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You do realized that they do have commercial insurance through uber right?

http://blog.uber.com/rideshari...

http://blog.uber.com/rideshari...

That doesn't change the fact that the attacker committed a crime and illegally accessed private information.

If you provide an api with a key already included in the sample code.

https://github.com/uber

Using that sample code doesn't necessarily mean it was an attack.

The insurance that Uber provides has many limitations on it. If you get hurt in an Uber car, expect to have to sue both Uber and the driver.

Yes, that was at the beginning, but on March 2014 Uber actually updated/modified its commercial insurance coverage. This is in effect old news, for Uber in the US at least.

Not that this guarantees that you won't need to sue. If you get seriously injured in a taxi cab as well, expect to have to sue (or threaten to sue) the taxi insurance company and anybody else involved to try to extract a fair settlement.

Uber pays for insurance, therefore there is no 'subsidy' and the risk to Uber passengers is comparable to BETTER then commercial taxi services. Better because Uber pays for more insurance then required by law. There are plenty of cab companies that only go for the minimum.

http://blog.uber.com/rideshari...

Also, from Uber itself:
https://www.uber.com/legal/ind...

These terms and conditions ("User Terms") apply to your visit to and your use of our website at www.uber.com (the "Website"), the Service and the Application (as defined below), as well as to all information, recommendations and/or services provided to you on or through the Website, the Service and the Application.

I wonder what is this "the Service" they keep talking about? :)

+1 to your comment. Some of the biggest problems in our current society trace back to making groups of people no longer groups of people - we pretend that corporations have a compass, when a piece of paper can have no such thing. We then treat the government as some external entity that oppresses us, when in theory the Great Experiment is supposed to be "government of the people, for the people, by the people" - *we* are the government. These people *are* uber. Are those people served by having morals, in so much as making money is concerned? Clearly they don't think so.

Sorry, but you are just dumb.

You seem to have a tendency of irrationally deciding that something is "evil"(TM), and THEN trying to assume supposed hypothetical flaws and then avoid even checking facts. Insurance policies are available for US, for uber.

http://blog.uber.com/rideshari...

You need to get therapy, mate. All this confirmation bias, and trying to grind an axe, just because you don't like something is just going to make you miserable in long term.

In the US, at least, Uber has a commercial rideshare insurance policy that is primary and covers $1M per incident.

https://support.uber.com/hc/en...

Likely true in any other country that has similar liability regulations for taxis and rideshares. So, you are basically totally incorrect.

Lyft and Uber drivers should have to follow the same not-free regs as taxi drivers. things like displaying a hack lic, certification of insurance or bonding, and penalties for systematic race discrimination are things that taxi drivers and their companies are required to follow. Undercutting these is not a good idea.

Uber's insurance is explained here, and its legalese can be found here. I haven't looked for Lyft's policy, but I assume that Lyft's policy can be just as easily found.

penalties for systematic race discrimination are things that taxi drivers and their companies are required to follow.

And yet despite all those penalties, racial discrimination still happens systematically during peak hours. During peak hours, taxi drivers can easily pretend not to have seen someone hailing them down if they know they can easily pick up someone else just as easily.

And in a way, Uber and Lyft's processes nicely solve that problem, since for them, they're not allowed to pick up people who are hailing them visually. They can only pick up the people that have hailed them electronically through a mobile app. So choosing your customer based on skin color is much less of a possibility for Uber and Lyft drivers, because now there is an electronic paper trail if a driver suddenly decides not to pick up a potential customer he has agreed to pick up electronically.

The electronic process of ordering rides through a mobile app also solves the problem of displaying a license. By ordering a ride through Uber, you see the picture, you see the id, and you see the rating of who's going pick you up before they do pick you up. Just try to get that level of information the next time you call for a Yellow cab, you won't get it.

Not only that but in a few big cities, where the number of medaillons stays stagnant despite the desperate need of additional taxis on the road during peak hours, Uber and Lyft are serving the needs of an underserved market. Because I can tell you, in my personal experience, it's not just black people that can't find a cab sometimes. As a white person who sometimes really needs a cab in San Francisco during peak hours, I've simply given up trying to find one. I can only assume that only customers from five star hotels and hot supermodels can catch cabs during those hours, because I see many cabs during those times, and I've used my phone to call cab companies as well, but those cabs are certainly not stopping for me, or they have the light on signaling that they're on their way to pick up someone else.

If I really need a car after work for some reason, I'll drive my car in, clogging up the system even more, and I'll risk paying insane parking fees for the entire day (despite the fact that I might only need the car for a fraction of that time, to go somewhere after 5 PM, that's not easily reached with public transportation).

Uber Fresh is very limited. It's only available in certain parts of West Los Angeles and only one food choice per day. So no going to Subway and no telling them what you want in your sub.

However, if you want a sub, just be in West LA on Weds and they'll bring you a Godmother from Bay Cities Italian Deli. It's widely considered the best sandwich in LA.

http://blog.uber.com/uberfresh...

I have a basic problem with Uber and Lift, and that is in the fakery of their liability claims.

This is false. Here is Uber's insurance policy in the US.

And before everyone says that 1 million dollars is nothing for a commercial insurance. The facts are that in the US, car insurance requirements are ridiculously low (compared to a country like Germany for instance, which Uber has a different higher insurance for) and that in the US at least, you certainly won't get better commercial insurance coverage from any existing taxi cab company.

The facts are ( as presented in MANY news stories) if you get injured in an Uber or Lift car

I've seen those stories. Those are not facts. Those are conjectures, FUD, and click-bait stories that parade themselves as news stories, that don't even take the time to go through the public web sites of those ride-sharing companies to try to counter the claims about their insurance published there.

Who cares if Uber _is_ a cab company? What moral authority does the state have to stop consenting adults from forming their own contracts and doing business with each other?

As an adult and a cyclist, I would prefer that any vehicle that hits me have the insurance to cover my injuries. Since Uber only has 50k/individual/accident if the driver is between trips, and since Uber has denied liability in similar circumstances, I consider them a risk.

I know everyone is all over Uber and and the other one because the cars are "nicer" and the service "better" than cabs. But [...]

Um... isn't that enough?

Firstly, you're wrong about the liability.

Secondly, you are confusing the possibility of injury with its probability.

If the probability of injury is small and the cost of injury is also appreciably small, the expected cost of using Lyft or Uber may be much less than the expected cost of using a cab.

For an example, if a ride-share is $6 less than a cab fare, and if there is an average of 1 injury every 100,000 rides, then if the average injury costs less than $600,000 then it's a better deal for everyone to use the ride share.

Using this reference, cabs crash about once every 300,000 miles.

Also note, the number of crashes in regular driving has decreased dramatically over the last few years, probably due to increased safety measures in vehicles and modern roadway improvements (Denver Barriers around bridge supports, for example).

And in any event, most people have health insurance. At the very least, a significant portion of riders would have health insurance - enough to reduce the risk by a further factor of four or more.

SHELL GAME is where you can't win. CASINO GAME is where the odds are against you. Uber and Lyft seem to be decidedly in the passenger's favor.

Cue the irrational fearmongering reply: "unless you are the one injured, then how would you feel!".

Except no, that's completely incorrect.

http://blog.uber.com/uberXride...

- no insurance in case of accidents (insurance for person transport costs about 10x what a normal car owner pays for his car alone)

Actually, they have insurance, either commercial insurance held by the driver or a primary $1M liability and $1M uninsured motorist bodily injury policy provided by Uber itself.

This is about Germany. The legal minimum in Germany for car insurance is 2.5 million Euro - per injured person.
Normal German car insurance covers around 75 million.

- no insurance in case of accidents (insurance for person transport costs about 10x what a normal car owner pays for his car alone)

Actually, they have insurance, either commercial insurance held by the driver or a primary $1M liability and $1M uninsured motorist bodily injury policy provided by Uber itself.

- no rigorous technical car checks as they are required for cabs

They're as checked-out as any other car, i.e. the state puts them through a 2 year safety inspection on re-registration. My state doesn't do that; as I drive, I am faced with other drivers whose brakes or steering may spontaneously fail, causing them to veer into my car. The risk of me personally driving is roughly similar to the risk of riding with an un-inspected Uber driver.

- no transport obligation (a cab here HAS to transport you, even if you just want to go around the corner) - no reliable costs (cabs here cost the same all the time, no matter whether it's an early morning in march or New Year's eve)

That's part of business. Maybe the driver decides he wants to reject your request. You get whatever driver accepts for the fee you accept, or you call a chartered cab. Make those decisions on your own; you're free to reject the terms and charter a yellow cab.

- no proper filing of taxes

Seriously? Costs are centrally logged. There is an income audit trail. This is an IRS matter.

- no right for the drivers to form a workers council, therefore dumping payment is to be expected - no health insurance, no social insurance, no pension payments for the drivers ...shall I continue?

When you start a small business, you have to cover your own health and life insurance, as well as your own retirement; that money comes out of your income, which is now the income of the business. A start-up is a very personal part of your life, and its income reflects your income on a personal level--even though you can isolate them on a legal level. All of these insurances and benefits you're used to as an employee become your own responsibility.

Uber drivers have a much smaller chance of hitting it big with their Uber business model. That said, they are fully aware that Uber gives them no pension and no health insurance; however, it covers the cost of commercial insurance when they carry passengers, and it's a non-scheduled system where they can become active on a whim. It's a low barrier to entry for a second job or a job between jobs, and the conditions appeal to those who chose to use Uber to facilitate the sale of their services.

Uber isn't abusing its employees; they are providing subcontracted taxi drivers the ability to clock in and clock out at the touch of a button on their phone, anywhere they are, and to select their fare and their passengers at will. They are providing much more workplace freedom with reduction of other workplace benefits; if this model doesn't appeal, you can put in an application to Yellow Cab.

With David Plouffe onboard at Uber, a blizzard of blatant shameless dishonesty as part of a win-at-all-costs campaign is a certainty. Remember those "if you like your doctor..." and "if you like your health insurance..." Obama lies? (and YES, they WERE lies becuase the documents came out that show team Obama knew they were false claims at the time they made them). Plouffe was on THAT team. The guy is as filthy and dishonest as Karl Rove.

I know this link doesnt apply to EU but its worth sharing. I can only assume a lot of the people that are commenting happen to live in the US as well.

http://blog.uber.com/rideshari...

This pertains to uber-x(regular cars), not the taxis and black car services that already have commercial insurance.

It says in their Berlin page, under fine print: "Uber is not a transportation provider." https://www.uber.com/cities/be...

If they're not a transportation provider then I don't see why banning them from providing transport would be a problem, since that's supposedly not what they're doing.

I don't know why Uber is complaining. All they need to do, after all, is to recruit drivers with a commercial license;

In Germany, if they carry less than 8 passengers and if their vehicles are below a certain weight, then they don't need to take a different driving test.

What they do need however is a license to operate a taxi, and that's determined locally, with a criminal background/medical/eyes check, and a very stringent but outdated local geography test that has been rendered completely useless by mobile applications such as Google Maps Navigation and Waze.

For my part as a potential user, liability is the real issue. I would never risk taking a car service where I'm not fully covered in the case of an accident.

In the US, Uber covers you for up to one million dollars. For other countries, just check the relevant Uber web site for the country you're in, and see how much insurance they have. My bet is that you'll probably have better coverage when you travel as a passenger/driver with Uber than if you were to drive yourself personally.

You are right. I forgot that Uber doesn't support other payment methods and that there's no such thing as stolen credit cards.

Uber is global. They've got drivers on every continent except Antarctica.

My SUV cost me around $800 a month in replacement costs. Another $200 in maintenance. I was burning through $12,000 a year in gas.

Are you sure you calculated your gas costs right? That's a helluva lot of money to be spending on gas, even for an SUV. At $4/gal, that's 3000 gallons/yr. At 14 MPG, that's 42,000 miles/yr.

The average vehicle is only driven 12,000 miles/yr, the average commute vehicle about 15,000 miles/yr. If your gas cost is accurate, your use case is just so far outside the norm that your anecdote is probably only applicable to about 0.01% of the population. (Your other vehicle costs seem absurdly high too, even if insurance is included in "replacement costs".)

I spent an average of 1000 hours a year in the car, for work, for groceries, for fun.

Consider my annual total: about $25,000 + 1000 hours of my time. For the "privilege" to sit in Chicago traffic.

Which translates into an average speed of 42 MPH, which is unusually high. You must've lived ~70 miles away from your workplace and spent most of your driving on the freeway to (1) rack up that many miles, and (2) have such a high average MPH.

I spent about $5000 a year on UberX. $100 a week
[...]
I figure I'm $20,000 ahead in vehicle costs

UberX lists their Chicago rates as $2.40 + $0.24/min + $1/mile. There is absolutely no way you're replacing your 42,000 miles/yr commute with fewer than 5000 UberX miles. At 42,000 miles/yr @ 42 MPH and 500 commutes/yr (250 workdays, 2 commutes per day), completely replacing your SUV with UberX would cost you:

($2.40)*(500) + [ (1 mile / 42 MPH)*(60 min/hour)*($0.24/min) + $1/mile ] * (42000 miles) =
$1200 + [ ($0.343/mile) + ($1/mile) ] * (42000 miles) =
$1200 + $56,406 = $68,406/yr

I mean think about it. It's effectively a taxi service. There's no way it can be cheaper than driving your own car (unless it's an UberX carpool) because that would mean the UberX driver would be losing money. Any reduction in your commute costs now that you got rid of the SUV is because you're taking public transportation. Any solo rides you're taking on UberX are costing you more than it took you to drive your SUV.

The IRS places the standard deductible cost for mileage at $0.56/mile. That's probably a good average to use for a commute vehicle's cost per mile nationwide. UberX costs nearly 3x that.

Not according to Uber's web site.

If you’re taking a ride requested through UberBLACK, UberSUV, or uberTAXI, your livery or taxi transportation provider carries a commercial insurance policy in at least the minimum amount required by local regulations. If you didn’t get his or her insurance information at the time of the accident, please reach out to us so we can connect you.

If you’re taking a ride requested through uberX, some transportation providers are rideshare drivers providing transportation with their personal vehicles. Rideshare providers carry personal insurance policies. In addition, there’s a commercial insurance policy with $1 million of coverage per incident. This policy covers drivers’ liability from the time a driver accepts your trip request through the app until the completion of your trip. This policy is in addition to the driver’s own policy, but it acts as primary insurance if the driver’s policy is not available for any reason. An additional insurance policy covers drivers when they are logged into the Uber app but are not currently on a trip.

There is also uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UI/UIM) of $1 million per incident for bodily injury, in case another motorist causes an accident and doesn’t carry adequate insurance. So, for example, injuries caused by a hit-and-run accident would be covered by the UI/UIM.

For additional information, visit our blog: blog.uber.com/ridesharinginsurance

Uber has coverage for all of their operators, see here for a full run down.

Per Uber legal agreement

The company does not provide transportation services, and the company is not a transportation carrier. it is up to the third party transportation provider, driver or vehicle operator to offer transportation services which may be scheduled through use of the application or service. the company offers information and a method to obtain such third party transportation services, but does not and does not intend to provide transportation services or act in any way as a transportation carrier, and has no responsibility or liability for any transportation services provided to you by such third parties.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
In no event shall the company and/or its licensors be liable to anyone for any indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, incidental, consequential or other damages of any type or kind (including personal injury, loss of data, revenue, profits, use or other economic advantage). the company and/or its licensors shall not be liable for any loss, damage or injury which may be incurred by you, including by not limited to loss, damage or injury arising out of, or in any way connected with the service or application, including but not limited to the use or inability to use the service or application, any reliance placed by you on the completeness, accuracy or existence of any advertising, or as a result of any relationship or transaction between you and any third party service provider, advertiser or sponsor whose advertising appears on the website or is referred by the service or application, even if the company and/or its licensors have been previously advised of the possibility of such damages.

The company may introduce you to third party transportation providers for the purposes of providing transportation. We will not assess the suitability, legality or ability of any third party transportation providers and you expressly waive and release the company from any and all any liability, claims or damages arising from or in any way related to the third party transportation provider. You acknowledge that third party transportation providers providing transportation services requested through uberx may offer ridesharing or peer-to-peer transportation services and may not be professionally licensed or permitted. the company will not be a party to disputes, negotiations of disputes between you and any third party providers. we cannot and will not play any role in managing payments between you and the third party providers. responsibility for the decisions you make regarding services offered via the application or service (with all its implications) rests solely with you. we will not assess the suitability, legality or ability of any such third parties and you expressly waive and release the company from any and all liability, claims, causes of action, or damages arising from your use of the application or service, or in any way related to the third parties introduced to you by the application or service.

The quality of the transportation services scheduled through the use of the service or application is entirely the responsibility of the third party provider who ultimately provides such transportation services to you. You understand, therefore, that by using the application and the service, you may be exposed to transportation that is potentially dangerous, offensive, harmful to minors, unsafe or otherwise objectionable, and that you use the application and the service at your own risk.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION
You and Company agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation or validity thereof or the use of the Service or Application (collectively, ÃoeDisputesÃ) will be settled by binding arbitration, except that each party retains the right to bring an individual action in small claims

uber provides plenty of insurance stop gaps. what do you expect them to do? http://blog.uber.com/rideshari...

fyi i get my facts from facts not from youtube videos. maru!

all ridesharing transportation partners carry best-in-class commercial insurance coverage in the event of an accident.

Also, their coverage is considerably higher (in dollar amount) than commercial taxis in major cities. Uber provides this for their drivers. The drivers do not need to purchase this.

source: http://blog.uber.com/uberXride...

They're already offering this in NYC.

http://blog.uber.com/RUSH

Uber isn't comprised of just uber-x(personal cars). In chicago, we have registered taxis, town cars and SUVs that operate with livery lics. Also, if you look up chicago uber chart, you should find a graphic that shows it's uber drivers are required to hold more insurance than standard taxis, especially for uber-x.
http://blog.uber.com/chistanda...

The ride-shares are additionally insured through Uber. Using Uber also causes the rides to be tracked, and removes the handling of cash out of the scenario. Your arguments are some of the exact reasons why you should use Uber over a Taxi company...
https://blog.uber.com/rideshar...

You mean Uber?

You want Uber.