I’m not saying the driver’s actions were justified.
I just wanted to point out that the driver is likely in a bad situation (financially) and not coping with it well.
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Ooo! Conspiracy!
Now you’ve got me curious. Drivers really can’t contact passengers post cancellation?
Could this be a PR smear against Uber? (Not that they need any help with their already flailing reputation).
Some police are such jerks.
I recall going to a cancer center in the heart of KC, stuck in some tiny little town that is engulfed by the metro area. I turned right on red and I guess there was a sign there that said “no right on red”. Didn’t see it.
Instead of a warning or just, you know, don’t care, I wasn’t endangering anyone, he pulled me over and gave me a ticket. I noted he had a high dollar tactical vest. I am sure he would need that in the modern equivalent of Mayberry.
After he gave me the ticket he asked where I was going. I said, “Right there to the Cancer Center.” I tried to look pathetic and I hoped that would make him feel bad, but I don’t think it even registered with him.
Full disclosure I don’t have cancer, I just have a disease where my leg is consumed by tumors (knock on wood, not cancerous) and was getting an MRI on one of their machines. They used to monitor it for possible cancerous growth. Still I and anyone turning right at that intersection could have been going there for treatment or for a loved one.
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So what?
Through whatever means, the shithead (er, “driver”) obtained the victim’s (er, “customer’s”) phone number and harassed her. That means is not necessarily through Uber. Some people do actually have listed phone numbers and the driver did have the victim’s name.
Perhaps. Admittedly I’ve never before heard of a listed cell phone number, but it’s certainly a possibility.
I’d be curious to learn more about the specifics surrounding this event.
I have seen it happen with tow truck allocation systems. If you want to be next in line, submit bogus calls for other trucks in the queue, so you get to the front faster.
For some reason I just realized I can’t believer there isn’t a special kind of ride service for people going through such traumatic treatments and conditions.
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There is one, where I live, but it’s not free. I don’t know anything about how they do business, but I’m pretty sure it’s for-profit. Volunteer services exist in some places. I don’t know how big or how reliable they are.
Seems to me
über needs some sort of… regülatory översight.
Maybe a system by which drivers are certified, and their cars inspected for public safety. Perhaps a dispatching system such that the drivers do not have direct access to the users.
We could call it a cab company, or a black car service. And get over ourselves a bit too.
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@colinInSpace, I have to be a pedant for a second, and I apologize.
It’s lose. Not loose.
to ‘‘lose’’ is to misplace or be deprived of.
to ‘‘loose’’ is to set free or to unbind.
Please. PLEASE. Thank you.
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Are you joking? We can’t even regulate rickety coal mines and exploding chemical plants. We can’t even regulate the goddam banks.
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Yes, we can. We just don’t.
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It is.
The medical center I went to for radiation, they had a great deal: for all but the one appointment per week when you had to meet with the doctor too (bringing your time in the building to past 30 minutes), you could drop your car off with the valet service and they would just put it to the side so that when you came back from your 10-minute appointment (and they run like clockwork, thanks to the extraordinary cost of running those multi-million dollar machines) you didn’t have to wait for them to go get your car from the garage across the street…and you didn’t have to pay! (I always tipped though, of course.)
But that was an individual solution at a specific location, not a municipal or non-profit service to all patients.
They’ve been at the business end of a pretty vicious dirt digging and mud flinging campaign for a few months now. Every time someone gripes about them on Twitter or Facebook it shows up on the news sites a couple of days later. While the company is certainly not pristine, their reputation is under an excessive amount of attack from someone with good media connections.
There is a good reason to be suspicious of a story like this. It has many of the hallmarks of a completely fabricated story. The pretty white woman with a medical condition as the offended party. The non-offense that causes the incident. The completely outrageous behavior from the other party. The sketchy technical details. The lack of any attempt to contact or even name the driver. The lack of a comment or attempt to verify with Uber. This is the yellowest of journalism.
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There is no reason to believe the person and the medical condition is fake. I will gladly update my belief in that until shown otherwise, however as its been mentioned before the full context of the exchange hasn’t really been shown. I still don’t think there’s anything nefarious going on to be honest.
Are you fucking kidding? Uber is valued now at $30 billion (with huge investments from Goldman Sachs and Google ventures), with the openly stated goal of wiping out taxis, public transportation, package delivery, and several other industries. The whole American taxi industry is collectively worth 1 billion annually, and it’s mostly mom and pops shops. The average Uber driver is now making less than minimum wage, not including vehicle depreciation, among other things. A+ critical thinking, truly top notch.
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Speaking of monopolies: you’re forgetting about medallions.
Non-sequiter? That has nothing to do with Uber being a much more likely candidate for dickhole monopoly. The cities that use medallions are a minority of the total cab companies in America. Most medium to largish cities don’t use them, and don’t artificially limit the number of cabs on the road (I’m not defending the medallion system, for the record, or the cab companies. They’ve exploited drivers long enough. Uber had a chance to be the solution, but blew it when they demonstrated long ago, and continue to demonstrate daily, that they can and will exploit drivers far more than the cab companies). And you’re moving the goalpost anyway. Do you really feel Uber destroying thousands of small privately owned cab companies (their stated goal, and whom they compete with unfairly and dishonestly), and then relying on them to be beneficent to drivers and riders without any oversight is a better alternative?
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It’s not rocket science. Give the address of the closest building.
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