Uber

What hackers pick instead

• LyftRecommended as a consistent, usually cheaper alternative to taxis, with pre-set fares. Main caveat: prices have risen and rides can be costly.29recommend
• GrabRecommended for cheap, easy rides and delivery in Southeast Asia, bypassing language barriers and handling payments. Critics note inconsistent service and un-skippable ads.13recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 611 comments. Each links to the original.

1. I can get around to almost anywhere with a click of a button and have food delivered from a variety of local restaurants at any time of day.

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “The gap in shared understanding of LLM capability is widening”

2. The old taxi union+licensing+bully hybrid system common in many parts of the world was far worse than the cruelest thing uber could do.

   Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “The Baffling World of Masayoshi Son's Presentations”

3. they mostly just eroded salaries and protections for taxi drivers, while lowering the quality of service for customers

   Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future”

4. what Uber has done for passengers is that drastically reduce the probability of getting scammed or abused by drivers

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Dutch regulator fines Uber $966M for automating driver suspensions”

5. The established businesses were awful. There was not a thriving and beloved taxi service in every city pre-Uber.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Why Wall Street Is Ignoring Big Tech's Debt”

6. the demand was always there as riders had already left taxis and transit on reliability and convenience grounds

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 to the SEC”

7. the idea "you'll know exactly how much the ride will cost you before you take it" was revolutionary at the time

   Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “I'm a developer for a major food delivery app”

8. Uber is good for everyone except taxi medallion owners, it could be better if they paid the drivers better.

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is it just me or techno-optimism died in the past few years?”

9. Overall rides are now far safer and more reliable, to the point where the old days feel like the dark ages.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Waymo Seeking About $16B Near $110B Valuation”

10. for me Uber is infinitely better than taxis. I can get it anywhere, within minutes and it's clean and nice.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It's Almost Hard to Believe”

11. Uber successfully displaced most of the alternatives, slowly raised rates, and maintained operating margin

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “SpaceX S-1”

12. Uber and Lyft operated partially or outright illegally in many places while negotiating with governments.

    Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Waymo Seeking About $16B Near $110B Valuation”

13. I originally switched to them because Bay Area cabs just will not pick you up if they don't feel like it.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “California DMV approves map increase in Waymo driverless operations”

14. Every uber driver I've been ive been in has an inside dashcam to protect themselves and their property.

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “Waymo pulls over, calls cops on juvenile riders who had 'ghost gun"”

15. To be abroad in certain countries and NOT use Uber or Airbnb is potentially putting your life at risk

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Just say no to OpenAI and Anthropic”

16. They created immense value, and the "destruction" was only to eliminate a layer of corrupt parasites

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “How to Earn a Billion Dollars”

17. Using uber I will immediately see the price up front and I can tailor the cab to my needs and price.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It's Almost Hard to Believe”

18. the advantage of Uber is that if something happens, I have someone accountable: drive + car plate

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “I'm a developer for a major food delivery app”

19. the Uber tax is worth it over taxis for the convenience and potential safety/driver verification

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Uber shuts operations in Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect”

20. most people's direct experience with taxicab drivers and the resulting improvement under Uber

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Leo's first encyclical attacks technological messianism”

21. The problem with Uber is that they make it very very easy for shady individuals to be drivers, then act like they have no control over who's driving.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US”

22. Uber's profit margins are about 10% value created and 90% exploitation of power imbalance between the rich corporation and itinerant drivers

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “How to Earn a Billion Dollars”

23. Uber lost 20 billion dollars, will never get them back, and offloaded all the issues of gig workers on workers themselves, or the society.

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “EU–INC – One Europe. One Standard. – Pan-European Legal Entity”

24. They didn't just break the law in different countries, in several they actively misled government/law enforcement investigations.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Garry Tan wants US open-weight AI labs to 'distill' frontier models, too”

25. not dealing with the moral implications of what the driver is receiving in terms of compensation (or in the case of uber, not)

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Miami, Your Waymo Ride Is Ready”

26. Uber said they don’t need to comply with anything the city asked for and enjoyed their position in the safety of an ocean away

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Government orders GitHub to remove Bluetooth-based chat app Bitchat: Jack Dorsey”

27. At this point whenever I call an Uber it's a 50/50 whether the person and car listed in the app will be the one picking me up.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US”

28. Uber restructured its business model by raising rider fares, increasing restaurant fees on Uber Eats, and cutting driver pay.

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “OpenAI Losses Increased Nearly 8X in 2025, with Spending Hitting $34B”

29. doesn't really offer much. Even with the discount they are still more expensive than local alternative Glovo and Cabify.

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Ryanair dark UX patterns summer 2026 refresher”

30. Uber made it easier for registered sex offenders to become drivers because that company had less stringent requirements.

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future”

31. these companies do have value. The question is if their value makes any economic or business sense in an objective way, and the answer has been no

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Just say no to OpenAI and Anthropic”

32. It lowered barriers on both sides of their marketplace, especially on the driver side, since it was no risk to become a driver

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Police are using AI to pull over drivers for 'suspicious' behavior”

33. I am glad Uber plowed through various stupid regulations constraining supply to bring a service with drastically more supply.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's”

34. Uber was ignoring rules that apparently mostly protected established investors rather than end-users of car-hiring services.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “How Kalshi Infects the News”

35. Wrong, $100 Uber rides boost employment and the economy! (Just ignore the impacts of congestion, wasted time, road spending)

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “London became the rest of the startup capital”

36. Person wants to go somewhat far from airport? That's more time on this single ride and less time pocketing peak demand money

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “California DMV approves map increase in Waymo driverless operations”

37. they make it illegal for businesses like Uber and AirBnB that offer a better product than what came previously to operate

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Is it disruption, or is it theft?”

38. Sure Uber made a better product, but was it that or the subsidized rides that truly allowed them to capture the market.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Paul Graham Is Strawmanning the Left's Argument Against Billionaires”

39. Of course not every ride was great, but many drivers had stories and experiences that no one I usually meet would have.

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix”

40. Uber and Lyft (and Waymo) in San Francisco are still usually cheaper (inflation-adjusted) than what taxis used to cost

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Leo's first encyclical attacks technological messianism”