Does Uber's App Have a Mind of its Own?
Has a new Hal ( as in the 1968 movie "A Space Odyssey") taken over Uber's app, providing messages that simply are not true? The app has been telling me that riders have requested me personally, and after signing up for one of these reservations this past Saturday at 6:00 PM, I found out these folks had no idea who I was, having never met me before. Having pulled up to the address, I was puzzled, having no recollection of giving these folks an Uber ride previously. And before and since I have continued to receive these false, misleading messages. Why and how this is happening I can't tell you. As I have said perviously, Uber is opaque, making it impossible to really know what is reality or not. I also know that Hal isn't going to tell me what is going on, that's for sure. That would be too easy.
Brutal South African Taxi Wars
The country of South Africa has this very large minibus taxi industry and for decades now, rival associations and drivers have been at war, with thousands murdered. The problem is so bad, South African police have their own "taxi violence" units especially created to deal with these "mafia-like" killings.
South Africa has 200,000 minibus taxis with 300,000 taxi drivers carrying on average over 15 million passengers daily. Obviously then, there is a lot of money involved, an estimated nationwide annual revenue of over 1.5 billion dollars. South Africa is the Murder Capitol of the world, and it is said that 43% of all assassinations in that country from the years 2000-2017 were due to taxi conflicts.
And I thought the industry here in Seattle was problematic. Turns out we are very polite in comparison. All I do is shout at Uber and now I am driving Uber. See how nice we all are?
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