Reminder: - Fuck Uber and their city-destroying, journalist-murdering blood money.
- If Uber wants it, it is by definition evil and you want the opposite.
- MADD are insane prohibitionists and religious fundamentalists.
Vote NO on Prop 22.
Uber is using iOS push notifications to spam political ads
Reminder:
Tags: conspiracies, corporations, dnalounge, doomed, sprawl
23 Responses:
They are doing the same thing on Android.
Uber "Technologies" Inc. Because private car services are a hot new thing that certainly never existed before Uber came along.
I'm going to regret asking, but even though I'm not a Californian: why, in the name of everything holy and unholy, is MADD in support of Prop 22? The linked FAQ page didn't explain. My guess is money, but I wonder if there's some other batshit insanity involved.
Their political ads that I've seen basically say that MADD likes rideshare because it reduces drunk driving. Presumably more than taxis because they're cheaper and/or more convenient (at least outside major city centers).
I was gonna look up MADD's contributions to and support of the expansion of public transit but I didn't need to because I know it doesn't exist. So there's that.
So, basically, anything that makes rideshare companies happy is A-OK by them. Makes sense, unfortunately.
I'm sure there's a "follow the money" answer that explains it better than anything to do with attributing moral consistency to them.
Drunk people can ride an Uber home instead of finding a more unsafe way home, like their car.
I don't know about SF, but before Uber/Lyft it was literally impossible to get a taxi home at night on Friday and Saturday. The city had a medallion system that limited the number of cabs to a number dramatically smaller than the number of people that needed them at closing time. I used to walk home from dancing, 6 miles, hand up a cab the entire time, and I pretty much never got one. Other people drove their cars or biked drunk.
Uber and Lyft suck, but fuck the taxi cartels a thousand and one times over. I cheer every time I hear about one of them going under. Limiting the number of cabs that could pick people up at closing time literally killed thousands of people over the years in my city. Uber being a piece of shit didn't make the taxi cartels suddenly the good guys. Outside of the police, you can't find a bigger pile of corruption in a city governments. I wish for nothing but misfortunate and ruin on taxi cab companies.
In the before times (and I really mean the Before Uber times) I have literally never stepped out of a nightclub and had to wait more than 30 minutes before stepping into a cab. Which is not ideal, but if you're too drunk to drive home.... you're not in any god damned hurry. Drink another damned bottle of water and chill.
Yes, the medallion system is / was fantastically corrupt. But the enemy of your enemy is NOT YOUR FRIEND.
You seem to be under the impression that taxis are a government service? Do you really want to stack Uber up against any given taxi company on the "corruption" chart?
No, I am very much not under the impression that taxis are a government service run by the government.
I am however under the impression that the medallion laws that regulate the taxis and limit them to not enough cabs to get everyone home at night, thus driving up the value of the city granted monopoly on taxis, is nothing but a huge pile of corruption that LITERALLY kills people. Mayors get the 100% support of the taxi owners to maintain their murderous monopoly on transportation, and in return they support the taxi companies by maintaining the supply of medallions too low to get everyone home safely at night.
Do I want to stack up Uber's corruption to that of the taxi cartels? No, I'm pretty much just against corruption. Uber being a huge flaming pile of shit run by awful people and occasionally murdering the random walker with their robot death car doesn't make me suddenly okay with to just reverting the murderously corrupt taxi cartel system again. Likewise, taxis being a huge pile of corruption that kills people by not providing enough transportation when it is needed just to increase the value of medallions, doesn't make me suddenly like anything fucked up that Uber is doing.
People defending taxis because Uber is bad is kind of like a peasant arguing that their the other liege lord is better because he only whips the peasants to death, while the other liege lord likes to starve them to death, which is obviously way worse. I kind of think we should string them both up, and any situtation that leaves me in the tender embrace of either is bad.
Me: Prop 22 is bad! Vote no!
You: Uber is better than taxis! Taxis are terrible!
Nobody: I love taxis! The system is great and correct!
So basically anything you are saying that is not "vote no on prop 22" is, in my opinion, useless noise.
When there's a measure on the ballot to revamp the medallion system, I will give that all due consideration.
Seriously, man, are you on a vendetta against taxis? Did a sentient taxi murder one of your pets out of spite, so now you're John Wick, but against taxis?
'The trains run late because there is corruption. Oh look, there's this nice man who says that when he's in charge the trains will all run on time'.
How did that work out?
Just to beat this horse some more -- regardless of how much you hate the taxi companies and the medallion system -- and yes, there is much to hate --
Do you think Uber deserves the government hand-out of being allowed to pay their workers sub-minimum-wage, and not needing to pay insurance, workers comp, sick leave, unemployment, Medicare, etc.?
Because that's what Prop 22 does.
Wait wait now, Uber is evil but... oh wait, there is no but.
It's actually much worse than all that. Uber is all about the ride share angle, but this proposition is intended to mess up ongoing attempts to clarify the line between contractors and employees. This fight is vastly bigger than ride sharing or taxies and proposition 22 could potentially make life miserable for contractors and employees alike for many years to come.
Isn't this use of iOS push notifications as political ads against something in the Apple App Store TOS? If not, it damn well oughta be.
Their battle with Fortnite has occupied all their time and resources.
Sadly, you're probably more correct than not. My guess is, we'll probably see more companies turning push notifications into political spam, now that Uber has set a precedent, until Apple finally gets around to cracking down.
Food Delivery Workers Forced to Promote Ballot Measure That Decides Their Fate:
DoorDash wants restaurants to use “Yes on 22” bags for takeout orders:
Jesus... when I worked at CompUSA, we at the checkout were required to sign people up for AOL. Not just drop the disc in the bag, mind you - actually sign people up for accounts. (I consciously never did, so I only lasted about four months there.) I used to think that was the worst...
Then Uber and DoorDash forced their drivers to hand out propaganda asking riders to vote against said drivers' human rights.
Help fight Uber! Phone bank against Prop 22 with Rideshare Drivers United (drivers-united.org)