Slashdot Mirror
Uber Drivers Arrested By Undercover Cops In Hong Kong
The Stack reports that local police have raided Uber's Hong Kong office, "after several officers posed as Uber customers and arrested drivers on Tuesday morning in an attempt to put an end to illegal taxi services. Five drivers who had offered their services across the taxi-hailing app were arrested on suspicion of illegally carrying passengers and driving without third-party insurance. The men are being held for further investigation." Are local police quite this concerned in your city with car-sharing dispatch services?
Odds are is they their drivers are breaking the law. Commercial insurance is required to take passengers, no different than a limo service. I would bet that a very small number of Uber drivers are properly insured.
If I sign up, using my own car, how am I not sharing the car that I have with others?
Sharing does not imply I'm doing so for free; just that I am willing to let someone else use resources I own and could otherwise deny the use of...
We're you headed the same way they were when you gave them a ride? No, you specifically drove with the intention of picking up someonand drive them around for money? Then you are operating as a taxi.
Plenty of people borrow boats and cars in return for beer or pizza or other favors. That's sharing too. So too is Uber, even if it's more formalized and at a larger scale.
So if your friend want's to borrow your boat for the weekend, do you say "sure, but I have to drive the boat around for you"?
You'd think Slashdot of all places would hold people understanding how others can use technology to share what they have at a larger scale than possible before...
If you are giving/loaning something to someone for the express purpose of receiving money from them in exchange, you aren't sharing. You are selling (whether it be a good or a service).
Compare the definition of sell:
to exchange (something) for money
with share:
: to use, experience, or enjoy with others
There is a pretty big distinction between the two.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Doesn't the driver who is working as an independent contractor for Uber have to pay these things? It is still income after all and subject to taxes. It's not like the drivers are being paid under the table
Also where I live not only is Uber 30% cheaper, but they have changed the attitude of our taxi drivers so as to no longer provide the worst service humanly possible while still legal in the US...Taxis in US metropolises have desperately needed competition for decades, and in many places have just been a borderline criminal enterprise grandfathered in to getting whatever they want.