

Nevada puts stop to ridesharing Uber for now - j8hn
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/nevada-puts-stop-ridesharing-uber-now

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rustyconover
If Uber can break the Vegas cab cartel[1] it would be very surprising to me.
So far the cab companies have been able to survive everything, they've even
prevented the monorail from going to the airport. Which if it did go to the
airport would eliminate so many fares, because once you get to your hotel you
normally just walk everywhere else.

Since this is Vegas, I'd say the proverbial smart money is still on the side
of the cab companies being able to force enforcement of the law. Las Vegas has
perfected the science of aligning widely varied financial interests to
preserve the status quo of business as usual.

[1] -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_the_United_States#L...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_the_United_States#Las_Vegas)

~~~
spilk
> Which if it did go to the airport would eliminate so many fares, because
> once you get to your hotel you normally just walk everywhere else.

I disagree, there is tons of intra-strip cab travel taking place. Hotels are
far apart on the strip. It'd probably take a couple hours to walk between
Mandalay Bay and Encore.

Either way, Uber's implementation isn't supporting pickups at the airport or
anywhere between the 15 and Paradise Rd along the strip, and even that is
causing all this drama.

~~~
downandout
_> I disagree, there is tons of intra-strip cab travel taking place._

There's alot of it, but it's decreasing. Someone that just got ready for an
elegant dinner or a night at a club will take a cab or limo up or down the
strip to get where they're going. However, the monorail now runs all the way
from the MGM on Tropicana Ave. down to the SLS (formerly the Sahara on Sahara
Ave) and has a station at the convention center. There is also The Deuce, a
very tourist-friendly bus that traverses both sides of the Strip every 5
minutes or so 24/7\. If there's a cab line at the hotel, The Deuce is actually
faster than a cab.

I would suspect that walking, the monorail, and The Deuce handle the vast
majority of inter-hotel travel. The cabs make most of their money on airport
trips & trips to off-strip properties like The Palms.

Regardless, Uber should be allowed to do what they were doing. The way the
Strip is setup, they couldn't really compete with cabs & limos, and that was
never their plan. It would have been great for locals to get around the city.

~~~
chrismcb
The monorail is about the worst way to travel in Vegas. It is expensive and
too far from most hotels and casinos. Unless you want to travel between two
connecting casinos it is faster to walk. And if you have more than two in your
party, cheaper to take a cab.

~~~
downandout
As with most things, it depends on your use case. The MGM station is the
easiest one to get to, as some of the other stations (Harrah's in particular)
are buried behind the hotels. There is a dedicated station at the convention
center, which is great for thousands of people if they stay at one of the
hotels with a station. For example, a person attending a convention at the
convention center and staying at MGM - normally a $30+ cab ride each way - can
get essentially door-to-door transportation both ways for 3 days for the price
of a single one-way cab ride.

If you're staying at Wynn/Encore or Venetian/Palazzo, then it's not going to
work. But since you're paying $400+/night there during busy times at any of
those places, you might as well rent yourself a limo. The monorail is OK for
some use cases.

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ghshephard
I don't think this will last for long - there are a lot of services for which
you can make a solid argument for, and against (AirBnB has two very different
sides to the coin) - but, as long as Uber is able to ensure that all of it's
drivers are insured, my experience (over 100 rides in the bay area, and many,
many thousands of rides with taxis), is that Uber is an overwhelmingly good
service.

The Vehicles are cleaner, the drivers better mannered, the service
_unquestionably_ better (I'd _almost_ be prepared to say that my worst uberX
ride ever was better than my best taxi ride, not quite - but pretty close.
With the Uber Black Car service, they aren't even in the same league, so no
comparison can be made there.) And, most importantly of all, the rides are a
lot safer; on the peninsula, a _lot_ of the taxis are very old, somewhat
decrepit, and it's not unheard of to get in one in which the Taxi Driver has
to open your door -you can't open it from the inside - I dread what would
happen in an accident.

If this were purely a question of public good, there is no question what
decision the Nevada authorities will make. We'll see how much power the Taxi
Cartel has...

~~~
chrismcb
If this were purely a question of public good, the Nevada authorities will
shut down uber.

~~~
ghshephard
Okay, I'm interested in you defending that position. Given that I cited
convenience, safety, customer service, cleanliness, and efficiency as reasons
for Uber, what "public good" rationale is there for not allowing them to
operate?

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vonklaus
Why do states love to promote rent seeking behavior? They ban Tesla and
promote cabs, ISPs, etc. This is especially silly in a State that is trying to
have a significant tech community in Vegas. Promoting rent seeking behavior
and banning a service you constituents are embracing is anti-competitive, ant-
business, and illogical.

~~~
baddox
> Why do states love to promote rent seeking behavior?

Because a "state" is really just a group of individuals with significantly
more power than the average individual, and the easiest way for them to
benefit themselves is to use that power to promote rent seeking behavior. I
would be surprised if they _didn 't_ promote rent seeking behavior.

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joelrunyon
> When asked by the operator if he needed anything else, he told her, “I want
> my car to be taken out of impound as soon as possible because I have to go
> to work tomorrow morning, but I know that won’t happen. And I don’t want to
> have to pay any fines so put some of that $18 billion you all have behind
> me, will yah?”

Well seems like Uber picked a great driver that got stung. Would be
interesting to see how this plays out vs. a driver with less of a sense of
humor.

------
SG-
Meanwhile in Ottawa it was simply city bylaw officers who booked calls
undercover and gave two $650 fines which Uber covered on behalf of the
drivers.

The service launched three weeks ago and the city simply wanted to show it's
muscle, the drivers have been operating since without issue since.

------
malandrew

        Two undercover officers wore black ski masks.
    

Since when do undercover officers wear ski masks. Furthermore, what are taxi
authority officers undercover?

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j8hn
It sure is getting interesting. Uber is battling the Nevada Attorney General
and once again operating in Las Vegas as of today.
[http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/uber-
challenges-...](http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/uber-challenges-
court-order-drivers-still-working)

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daimyoyo
I find it funny that Nevada is willing to bend over backwards for one tech
company(Tesla) yet wants to prevent another from gaining a fair shot at the
market.

~~~
tzs
Your comment makes no sense, unless we assume that tech companies are
interchangeable, and so governments should approach them all the same
regardless of what the company actually does.

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quest88
I love Uber and Lyft and have been using them the past two years or so, and I
think the taxi scene in Las Vegas is great. The best experience I've had with
cabs is in Las Vegas. I forgot my luggage in a cab and it was there within two
minutes to return it. The lines outside clubs are always long but I can
_always_ count on a line of Taxis waiting to pick people up. I would imagine
drunk people stumbling onto the rode to get in an Uber / Lyft would make the
traffic that much worse down the strip and probably more dangerous.

