I've been wanting to write about this subject for a while now since it has got a lot of media attention in the past few months. Let's go back a few years to the start-up region often called Silicon Valley. In 2009, an idea hatched inside the head of two entrepreneurs that would make a ton of noise and cause a lot of trouble. Uber was born. And two years later, the company went from operating from the coast of California to New York City. Today, calling a Uber car takes 2x less waiting time than the median response time for an ambulance. Sounds good? Well, let's take a look at all the commotion this application has caused.
If you've heard of Uber before, you probably did not only hear good things about it. Uber is what I like to call an aggressively competitive company. It's main role is to promote commuting by cars where the driver actually gets paid. This encourages people to use the app since it is easier and simpler than paying for an actual taxi (the passenger is charged directly on his credit card via the application). Obviously, the success of Uber has been making taxi drivers mad since their industry now make much less money. A lot of taxi companies have protested against Uber. Cities have tried to label it as illegal and have pressed charges. But still, Uber holds its grounds. How come?
To become a Uber Driver, you don't really need to do much. You need a 4 inspected door car, a good record, a permit and... That's it? Oh, and you also need to sign up on the app itself. How easy was that? Taxi drivers actually have to get trained before doing their job. Uber skips all that. This is why, in New-York City for example, Uber has a lot more cars than there are taxis. The towns have been imposing a tax on all the driver's profits, but that has not stopped the company from greatly expanding all over the world and acquiring profits of more than 50 Billion $.
Uber has been brought to court over the problem that its drivers are actually employees and not independent contractors. If the latter case was proven correct, employees of Uber would be subject to new rules. Uber has only been criticized for its aggressive ways in dealing with the competition. Its employees have acted as fake pedestrians, scheduling and cancelling rides from a competitor. Furthermore, Uber aims to make taxis obsolete. The industries have been trying to modernize their approach but customers always seem to prefer Uber. It has become a modern part of our lives even if its services remain controversial.
Moreover, Uber seems to be wanting to play in the automated car industry. When Tesla announced it will be selling autonomous cars by 2020, Uber proposed to buy half of million of them. Such an impressive amount brings questions to mind. Why? What would Uber do with all of those cars? Of course, replacing existing taxi drivers seems to be part of the answer. Safety might be the other part. Such an investment might make Uber the owner of the most autonomous cars in the world. This shows how much power Uber has and how much it can still achieve in the business.
That being said, the problems Uber has had in past have been playing in its favor the whole time. Even if no one is sure if the service is within the boundaries of the laws, it has not stopped millions of people from using the service. This proves that sometimes, a bad reputation can greatly work in favor of companies. If Uber had kept things less controversial, it surely would not have become the company we know today. Even if a review is bad, it's a review. And the more people talk about it, the more Uber gets known. I wouldn't agree with their methods, but it is stunning how fast they revolutionized an old, firmly established industry in so little time. For that, I think they deserve the success they have today. Would I use their services? I do still prefer buses; but, out of curiosity, maybe once.
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