming off of the other.
Perhaps their role is simply to make corporations like Monsanto look like saints in comparison.
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