These are all interesting points. However, I recently used Uber Premier twice in Miami, after not using any car service for two years, and the experience was excellent. It was fast, friendly, the car was nice, and I was happy with the price. For my use case, I am happy to pay more to get a better service, but it didn’t really seem that expensive. Both drivers had been doing Uber for a long time, which would be surprising if they were getting ripped off. So, as much as these points are interesting, I’m not sure they fully capture the situation.
Both drivers had been doing Uber for a long time, which would be surprising if they were getting ripped off.
If you need to buy food and put a roof over your child's head, you will put up with a lot of things. Being "ripped off" isn't really part of the equation: You can know you are being ripped off while still realizing this is the best way to provide for your child. Folks aren't working fast food for 20 years because they are getting treated well. Same with Uber drivers.
The best Uber I ever got picked up in was a high end Mercedes driven by a bored retiree wanting something to do on weekends.
Clearly that ride was subsidized by a number of things and wasn’t sustainable.
But I don’t expect limo service at taxi rates - and I’ve started noticing that some Ubers have been literal taxis with an Uber and Lyft sticker on them.
Lately I’ve been using shuttle service or just car service.
Amazing for whom? Certainly not for the gig workers who don’t get employee benefits and are now sometimes making sub-minimum wage after accounting for gas and deprecation
