If this service became at all popular, it is very likely that cities would immediately include "mobile hailing" as also requiring a license. The entrenched interests of the taxi companies are simply too big (and they have the political clout) to let this one slide under the radar.
See also hairdressing regulations and a host of others.
I could be persuaded there exists an optimum amount of regulation for compensated car rides north of that for uncompensated car rides, but medallions have to go. With market values in the six figures though, good luck: holders have solid incentives for corruption like their lives depend on it, but the average citizen just gets minority overcharged, and the worst affected do not vote or matter in most political calculuses.
It doesn't surprise you that cab drivers in Chicago basically never drive you to random destinations, or change fares midway through the ride? The goodness of cab driver hearts isn't what's preventing it.
In Manhattan or other parts of the city, I don't see how this kind of thing could compete with the yellow cabs or the car services. People have the money to pay the higher prices, and there are enough horror stories (true or not) floating around that very few would see it as worth the risk.
For both Private Hire and Hackney Carriages, the cars/drivers are licensed and must meet regulatory requirements regarding vehicles and insurance policies. I believe the requirements for Hackney Carriages are more stringent.
Those licences exist to protect the public.
For both types of licensed drivers, UberCab would be a great extension. However, I can only imagine it working if the taxi firms themselves were willing to implement it.
Edit: Please note that I do not mean to imply that all car drivers are bad people. I am confident that the majority of them are good, honest people trying to make a living the best way they can.
UberCab contracts with black car services – mostly Towncars and Escalades
That suggests that they are probably doing some due diligence.
My friends the management consultants report that they use these black-car services all the time. You think a business traveler with a big expense account hails one of those yellow cabs, like me and the rest of the plebes? ;)
The follow-up idea of dispatching cab traffic to any random idiot with a Lincoln Town Car, an iPhone, and a possible drug problem seems to be Arrington's idea. It is, as you point out, a pretty lousy idea. [1] But don't blame UberCab.
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[1] I should know. I had this idea five years ago. Then I conducted a thirty-minute thought experiment and decided that the due diligence would be annoying and not my cup of tea.
Edit: Can't resist an anecdote. There was a huge Russian instructor in one of our classes, and the class that day was about half women. He said, "Ok, man tries to rape you? Rip his eyes, like this. See? Rip! He can't see now for rest of life? Tough shit! Should not have tried rape you."
(Despite the machismo of how this might look in text, it was well received in person - a good community, good people, good training, very welcoming to everyone at any level of age or fitness. Definitely recommended, almost any studio will give you a free class so just google for your area and go take one. Really, it's awesome.)
This application could be very attractive for car jackers. A bad guy could simply place and order for an out-of-the-way alley or warehouse and know that the cabbie they hail is going to be driving a really nice car.
A would-be car jacker would need to use a stolen iPhone and credit card in order to keep from getting caught right away, but that's hardly an insurmountable barrier.
In the 90's, New York averaged something like 2 murdered cabbies a month.
Uh... NYC was a dangerous place in the mid 90's. Do you have evidence that the gypsy cabs were targets more than yellow cabs?
It's not the gypsy cabs that were the problem, it was the customers.
A would-be car jacker would need to use a stolen iPhone and credit card in order to keep from getting caught right away, but that's hardly an insurmountable barrier.
In that case, UberCab would need a stronger way to identify users. For example, you enter the cab, and the cabbie takes a photo of you with his iPhone UberCab app and uploads first thing.
Yep. http://www.taxi-library.org/marosi.htm
"Out of the 85 total cab drivers killed in 1992 and 1993, for instance, only 12 drove yellow cabs."
The difference here is that gypsy cab drivers work in more dangerous neighborhoods that are underserved by big taxi companies. I suppose ubercab drivers could just avoid those same neighborhoods...
http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/54678/
From a safety perspective, in NYC it's illegal (and not a good idea) to hail a non-yellow-medallioned taxi on the street. They likely don't have a TLC license, and may or may not be affiliated with a larger fleet.
Call the service's base station--they might not perform background checks on the drivers, but they'll be licensed and insured. The services have an incentive to weed out the bad drivers-- if they get a reputation for spotty service or creepy guys, then customers will switch to the car service down the block (there is healthy competition in this market-- they are constantly splitting off and trying to poach each others' drivers).
I think the biggest innovation is the drivers rating the customers. It seems like a joke, but if you think about it, professional car service drivers aren't going to want to pick up just anybody for short rides. That's the real obstacle for scalability among that group. The obstacle for getting all cab drivers to join UberCab is probably the risk of alienating the customer base that might just want town cars, etc., without having to think about the complexity (i.e., it's a software problem, and a pretty easy software problem if done right). The other obstacle is the cost of an iphone, etc., for cab drivers. The obstacles for anybody with a car to join are medallions, licenses, etc., as mentioned. The other obstacle is, even with licenses, the fairness and effectiveness of the rating system is tough. Service history is a mixed blessing. When I step into a cab, I may not actually want to know about the driver's history. I may just want a nearly 100% guaranteed level of service (which theoretically the medallions provide). Though on the other hand it would be crazy to see like average on-time trips, average speeds, customer satisfactions, etc., in one big visual thumbprint before you step into a cab...
I was thinking about a similar idea and also the parallel concept of "AirBnB for passenger seats", rather than unused towncar inventory, an easier way to "book" a carpool ride from someone who's already going that way. You just run into a ton of tangles around insurance, carpooling vs taxi licenses, scaling especially abroad, and the fact that one bad driver - one accident - could completely ruin your entire business.
I do think there's potential in disrupting the taxi business, though my current angle of thought is more about using technology, especially cleantech and mobile bookings, to make it a low cost planet-friendly business. Just the thought of all those exhaust fumes scares me. Go EcoTaxis!
Buying from somebody wih a zero rep on ebay means you might lose out on your beanie baby. Putting your daughter in a random strangers car with no information other than them owning (or having stolen) an iphone is a little different.
If the taxi firm itself implemented (or used a version) of this kind of service then that could be a great win for the firm.
However, if they are considering moving in that direction (again, no proof of that), your criticism is really important to consider, and might be a pretty big limitation. I'm sure that there are ways around it, but only if the network of drivers is heavily moderated, with lots and lots of safe-guards built in. Also, not allowing children/teens to ride unless accompanied by an adult, and adding some sort of panic button to the app.
As like any other hire service, they operate under a difference set of rules. They have to be licensed, need to meet size requirements, and they have to carry much more insurance.
Some random driver with a pickup and just basic PIP coverage probably wouldn't be a good choice. Especially if you are paying for it.
Also, reading their website, they are very interested in working with limo companies and cab services not random guy with 30 minutes to spare. So no, this is not like AirBNB, at all.
In the UK there are lots of regulations surrounding Private Hire vehicles and Taxis, some of those rules are regional too. I doubt I'd see something, like this here but the firms should definitely be aware.
The whole concept sounds particularly disruptive because it seems that it would be so difficult to police.
And there is nothing stopping them from going into court and throwing water on the whole thing with an injunction.
In the everyone is a taxi model- do you really want to get into a car without knowing how that person drives? There are people in my own family I won't drive with, let alone pay them to drive me somewhere.
Pay from the app: No cash required
That's a powerful feature and it could become a very sticky app for me if I lived in San Francisco.
