
New York taxi regulator tries to ban digital tablets in rideshare vehicles - jlbbellefeuille
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/456008-new-york-taxi-regulator-tries-to-put-the-brakes-on-free-speech
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justinclift
Summary:

New York taxi regulator put a stop to a new, intrusive, advertising mechanism.

The people responsible for the advertising - set to financially gain from it -
are unhappy, trying to portray the issue as something else and get people on
their side.

"Good luck with that." ;)

Personally, I'm glad there's one less advertising mechanism able to gain
traction. Otherwise it would likely spread elsewhere.

~~~
thefj
You've missed the part where they already allow yellow taxis to have tablets
with ads.

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newsreview1
Trying to outlaw is such overkill. Let the rider simply turn off the device.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission are grasping at straws and will do anything
to fight rideshare programs.

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neilv
This opinion piece doesn't read like public interest advocacy.

It reads like a lawyer for a company trying to kill public interest
regulation.

(Though the writer says their organization is not involved in this case, they
are in the business of related cases.)

I suspect that an impartial scholarly article, written for the layperson,
would be much more useful to HN.

~~~
XMPPwocky
It should be noted that the HN submitter here appears to be the founder of
this particular bit of taxi-based spam, so the choice of an article with this
slant is unsurprising (but disappointing).

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gesman
Leaving ads aside - I respect New York taxis. I feel safe riding in yellow
cab. The moment i step into yellow cab - I feel that this whole industry is so
heavily regulated - there is very little chance to stumble upon some "random
weirdo" driver or deviate from intended direction for some shady reason.

I tell my wife to take yellow cab in NYC airports, not Uber-X.

The problem with yellow cabs is that 90% of them look like run down shit.
They're no cadillacs. The problem ends here. We get predictable pricing and
predictable person and predictable drive. In airports they're just there. No
disappointments with trusting Uber's misleading arrival times that typically
grossly exaggerated, no shady callbacks from Uber mafia driver trying to
figure out where you're going to find excuse not to take you there.

Try to take Uber Black in LA airport. You'll get immediate callback from
armenian mafia driver with attitude pulling all kind of BS to judge whether
take you or not. 75% of chance he'll insist that you need to cancel the ride
(not him of course).

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ColanR
Relevant quote:

> Under the First Amendment, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
> (TLC) cannot prohibit rideshare operators from installing tablets to display
> truthful commercial advertisements. Commercial speech is protected by the
> Constitution, and restrictions on commercial speech must serve a substantial
> governmental interest and be no more extensive than necessary.

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ttul
I wish antitrust authorities were given the budget that is provided by taxi
authorities worldwide... That would achieve much more.

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Evidlo
I'm not convinced that this is a 'blatant violation of the First Amendment'.
How is this any different from banning billboards, which is currently the case
for Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine?

~~~
true_religion
This is like banning posters inside buildings that are open to the public.
It’s invasive.

