Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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How Uber Saves Disabled People Money (rp-vip.blogspot.com)
submitted 7y ago by matt_may
geoffisblind 2 points
Oh man this hits home. Uber has been fighting with my city's Taxi commission for a long time to get the ability to operate here. The Taxi Commission wanted UberX drivers to charge extra fees I guess. They essentially were trying to keep the Uber competition from affecting the local companies which makes sense from a business standpoint I guess but it's been so frustrating for residents who want access to it. Their luxury service, Uber Black, has been allowed to operate but they charge pretty high premiums that most of us can't cover. I think about two weeks ago Uber filed an anti-trust lawsuit and we got UberX but I don't think the fight is over. I'm looking forward to having it for the long haul.
Edit: Punctuation
Edit: Punctuation
yeswesodacan 1 points
I've taken two rides with Uber. I've had to adjust my starting destination before so that's not always perfect. I blame virgin mobile and/or HTC more for that than I do Uber. Anyway, both times i've had positive experiences.
fastfinge 1 points
In my experience, Uber is total crap if you're blind. The app had serious VoiceOver issues on IOS, that made it almost unusable, and they refused to fix any of them for over a year. Of the times I've tried Uber, I've had a driver refuse to take me (even though I only have a cane, not a dog), a driver pull up in front of me and then leave without making any attempt to find me, and 3 drivers drop me off in totally the wrong place and drive off. This was back in Toronto; in Ottawa, I use cabs, because Ottawa taxy drivers have a habbit of beating up Uber drivers and vandalizing Uber cars, so I just wouldn't feel safe taking one. Regardless, if you're disabled, Uber is the worst possible thing.
carpe_diem1977 1 points 7y ago
Thanks for posting this. How do you get voice over to read the map to you so you can set the location? Is there a different way to set the location? Thanks in advance.
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
The only way I ever found was to get sighted assistance. You can't call Uber, so that's really the only way. At least with a cab company you can call dispatch and give them your address.
carpe_diem1977 1 points 7y ago
Thanks. I think I'm going to post to them on Twitter about it. At least then it's public.
fastfinge 2 points 7y ago
Good luck!
matt_may [OP] 0 points
Uber is worse because taxi drivers beat up Uber drivers. But taxi drives are cool. For thugs. Okay, I get what you're saying. The thing is, even if you don't use Uber, it's driving pricing down and saving you money.
fastfinge 1 points
No. It's driving taxi companies out of business, and deregulating the market. In a matter of years, only Uber will exist, and if they get there way, they won't have to comply with any regulations at all. Can't get a cab because the last Uber app update broke accessibility? Sucks to be you! Driver refused to take you because you're blind? Too bad! Unless we regulate Uber the same way as cabs, that will be the future within 2 or 3 years.
impablomations 1 points
Meh, I've given Uber a try a couple of times. Each time it was the same price or more expensive than my usual taxi firm.
Admittedly I don't live in a city but it is the largest town in my county.
It's probably a better idea in cities.
Admittedly I don't live in a city but it is the largest town in my county.
It's probably a better idea in cities.
thatsnotgneiss 2 points
I live in a decent sized city and it's a wash between Uber and a cab. I tend to go for Uber because most of the cabs here are nasty
impablomations 1 points
We've got a great company here. The local council got something like £20 million in funding from the govt to build electric car charging points all over the place - so the the Taxi company took advantage of other govt grants and bought a fleet of Nissan Leafs, as well as a Tesla! They are also pretty strict about cars being clean and drivers wearing shirt/tie.
They did this long before Uber was around so it's not as if they were forced to do it because of competition.
They did this long before Uber was around so it's not as if they were forced to do it because of competition.
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