

UberTAXI is arriving in San Francisco - kirillzubovsky
http://blog.uber.com/2012/10/17/taxi-is-arriving-in-san-francisco/

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eropple
"Automatically adding" a 20% gratuity is a no-go for me. That's about what I
normally tip for a cab ride, but it's not their call to do that. Uncool.

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enjo
It's what makes Uber delightful tho. You just hop out and get on with your
day. No impatient cabbie with his hand out. It's fine with me.

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kevinpet
Fine, but don't call it a gratuity. Call it a service fee. "Mandatory
gratuities" make me look for another service provider.

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masterzora
If I understand this properly, it is a gratuity. The way I understand it, the
taxi is still a normal taxi in operation but essentially has hooked into Uber
to give it a new way to find fares and to have people pay. If this is the
case, then the rate is the same with or without Uber and you still need to pay
the gratuity and Uber just automatically selects that gratuity to be 20%. It's
actually appreciably different from Uber choosing a rate and then adding a 20%
automatic gratuity on top of it.

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ericdykstra
As a San Francisco resident, I don't really see any reason to use this. I have
Lyft for when I just need to get somewhere, and it's cheaper and more
desirable than riding a taxi (yes, even after the improvements "uber-izing" a
taxi makes), and I have Uber for when a black car is more appropriate, and
Uber SUV for when I need to transport more than just myself or myself and
another person.

It seems like those three services fit the full spectrum of use cases. Maybe
this is just a way to appease the taxi cartel temporarily, while they don't
realize their service is becoming obsolete.

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thehaxattax
In practical terms, it's a way for Uber to put more cars on their network,
which hopefully makes it more likely that there's a ride nearby when you open
the app in the Sunset, Richmond, Pac Heights or wherever else there's a low
concentration of taxis (OK, so everywhere in SF).

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ezpassmac
Is Lyft actually cheaper than a taxi?

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chrischen
Uber TAXI automatically charges 20% gratuity + $1 fee so Lyft/SideCar will
likely be cheaper, even if it's just because you can specify your gratuity.

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kunaalarya
Lyft now automatically includes $2 gratuity, fyi. Still cheaper by 10-15%.

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untog
What the post doesn't mention: how many taxis they have signed up. This is
important. Their launch of UberTAXI in New York was a failure for many
reasons, but one was that no-one could ever get a ride, because it turned out
they had barely any cab drivers signed up to use the system.

If they aren't mentioning numbers out of the gate then I'm skeptical. Also
amused that this story is currently 3rd from top on the home page, but
numerous stories about their utter failure in New York were nowhere to be seen
on HN.

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greenrider
Hey there, we have about 65 taxis in SF already and should be up in the
hundreds shortly. It's a completely different regulatory environment than NYC,
and (thus far) much friendlier toward innovation. You can still use Square to
pay for a cab in SF, but not in NYC.

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untog
_You can still use Square to pay for a cab in SF, but not in NYC._

Why would I want to? NYC cabs have credit card readers.

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greenrider
Square would have replaced the readers with their own tablet-based terminal:
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2411065,00.asp>

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untog
Yeah I read about that. I don't understand why I (as a passenger) would care,
though- it's replacing one credit card terminal with another. Except the new
one will have a more responsive touch screen. Yay?

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sp_
I hope this does not spell the end of UBERx
(<http://blog.uber.com/2012/07/03/sf-vehicle-choice/>). As of right now, I can
still see UBERx cars on the map so I have my fingers crossed.

~~~
greenrider
Definitely not - UBERx is still going strong and we'll keep adding cars to it.
We just didn't want to confuse people by lumping X/Taxi into one post.

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kirillzubovsky
First I thought this wasn't worth the news, but then I realized that this
isn't just a new service for Uber. I imagine this is a way for them to deal
with SF taxi services that want to get rid of black town cars.

Uber is now giving taxies a way out. By adding them to the system, cabbies
cannot complain that Uber is awful and illegal competitor.

If the cab service sucks, well, it's the Taxi's fault and you can still book
Uber Black. Uber wins. If the taxi service works, Uber will get a cut from the
transaction.

Either way, Uber wins.

~~~
paulgb
I talked to a few drivers about Uber Taxi when they launched here in Toronto
about a month ago. They seemed to love it. Pickups have a rating and verified
identity, which is a safety bonus. Fares are pre-paid with 20% gratuity
automatically. And they don't have to pay the credit-card processing fee.

~~~
kunaalarya
As someone who lived in Toronto and moved to SF, it's a different scenario.
Taxis in Toronto are plentiful, and there are almost always taxis available -
just not where you want them so it fits. In SF it's different - there's not
enough and they can pick up rides anywhere. That's why calling a taxi doesn't
work as well as Toronto (where you can call one and they'll show up). In SF
half the time they don't show up because they'll pick up a far on the way.

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bernardom
They've had free Uber TAXI in Boston since Tuesday morning (until Thursday
8pm) and it's been awesome. I ubered home yesterday and to work this morning.

I'm pretty sure the idea was to get the cabbies onboard. And it worked: both
cabbies I used were in love with the extra cash and said that they and all
their friends would use Uber from now on. They had amazing revenue nights!
We'll see what happens when the traffic dies down, but I'm betting it was a
smart investment on Uber's part. I wonder how much it cost.

According to one of the cabbies, they tried charging $200 for the iPhones when
they initially rolled out, and it went nowhere. Then they gave them away for
free, and a lot of cabbies got the phones, but the traffic was too low so they
just left it in the glove compartment. Now they're on board. Well done, Uber!

I wonder if they paid the regular Uber drivers for the reduced traffic during
the promotion...

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pvodsevhcm
"There are only about 1,500 “medallions” (essentially permits) that allow
taxis to operate in San Francisco. To put that in context, NYC has over
13,000."

Wow, intentional abuse of statistics used without context, while claiming to
provide context. NYC is 10x the population of SF, so has fewer per capita
mediallions than SF.

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zamfi
That may be, but most of NYC is devoid of hailable medallion cabs. Manhattan,
where an overwhelming majority of cabs are to be found, has a population only
2x that of SF.

That said, there are parts of SF without hailable medallion cabs too, so... :)

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greenrider
Zamfi nailed it - NYC is 10x the population, but Manhattan is not. If you've
ever tried to get a cab in both NYC and SF, you know that difference in
medallions is very real.

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jrockway
I think I maybe once saw a cab in Brooklyn, but it turns out it was just a
yellow car driving like a maniac.

(99% of taxi trips in NYC start or end in Manhattan. There are no cabs in the
outer boroughs and they will only take you there if you get in, close the
door, and get out your phone to call 311 if they refuse to take you. I don't
even try anymore.)

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ezpassmac
What's cheaper? UberX, Lyft, or UberTAXI?

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kunaalarya
Lyft < UberX Haven't tried UberTAXI yet to know, but I would expect it to be
in the middle.

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mayneack
Just got out of an Uber cab in Boston (due to the free cab promotion for this
week). So far so good. The driver did get yelled at by another driver because
he was a Boston cab picking up in Cambridge, but I'll bet people will get over
that.

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selenamarie
I'm liking using taximagic.com in Portland, and love it, so I'm excited to see
taxis also available through Uber.

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ynniv
Can't wait until self driving cars are Uber.

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ezpassmac
LOL! But never going to happen!

