Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/29/uber-is-running-scared-of-juno.html
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Hope it spreads 
Uber has (ironically) proven the model works but their management are so high on their own “business” fumes they managed to not turn a profit and lose to basically any competition besides traditional taxis with little to no competition. I would love to see a driver focused modern ride-share take off and Juno sounds like it has potential.
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So business as usual for Silicon Valley.
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The doomsday clock of worker-owned ridesharing co-ops just moved another minute toward midnight.
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LOL! Uber is just another example of Randians who claim to worship at the altar of free and open markets… just so long as they control the market and who participates in it.
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And at midnight, what happens? Is that when self-driving cars take over and all workers are eliminated?
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I wish someone would make a competitor to ebay that is good. Their fees for their “service” is getting stupid high.
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threatening to kick them off for having the Juno app on their phones (the company characterizes this as “advertising for Juno” because the Juno app displays a logo on drivers’ lockscreens)
2 phones - done
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Needed badly in Southern California, very badly.
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Class warfare? Why does this have the class-warfare tag? Wealthy Uber drivers versus… no that can’t be it. Maybe it’s wealthy Juno drivers… no that doesn’t work either. Are Juno’s shareholders of a different social class from Uber’s?
Uber drivers generally do not make a ton of money, at best it’s a way to supplement income.
Probably economically disadvantaged “free economy” drivers vs. Wealthy Uber execs is the implied class warfare.
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OH yeah - just like Breaking Bad!
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That is true, but it’s not the subject of the article.
Class warfare, because the Uberist “disruptors” are promoting a “share/gig economy” that benefits themselves at the expense of the workers. And as mentioned in another comment, these Randian “libertarian” types love to trumpet deregulation and “free markets” only when it benefits their own business models, but when they actually have to face some competition they go crying for protection to whatever government institution that will listen.
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When I click on this story, I see a large ad for Lyft.
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This thing about treating their drivers better is nice and all, but more importantly they don’t have a douchey misspelled name.
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Seems to me this sort of thing is inevitable when your business’s only capital is it’s 2 user bases. It’s not like they had to build out a cell & GPS system. Someone with less corporate overhead will always be willing to undercut you.
I wonder if Google could have grown so fast as to get beyond serious competition in today’s environment where competitors can lease servers as fast as they need them rather than having to build them?
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It seems like Uber’s walking on a razor here. Full wording of the rule they’re citing (emphasis added):
(g) No Marketing to Passengers. A Driver must not sell, advertise or recommend any service or merchandise to any Passenger without prior written Commission approval.
Exception: A Driver of a For-Hire Vehicle or Street Hail Livery can promote the services offered by the vehicle’s affiliated Base.
The whole rulebook is huge, but in terms of just this section, it doesn’t specify “…affiliate Base for that dispatched ride” or however you’d word it to pry apart Uber from Juno “advertising.” Also, isn’t there a slippery slope argument to be made? What about the map/gps company logo displayed while the driver is navigating? What about ads coming over the car radio?
“Base” is defined in Chapter 51 but is a word that appears quite a bit in the rulebook:
Base Affiliation is a business arrangement by which a Vehicle is affiliated or associated with a Base. Certain Vehicles must be associated with a specific type of Base and work
only with the Base with which it is affiliated.
Base (or Base Station) is the Commission licensed business dispatching a particular type of Vehicle. This term is used more specifically in some Chapters
That’s all I got.
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So how does a Juno driver meet a potential customer who doesn’t have the Juno app? Look for someone hailing cabs (easy in NYC) and get there before a yellow one does? Big sign on the car?
