über safety ?
 

Recent news item showed an Über driver apprehended for raping his passenger. This man had already served time for Sexual assault.

Switzerland is about to " outlaw" Über.

How are you protected in what respect, recourse etc when you used Über as it gets more popular in the US ?
Disclaimer: Have never used Über.

I've used Uber (not German, no umlaut) in a few countries now and thought it probably safer than taxis.

The driver in question, in Delhi, was quickly apprehended by police.

Can you explain how this alleged crime would be any less likely to happen in a normal Delhi taxi?

Even the most regulated taxi systems in the world can harbour prolific rapists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys

That's not to say that systems may be more or less open to abuse.

I'm not a fan of Uber, but the rape issue is irrelevant. I have read in several countries where taxi drivers have been involved in robbery, rapes and murder. 15 years or so ago there were several tourists robbed and murdered in Bangkok by taxi drivers. It happens.

Uber is safe. You can caricature the UberX service as hitching a ride with a stranger, but this stranger has his name, photo, and personal info on record -- and his GPS location is tracked and logged.

If you are concerned about your safety, I recommend that every time you step in a car, you text a friend:

The link (available in app during each ride) will share the GPS location of your driver's phone, so even if your phone runs out of battery, your friend will know where you are.

I use Uber X every week and have so for over a year. No worry whatsoever.

Best thing to ever come around. Sorry cabbies your pi$$ed. Competition rocks ^

Uber will carry out the same checks as most or all other taxi companies and at least you have a clear record of who you travel with.

It's incredibly sad that single women in Delhi aren't safe from rape and something does need to be done, but I'm not sure that Uber is making things worse.

No scientific proof but have heard no reports from media or local friends.

Chicago TV is reporting a similar case . Uber

That's not correct, at least in most US jurisdictions where taxi drivers undergo fingerprint based criminal background checks.

Not when part of the "competitive edge" is to simply ignore the law as inconvenient or a matter of policy.

I agree. Their willingness to ignore laws, and sometimes direct court orders, is concerning.

Delhi taxi drivers raping or otherwise sexually assaulting female passengers has happened repeatedly over many years. Many of them don't get reported to the police, but some of them do get reported to medical staff.

I see no evidence that Uber is less safe than the alternatives there, and I say that as someone with lots of experience in Delhi.

Radio taxi companies and Uber had been seen as an improvement in safety/security for solo women travelers in Delhi -- an improvement over what used to be before -- but some of that may have been based on wishful thinking. The difference now is that at least the radio and uber drivers are now in a better position for being caught and punished than used to be the case. Thank technology and increased competition for that.

You do realize these guys are not insured to take paying guests so wait and see what happens to you when involved in a serious accident! Do remember insurance laws are different in different countries.

I use Uber roughly 5 or 6 times per week, and have had exactly zero issues. I stick with Uber Black, as the drivers are actually professionals, and the cars much nicer. My biggest issue with UberX is the inexperienced drivers who have no clue how to get anywhere (e.g., The guy who had no idea how to get to DCA from Georgetown in DC).

This is my biggest concern - and I am not alone, as I know of several companies who have told their staff they are expressly forbidden from using Uber for company business, because of the risk around insurance. There have been issues here in Canada with uninsured (or underinsured) drivers, and even unlicensed drivers. They have also been in trouble for operating without the necessary permits - they claim they are a technology company, not a taxi / limo service and therefore don't need permits - codswallop - if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc!

In addition, here it just isn't economical either - for the trip I do most often, the rates quoted for the Black or SUV are 1.5-2 times more expensive than the town car service I use. For the regular uberx it is cheaper, but who knows what you might end up with!

And these are some of the reasons I don't use them. The biggest one to me is the fact that most of the drivers are not professionals.

Countries outlawing Über have only one uber concern, called taxi mafia.

I happily use both black cabs and mini-cabs in London. I just don't see that advantage of Uber. If I want cheap, I get a mini-cab; if I want reliable I get a black cab. Uber isn't any cheaper (and in some cases is rather more expensive) than a mini-cab so what's the point?

This - Uber is one of the best things to come along in, well, forever, for those of us who regularly need cabs.

So waht else is new ? Unfortunately happens every where :mad:
Do read posts upstream.

BTW Delhi is reporting only one incident.

No need to pretend that the likelihood of a cab driver raping a single woman passenger is equal everywhere on earth. Seems extremely likely that the odds are much much higher in India.

Overall Uber is very safe and is a god send in most places in the US.

They should be required to run the same background checks as other taxi companies wherever they operate and should require additional insurance. Uber will eventually give in on these points for sure.

I've had this issue with UberX a couple times in Chicago, but I keep using them because they end up being between 50-70% the price of a regular taxi. No major issues, most of the drivers I have had have been friendly and all have been polite and gotten me to my destination.

What do you base your assertion on " odds are higher in India...." ?

Not necessarily.

Yeah necessarily. The competition is completely welcome, and there are sketchball cabbies all over the entire world, the USA included. Any time you get into a cab you're taking a chance, especially in less-than-perfect cities in developing countries. Even then, some of my sketchiest cab rides were in places like Miami, NYC, etc, where this "regulation" is supposed to make it as safe as possible.

Any time you step into a cab you are trusting that person to get you somewhere in one piece. The only regulation that makes you safe is what's in the cabbie's head. I have never had an Uber or Lyft experience that even comes close to being as crappy as my best "yellow" cab experience.

Meh. Uber X rocks and use them all the time. Yellow Cab can kiss my a$$ :D

My UberX driver in London this afternoon told me that Uber drivers here have to undergo the same background and Immigration checks as Black Cab and minicab drivers.

Our town allows people on the sex offender registry to posses a cab license.

Any one can get a cab license here as long as your driving history is free of any blemishes.

I use UberX at least once a month. I have never feared for my safety-- either from the driver him/herself or from his/her driving habits.

I'm not too impressed by the lawsuit here in San Francisco. City government has already shown that it's only interested in enforcing nonsense laws to protect political favorites. I'll actually add that to the reasons why I prefer Uber: It's faster, it's less expensive, it's safer, and it's an act of civil disobedience to protest bad law.

I think for me the biggest issue is really the insurance issue. I'm not convinced that the people providing these services are actually being covered by anything more than their personal auto insurance. And most personal auto insurance policy's have exclusions for using your auto in this type of manner, so if someone gets in an accident and has a serious injury, I sure wouldn't count on the auto insurance paying out for that. Tied in with that, I'm guessing most of the drivers for these services don't have a commercial drivers license, so they're largely operating illegally when providing this type of service (which cycles back into hence they're not going to be adequately covered on insurance).

There's nothing that's stopping uber and lyft from requiring these from their drivers, other than the drivers are obviously going to want more money to cover those costs. And cities are starting to pay attention to that and require that for these services to operate in their cities, which is probably a good thing. Whether they can still stay competitive if they have to meet some of those same rules? Time will tell.

I'm not sure how it is in each country uber operates in, but in the US, they do appear to have insurance in place on top of whatever the driver might carry on their own.

http://blog.uber.com/ridesharinginsurance

Call me old-fashioned, but Uber is one of those companies I avoid on moral grounds. They exploit their drivers, shift liability onto their customers in opaque ways, and have a cavalier / mocking / dismissive attitude toward personal privacy.

Because the "taxi mafia" has undue influence in many places is not an excuse for bullying or otherwise nasty behavior.

I think it is safer than a taxi.

I think it is safer than a taxi in many but not all markets.

Complete deregulation of even things like pricing in taxi or taxi-like service isn't always great for the consumers. Some of the worst taxi rip-offs I've seen have been in Sweden where the industry's pricing is as unregulated as I've seen it anywhere. That said, I do generally prefer that the barriers to competitor entry be very low for this industry.

It certainly is a better experience than a taxi. After a bunch of really bad experiences with taxis all over the US, I've made the decision to only use taxis when there are no other options. And I like that Uber forces its way into markets where the politicians have been bought and paid for by the taxi industry. Once there, the politicians have a tough time getting rid of Uber since the service is so much better than anything the taxi industry provides.

Wonder if ÜBER contributes to any politician in the US ? or elsewhere ?

They spend huge amounts of money on lobbying, though in California I understand that they spent that money to oppose politicians who are trying to further regulate the industry. The problem in the US is that the local politicians have been in the pockets of the taxi industry for so long that they have no interest in allowing a needed service like Uber to operate. Once Uber is in a place, it's hard to get rid of them because the voters generally love the much better service. At that point, the politicians start looking at more reasonable regulations.

I strongly dislike Uber's more recent frat-boy antics, but I am a huge fan of the way they are forcing political change that is desperately needed in most US cities. And I'm not at all concerned about safety when I use Uber, whereas I generally am when I use a regulated taxi. The taxi industry loves to talk up their safeguards, but I can't tell you how many times I've gotten in a taxi where the driver smelled strongly of marijuana and the back seat lacked seat belts. Top that off with drivers who forget to use deodorant, who long haul, and who argue about whether to take a credit card, and I see no reason to ever use a cab again. Complaints regarding taxi drivers seem to go into a black hole, whereas the three times I've needed to send in something about an Uber driver, I got a satisfactory response within an hour.

Uber does it better; its executives just dig up information the personal lives of its critics and their families to use it against them (link).

OK, on the serious side, Uber hired David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, to explain its mission (link), and uses the services of experienced political operators to smooth its expansion throughout the US (link).

WWow ! They have gone farther than the aforementioned Taxi Mafia and bought politicians !:td:

Sounds like typical big business. Just like what the airline and lodging industry players too do to try to get their way in the markets of relevance to them.