March 15, 2017

Is Uber Still the Transportation Company of Tomorrow?

In the future,  TNC services (Transportation Network Companies) may well be the most competitive mode of transportation for many trips. With the cost of operation greatly decreased through automation, prices could fall below the cost of owning a car. While talking about about automated mobility services, it is often suggested that it would be a company  like Uber that would offer the service. I always found this funny that they would say a company “like Uber” rather than expecting that Uber would be this company. However, recent events have made me think that I was a little naive to presume that Uber is destined to dominate the industry. Even with their previously discovered questionable practices of possible price discrimination and  racial discrimination, I felt that they were leading the TNC zeitgeist if you will, and would thus carry that momentum into the future. They had already begun using autonomous vehicles in the Pittsburg area and even started shipping goods.

Well things can change quickly. In January, people began boycotting Uber because of their willingness to cross picket lines while taxi drivers were striking to boycott President Trump’s travel ban. Lyft on the other hand donated 1 million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union. After Uber’s, perceived moral transgressions, Lyft for the first time ever had more downloads than Uber.

 

This month, Uber found itself in a even deeper hole, when a video surfaced of CEO Travis Kalanick getting into an argument with one of the company’s drivers over wages. The ride allegedly ended with a one star rating being dealt to both the driver and the passenger Kalanick. On top of this, it was revealed that Uber has been using a tactic known as “Greyball” to evade government scrutiny. This program allows drivers to evade government employees looking to catch drivers for violating local regulations. For instance, in New York City before the use of Uber was legal, Uber used the greyball program to create geofences around offices of the regulators as well as monitoring apps for high levels of openings and closings that would signify to the company that that user was monitoring them. To take it a step further they would even look at the credit card information of users to check if it was linked to a police credit union.

With these things in mind, I question who we really want to be the TNC of the future. Even the “good guy” Lyft has had its own issues. Perhaps once Google has finished its automated vehicle, it will surface as the transportation company of the future. As someone who highly values customer service and doing the right thing, I dismayed by Uber’s recount action. However, it remains to be seen if Uber can put these actions behind them and regain favor with the public.