Why Uber Is Terrible - Cracked Explains

[Applause] [Music] my name is Daniel Bryan I'm the creative director of video for crack calm and here's a bunch of crazy people on a bridge dropping cinder blocks on cars those people up on that bridge are actually French taxi drivers protesting the ride-sharing service uber by chucking bricks at their cars and by flipping them over setting them on fire generally shutting down the city in a swarm of screaming chaos those guys are really mad at uber why well uber is taking all of their business the company is currently valued at 50 billion dollars and is growing by the second it would be easy to say of course they're mad taxis are the bloated establishment and uber is the hip new alternative chalk it up to another long overdue comeuppance for a dying industry but I should also point out that uber at the risk of siding with crazy people chucking the rocks is totally and completely horrible if you don't live in a place where over is a thing yet or if you've just never used it let's quickly catch you up Boober it's just an app on your smartphone you can use to get strangers to come and pick you up and give you a ride and yet this simple idea is changing the world and doing it so quickly that nobody is quite sure how to think about it everybody remembers the first time they got into a taxi and thought okay I'm going to die today is the day I die this is how I do it this is the car where it happens fine the vehicle smelled like dried puke and made a noise like one of the back wheels was about to go flying off at any moment the driver was a terrifying former hit man for the Ukrainian mob who drove what you thought all of the other cars in the road were just figments of his imagination when he got to your destination after 47 near-death experiences the guy grunted at your credit card and insisted that he could only accept cash because at some point in your trip you passed through a wormhole and arrived in 1986 and guess what you'd have had the exact same experience 30 40 or 50 years ago only instead of ukrainian ex mobster you get Travis pickle it's just a horrible industry that hasn't innovated since they were doing it with rickshaws on the back end it's even worse the taxicab industry is traditionally among the most corrupt sectors in the u.s. local governments awarding licenses called medallions to taxi drivers to indicate that they are certified to drive a cab but instead of handing them out to anyone who qualifies they create an artificial scarcity by handing out a finite number to taxi companies who in turn give them big campaign donations for example in Key West Florida they only have 72 of these licenses for the whole city and they haven't added any in 20 years that means if you want to get into the cab business you have to beg an existing cab driver to turn over his license in New York it's even crazier competition over those precious few slots has driven up the price of Italian to almost 1 million dollars each just for the right to get what everyone agrees is a terrible job so when over came along it seemed like it was almost too good to be true and that's foreshadowing by the way what if uber says instead of going through all that [ __ ] you get a ride from a random dude who happens to be passing by just any dude with a car will provide a smartphone app that lets you see who when your vicinity has an empty backseat you tap a button they come pick you up within minutes payment is quietly sucked out of your credit card and tourists are pleased to see that their driver is probably a local hipster instead of one of those scary foreigners it sounds almost utopian just regular folks helping each other out using the magic of Technology uber was going to do for transportation what Netflix did for binge watching Frasier and on the drivers end it's even better pretty much anybody with a working car can sign up so it's also solving our nation's unemployment problem with all the bureaucratic garbage stripped away they're able to pay the drivers more up to ninety thousand dollars a year according to vers website 90,000 [ __ ] why am I doing this does anybody need a ride I'm good I have a car I'm in LA I didn't bring it to you so there you go another of the world's problems solved by technology kind of like the first act of a Jurassic Park movie where the scientist is all hey we found a way to breed dinosaurs that are bigger and smarter and angrier way better at climbing fences our customers they're just gonna love it there's no potential for harm or anything there's lots of happy Park customers forever to become a taxi driver in New York you have to attend six hours of special driving classes 24 hours of a separate taxi driving class and the vehicles have to be inspected to make sure they're not about to spontaneously explode into shrapnel which makes sense considering you and your loved ones are trusting your very lives to the ability of that driver and that car to get you across town without dying in a flaming wreck training to be an uber driver on the other hand consists of a 13 minute YouTube video that's it if you have a license a running car and 13 minutes to spare you are qualified to be an uber driver to provide some context I had to interview twice for my first job at 15 years old and that job was shoveling cop corn into a bag two full interviews but that still didn't result in me getting a job where I was in charge of anyone's safety or even given keys to anything but this is part of uber z' appeal anybody can do it well you can guess where this is going in August of 2015 it was discovered that at least for uber drivers in Los Angeles were allowed to drive for the company despite having criminal records involving manslaughter a DUI identity theft and child exploitation these are records that would preclude you from being an LA taxi driver but ubers background check system is apparently super easy to get around mainly because Hoover needs lots and lots of drivers for the system to work and then 160,000 drivers as of last year and they expect that that number will be in the millions within five they're not exactly being picky is what I'm saying but that half-assed screening process means a person who has driven drunk could be a robo driver a person who has stolen identities before could pick you up at your house and now he knows your name still you might be thinking you're safe because uber claims that drivers won't have full access to your contact information and because you've used uber and you've been fine an anecdotal evidence will always trump someone else saying trust me this is bad but trust me this is bad a woman in New York was picked up by a driver who during the course of their ride revealed a picture of her he had taken earlier it had nothing to do with the ride he just showed a picture he took on his iPad and said is this you were you jogging earlier and it was her she was understandably uncomfortable so she ended the ride reported the incident and the driver was fired and then the victim was contacted by the fired driver you might be tempted to say Daniel that's a very specific case where one driver happened to see one future rider and take a picture of her that's not indicative of every uber driver hashtag not all drivers but you're missing the point what he did shouldn't have been possible whoever claims that drivers will not have access to your contact information this is objectively not true as this woman was personally emailed by the driver who took her picture this same woman's friend was contacted by an uber driver through Facebook who said I was your friends uber driver she's cute is she single lol Lewbert seemingly does not have control over its drivers or your privacy and remember they're giving jobs to people with a history of child exploitation and manslaughter who got the job by watching a 13 minute YouTube video the storm has knocked out the power kids and the Velociraptor cage is standing wide open we mentioned earlier how uber boasts its drivers can make $9,000 a year it's the reason about a thousand people immediately stopped watching this video at that moment to go sign up for uber instead that may have been true at one time but it's not anymore a journalist reporting for city paper into Philadelphia actually worked as an uber driver for a few months and learned that at the end of the day she was actually making roughly $9 an hour which is only about 18,000 a year if you're working 40 hour weeks to make 90 thousand dollars you need to work 27 and a half hours a day see the problem is that under this model the burden for everything falls on the driver it's great on ubers end because they don't have to do anything they're more like eBay than Amazon they don't have to supply the cars or pay for their repairs or gas or insurance they don't have to buy a garage to part them in hell they don't even actually employ anybody all they do is provide a piece of software and connect cars and riders and take a 20% cut plus some additional fees from every single ride all those other expenses are covered by the driver and while in the beginning they did pay the drivers quite a bit because they needed lots and lots of them to sign up they've been slashing their pay ever since some of that is due to competition some of it is just because they can how do you maintain good drivers if you gradually lower what you're paying them you don't you lose good drivers while maintaining or increasing the demand which could only mean that you're incentivizing worse drivers the kind of person whose time is worth less than $9 an hour to sign up and snag as many rides as they can so who's behind all this here's a quote from BuzzFeed a senior executive at uber suggested that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the medium and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company so female journalists were digging into the company to look into the possibility that Bluebird is unsafe for female drivers and riders and the response from a senior ranking uber executive was a veiled threat at the safety of female journalists don't open old comic books to find poorly written cartoonish super villains we have them right now oh and if anybody at uber is trying to dig up dirt on me here's some for free I hate babies I think they're just [ __ ] I've literally never met a good baby I don't care what race all any babies watching [ __ ] you did I mention that this company is worth fifty billion dollars that's the thing the money keeps rolling in because they have a near monopoly on a service everybody wants as long as that's true they can hire Doctor Doom to be their CEO and nobody would care would always be like dr. doom is in charge now that's Wow a doctor you say he sounds smart in Silicon Valley they have a word for technology that just sweeps in and up ends everything the way file-sharing blew up the music industry disruptive it means the technology moves so fast that nobody even knows how to react that's over it's so big it's growing so fast that there are experts who think they'll not only swallow up the cab companies but the automakers themselves in the future nobody will own their own cars they'll just be an army of ubers prowling around cars will be like DVDs you can still buy one if you want but for most people there won't really be a reason and this Oprah philosophy is taking over other industries too you have companies like Airbnb which is just uber for hotels if you're gonna be out of town for a week you rent out your house to a stranger and make some quick cash Amazon is talking about doing their deliveries this way forget about UPS or the postal service just get some kid to throw it in his truck there's an uber type service for movers for real estate even prostitutes they all work on the same idea to cut out the middleman but here the middleman was a trained professional who was supposed to be looking out for your safety I'm not trying to stand in the way progress people want convenience and these services are just convenient as [ __ ] all I'm saying is that we as consumers need to stay sharp now more than ever that's because history is bloated with examples of businesses and factories that practice shady shady behavior child labor sabotaging their competitors exploiting and abusing their workers etc and we wag our finger at it like it's a thing of the past that happened before we knew better but the reality is that those terrible people succeeded because they were able to give customers what they wanted it turns out you can lower your prices quite a bit if your stuff is manufactured by a toddler getting paid in gruel at some point it was us the consumers who said you know what pay a little more if it means the goods are made by legal adults who get paid enough to eat right now we're in that window where uber seems too good to be true and that's because it is we have to be the ones to point at the dinosaur behind the fence and say so yep more than just a one guy working the Dino security what happens if the power goes out what storm happens of literally anything what's your plan there anybody anybody I'm Daniel and this has been cracked explains why eber is terrible thank you so much for watching make sure you subscribe and click there to watch a few more videos and if you click the thumbs up button we have this new software where instead of uber a cracked employee when you pick you up at your home and drive you anywhere we can do it okay we can do that you do just give it a thumbs up anyway

Channel: undefined

Views: 3,167,428

Rating: 4.4762735 out of 5

Keywords: Uber (Venture Funded Company), Uber, Taxi, Goverment, Cracked, Cracked.com, funny, spoof, humor, parody, Satire, Comedy, Stand-up Comedy (TV Genre), Evil, Sketch, app, iphone, taxi, taxi cab, Travis Kalanick, Uber Is Terrible, uber

Id: Og3PjvcR1Pc

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/cepxico]

Reasons why I use Uber:

It's faaaaar cheaper than a taxi.

The people and cars are nice and clean.

That's it, I don't care about the company and its motivations. I just want a cheap ride.

Edit: Nobody is stopping you from tipping your driver either. I do everytime, and I know they're not supposed to take it.

[u/hooblagoo]

I think the point this video is trying to make (and the point many commenters in this thread are missing) is that this TYPE of service has the POTENTIAL to be very bad for the consumer. Simply, this “brave new world” of app-based service is a form of deregulation. There is no question that deregulation can be dangerous for society, as the video pointed out.

Obviously, Uber is not shitting on the world yet, they’re new! They need to protect their brand. But what happens in 5 years when there’s no regulation for the upkeep of cars in the Uber fleet? The same goes for the other companies this video listed: Airbnb, BuddyTruck (moving), Erosguia (prostitutes).

What if the prostitutes from Erosguia were not mandated to have STD screenings? Who knows what’s possible.

I think what we should take away from this video is that Uber, along with companies that employ a similar business model, desperately need government regulation.

[u/pf2312]

Full disclosure, I drive for uber on the side. Uber drivers in nyc have to go through more certifications than taxi. In some states however, you don't need to do that so thats a bullshit comparison. The rating system quickly weeds out the bad drivers. Also, you can't get someones phone number unless they give it to you. A taxi driver can stalk you just as easily. I make just under 30 bucks an hour when I drive for them... I'm sure you make 9 in east bumfuck but thats on you for picking uber in a place where there isn't enough fares to make a living.

[u/[deleted]]

Cashless Transactions - no cabbie crying about your credit card.

Cleaner Cars

Nicer Drivers

Cheaper fares, even at 1.5x surge

They arrive to pick you up within minutes

I've only used Uber like 12-15 times, but I will never ever use a taxi again where Uber is an option.

[u/whitesquare]

Haven't used Uber all that much but so far, all of my Uber experiences have been better than any taxi experiences I've had. The cars are cleaner, the people are friendlier, I'm a big fan of cashless payment, etc.

I mean, there is really no guarantee that a taxi driver isn't going to be some weird creep that takes photos of girls jogging or rummages through your trash either. Being a licensed professional gives no real sense of security. Yes, they still have their license, but I/you/we've all seen taxis do some crazy dangerous maneuver or just have a stank ass cab, and they don't seem to lose their license over any of those things anyway. It almost seems like having a license to drive a cab is like a lifelong privilege, and there is no telling how jaded any individual person is regardless of their former accolades.

With Uber, you know the name of your driver and their license info before you get in the car. It only works with a smart phone, so if you have a personal security issue like the driver being a creep, you have their personal information too and you can have their vehicle reported to the police. Not that I've ever had that problem, but it makes it pretty easy to do that, should you encounter that type of a problem.

I'm not going to say that Uber is perfect or that they have everything right. They could be more discerning and have some kind of checks on the driver's records and that sort of thing. There are definitely ways to improve it. But it's still miles beyond the service that you get from a taxi service here in the Boston area, so I'm going to stick with Uber.

[u/RogueAngelX]

As paid for by: your local Iranian embassy.

[u/Elecshmong]

To be fair Ubers drivers are only needed until self drivings cars are go, then the human element is removed entirely.

I'm still going to use it, unlike taxis, its cheap. Combine that with promotions and referrals and my journeys are free.

Also, if taxi companies are so pissed how about they actually modernise themselves? The principle behind Uber is simple, use GPS to hail the closest taxi. Some taxi companies have started to do this, but not enough and not fast enough.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not a rabid Uber fan, but I will say that living in a county that Uber recently vacated in the face of increased regulations, having to take a cab instead (to and from the airport for example) is much more frustrating. My last cab ride the other day was a dude who murmured unintelligibly to himself the entire ride and every time we told him what turn to make, he loudly shouted out the opposite direction. "Okay make your next left please..." "RIGHT? YOU SAID RIGHT?"

Additionally, instead of just finding an Uber on the app that's 5 minutes away, I've got to either wait in a long line at the cab stand, or wait on hold with the cab company for ten minutes so they can tell me a cab might be coming in 20-25 minutes.

I'm not against the concept of cabs, but instead of simply trying to squash competition, they might want to try to adapt and make it somewhat convenient and competitive. I mean, we live in the year 2015, is it really still cool to charge a $3.00 fee for the convenience of using a credit card? The public outcry was so high after Uber left our county that our local government is easing up on all the rules and regulations that made them leave in the first place so they'll come back.

[u/samon1]

The part about the Uber exec suggestion they hire a team to dig dirt on journalists and critics is terrifying. What a scum bag move.