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Uber Will Provide Transit Data To Cities

Posted by Soulskill on from the how-best-to-distribute-starbucks-franchises dept.

mpicpp notes that transportation company Uber will be sharing the transit data it collects with city governments in order to "provide new insights to help manage urban growth, relieve traffic congestion, expand public transportation, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions." The company's first partnership will be with Boston, where Uber and other ridesharing services have been formally recognized by the state. Mayor Walsh said, "[D]ata is driving our conversations, our policy making and how we envision the future of our city. We are using data to change the way we deliver services and we welcome the opportunity to add to our resources. This will help us reach our transportation goals, improve the quality of our neighborhoods and allow us to think smarter, finding more innovative and creative solutions to some of our most pressing challenges."

32 comments

  1. I can't wait to "big data" this stuff... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Informative

    New York taxi details can be extracted from anonymised data, researchers say
    http://www.theguardian.com/tec...

  2. public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why not publish the data wide open on the internet? (and if the government is interested, they can use it too)

    1. Re:public feed? by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because they will use it as a trade off to become legal in cities around the world, where they are (often rightfully, at least in Europe) illegal.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:public feed? by nbauman · · Score: 1

      Why not publish the data wide open on the internet? (and if the government is interested, they can use it too)

      Sure, I'd like to know which escort service Eliot Spitzer is using these days.

      Andrew Cuomo too.

    3. Re:public feed? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly. It's a bribe. It's not hugely valuable data (the city could get almost as much useful data from taxi firms really) but because the city officials don't really understand magical mystical computers, it seem like some kind of golden egg.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    4. Re:public feed? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Or Waze...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    5. Re:public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According some local news reporting, they are not only illegal in some parts of the world they are actively encouraging their drivers break the law by paying fines imposed by local taxi/transport authorities on their drivers.

    6. Re:public feed? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Good point. They should be chasing all the cities Uber targets to make a name for themselves....

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    7. Re:public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I appreciate your concern for myself entering into a voluntary contract with another party. You and your ilk are so wise. Thank you for bestowing upon us mere mundanes your knowledge. Without the state protecting me I would be stabbing myself in the eye with pens.

    8. Re:public feed? by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      Exactly. It's a bribe. It's not hugely valuable data (the city could get almost as much useful data from taxi firms really) but because the city officials don't really understand magical mystical computers, it seem like some kind of golden egg.

      Not to mention I don't think it's very valuable data. It's basically a self-selected survey of results, when a city really needs a general broad survey.

      It's like cities that have apps where you could report problems along the road and other issues - they found that it was the richer areas that were getting the most service calls while the poorer ones were getting shafted - because the richer areas could afford the devices to run the apps.

      So this would show you the travel habits of the well-to-do who can afford phones and know about services like Uber, while the old lady using the bus puts up with worse service because Uber's data shows they should optimize traffic elsewhere.

      Cities need all information for transit and traffic information, not just selected information meant to make a few of their citizen's lives easier.

      And what's with Uber claiming to be an app company? That's like Microsoft claiming to be a hardware company - while true, it's but just a small part of their business unless Uber the App company is a separated entity from Uber the transportation provider.

    9. Re:public feed? by nbauman · · Score: 1

      I appreciate your concern for myself entering into a voluntary contract with another party. You and your ilk are so wise. Thank you for bestowing upon us mere mundanes your knowledge. Without the state protecting me I would be stabbing myself in the eye with pens.

      That's because every time we had an unregulated free market, starting at least in the 19th century, the competitors decided that instead of competing with each other in a free market, it was more profitable for them to merge and acquire each other, until we were left with one big monopoly in every industry, and the consumer had no choice other than to take it or leave it.

      Maybe you have a religious faith that the most efficient economy is one in which a few greedy billionaire padrones run the world, but the majority of us don't share it and we want our elected officials to keep the Zuckermans and Gateses under control.

    10. Re:public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's like cities that have apps where you could report problems along the road and other issues - they found that it was the richer areas that were getting the most service calls while the poorer ones were getting shafted - because the richer areas could afford the devices to run the apps.

      Richer areas also have more faith that the government actually listens to their complaints. The selection bias of self-reporting will naturally exacerbate over time.

    11. Re:public feed? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      And what's with Uber claiming to be an app company? That's like Microsoft claiming to be a hardware company - while true, it's but just a small part of their business unless Uber the App company is a separated entity from Uber the transportation provider.

      It's along the same lines as YouTube claiming to be a dumb channel in order to get safe harbour protections. Truth doesn't come into it.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    12. Re: public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uber doesn't provide transportation, independant, untrained, under licensed, under insurred operators do the transit.

    13. Re: public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not that simple. People that report are an even smaller subsection of people with the devices. You could have a affluent area with people that are completely ignorant of the app that would accomplish the task via bitching at their hoa meeting.

      I'm in a gentrifying neighborhood with a bunch of white college students mixed with crackheads, and I know that I alone am reporting problems to the city. Graffiti, suspension busting railroad tracks, sewage grates that don't drain are things I've done. Other than that, the neighborhood still looks like shit.

    14. Re: public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You ever try to get a taxi in Boston?

    15. Re:public feed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think it's meant to be all that impressive even to the clueless city gov'ts.

      What it is, is cheap. It's something that Uber can offer at next to no cost to themselves - they already collect all this data, it just needs mining. So they're offering it in the hope that they'll get some goodwill in exchange.

      Business as usual, nothing to see here.

  3. Like who is having one night stands where etc? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This scandal made Uber a no-go for me and I will be very wary about all WRT data-profitization companies in the future.

  4. This just in by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Uber promises to share the likely ill-gotten data with politicians that run advertising businesses so they can make money.

    Slashdot constantly shilling services that don't fit the description of this site at 9PM.

    Back to you, Jones.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    1. Re:This just in by billstewart · · Score: 2

      It's not ill-gotten data at all. Uber is a database service - you tell it where you are and where you want to go, and they charge you for the trip, and they know when your request was made, when you were picked up, and when you were dropped off.

      All perfectly reasonable, by itself - it's what they do with the data that's sensitive, and how well they anonymize it before giving it to governments. Zip Code is a reasonable granularity for most purposes (assuming it's 5-digit ZIPs and not 9-digit); hope they'll anonymize the times as well (e.g. rounding to the nearest hour.)

      --

      Bill Stewart
      New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  5. The the obvious kind of irony by robbiedo · · Score: 1

    Isn't this the fascists wet dream of fusing corporate and government power?

    1. Re:The the obvious kind of irony by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      You act like it's a new thing. And, I'm sorry, but the DMCA and most of the laws surrounding the copyright cartels is exactly this. Hell, the lawyers for the copyright cartels write the damned laws for government, who don't bother reading it or introducing checks and balances. Because they're being paid to pass them.

      The people who write financial policy? They come in and out of government in a revolving door from Wall Street. The head of the FCC is a shill for the cable industry. The elected government seems to be made up of people who work for these companies.

      Government has been co-opted by industry for some time -- and a large amount of people think this will do anything but fuck the rest of us over.

      You're already living in an oligarchy.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. We are using data to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "We are using data [along with cell tower records to track every citizen's movement]."

  7. There is something which I clearly am at loss here by ruir · · Score: 1

    The technology is here to meet customers with professionals. Why people are insisting on migrating old world exploitation models to the Internet and give a significant chunk of their proceeding to sites like uber or elance? I am not really against the model per se, they are just being too greedy.

  8. Will they share the non-taxi data too? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can pretend its 'anonymous' data and that it will save the planet by cutting greenhouse gases, but it is rarely anonymous. If for example, we have an Occupy NY protest, all the data on who came from where to that protest in then handed over to the city. The data about where they work, where they sleep, where they protest, where they party, its all in that data.

    With Uber we found they had a god program, that they were collected a lot of information, including locations tracked for people who were not using their system but had the app installed. I recall one of their employees explaining they track a lobbyist 24/7, not just when they use a taxi, but when they are moving the Uber app is collecting the location data.

    So I wonder, if an agency, maybe with 3 letters, comes along and offers to buy that data, as it has offered many times to many companies. Even offers a legal NSL cover letter, so that Uber can keep it a secret. Would it then sell that data?

    I think the answer is, they probably already do, and given they implemented a god app, they probably would sell your kids location to pedos if it would make them money. Nobody implements a data mining app for their management, and call it the god app, unless they view themselves as gods.

  9. Right on schedule! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Back when Uber announced that they were 'limiting' "God View" in order to improve customer privacy, I advanced the not-especially-insightful hypothesis that this was more or less entirely about looking less like a bunch of egregious assholes, and would be at best irrelevant, and at worst actively damaging, to customer privacy.

    Sure looks to me like this is one of those exciting new uses that they've found for the data, and likely not the last one, nor the most unpleasant.

  10. Ridesharing services? by Invalidator · · Score: 1

    WTF? Does that mean that I have to also give rides to Uber chauffeurs? And since when do we have to pay for "sharing"?

    How about an accurate description instead of what these greedy assholes want us to call them: car service. Not the first, not the only, but, I hope, the last.

    --

    ~_~ Not tonight, dear, I have a modem.

  11. .. allow us to think smarter ... by Another,+completely · · Score: 2

    Won't somebody stop these phrases before they hurt somebody? Think of the children!

  12. Uber Will Transit Data To Cities by nitehawk214 · · Score: 2

    I read the title as "Uber Will Transit Data To Cities"

    Obviously they will be using station wagons for this service.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  13. Uber the enemy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uber is the SONY of tranportation.

    They do a bunch of things to piss off customers, all for the sake of making more money, and it's only a matter of time until they come under a cyber attack, and it will be their own damn fault.

  14. OMG! Stop calling it RIDESHARE! by eepok · · Score: 1

    Uber and Lyft is NOT Rideshare!

    Rideshare is transportation by carpool, vanpool, and, in many implementations, bus, train, bike, and walking. The term "Rideshare" has been in use for DECADES to describe the use of low-emissions/fuel consumption transportation! (http://goo.gl/DXTYul)

    Uber and Lyft are taxi companies who try to use the term rideshare to get around taxi regulations and to convey a veneer of sustainability. Even the Associated Press has edited their Stylebook so as to instruct media agencies to cease calling them rideshare and start calling them "ride-hailing" services.

    http://greatergreaterwashingto...
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/charli...