There is no shortage of empty seats in vehicles covering any given route. That is an abundant resource, yet it is going to waste for want of any way of getting those seats filled. Which sounds like a great task, but the underlying bit is actually pretty trivial.
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Replying to @JulieMontoya20 @arthur_affect
The awkward bit is getting the data together to search through in the first place. Even then, it needn't be, considering the market penetration of smartphones. It would be entirely possible for every driver of a car with an empty seat to be alerted to a hitch-hiker.
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Replying to @JulieMontoya20
This idea was the original sales pitch for Uber - "Let's just scale up the idea of hitchhiking, or a slug line" It very quickly turned into something almost totally dissimilar to that - an unlicensed taxi service - due to obvious structural financial incentives
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
Some of which, sure, can be attributed to Uber being profiteering capitalists who want to get rich But others of which are obvious huge problems that are the whole reason no one wants to be a "nonprofit Uber" and why slug lines never turned into any kind of formal service
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
Letting someone into your car is actually kind of a big fucking deal Hitchhiking and picking up hitchhikers was always a pretty big risk to take Coordinating your intended route with a hitchhiker's intended destination so the trip is "worth it" is pretty hard
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
Which is why slug lines evolved around a pretty specific scenario of a particularly long and crowded commute all going the same direction (NoVA suburbs to DC) and never spread globally as a general thing
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
I mean, yes, I do think that one problem here is rent-seeking, that Uber was never interested in a "sharing economy" solution that didn't make stockholders money But also... The "sharing economy" is kind of a huge lie
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
Those "untapped resources" were resources that had GOOD REASON to be untapped The barriers creating inefficiency are REAL barriers and cannot be defeated simply by giving everyone a phone and an app
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
Of course Uber was never about "carpooling" or "hitchhiking" but was always going to turn into an abusive cab service Of course AirBNB was going to go from people "opening their homes to guests" to an actual scam unlicensed hotel business for entrepreneurs
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
Hitchhiking *doesn't scale up* Having houseguests *doesn't scale up* Getting a group discount from the manager of a restaurant (the original pitch for Groupon) *doesn't scale up* They all have OBVIOUS reasons not to scale up
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Like I don't want to sound like I'm engaging in "capitalist realism" here but If you want to regularly and reliably get around the city in other people's cars, you're not a hitchhiker, you're a cab rider You are the customer of a business
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Replying to @arthur_affect @JulieMontoya20
The denial of this fact - "We're not customers, those aren't employees, this isn't business, we're all just sharing in a spirit of openness" - is always a sign of a particularly scammy business
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