The Onslaught of the Self Driving Car Creates an Moral Conundrum:

Yea, self driving cars are coming. They are going to radically change the $3 trillion transportation industry. We call this conundrum the “Parking ticket problem”. What would you do if you walked next to a car whose meter was about to expire. Would you put the quarter that you had in your pockets in the meter?

FAQ- Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have all the answers?

No, definitely not. But I do feel like this is an essential issue to talk about. I have a lot of questions about capitalism and the future of work:

What is the crux of the issue

I believe the #UberCrux is this:

Imagine a small town, Uber would prefer there to be 1,000 drivers making minimum wage vs 500 drivers making $15 an hour

Here is a link where we request Uber to show total number of trips in 2015

Tell me about this document:

This is a living document and will updated frequently. We invite everyone to help. In fact we first invited Uber to help us factcheck it. We would love the Silicon Valley community to join us in opening up the discussion on this essential startup issue. We offfer every word of this document in a uncopyright format and we challenge everyone and anyone to help us closely factcheck it. We simply want to find the truth.

The goal of this project is simple: to open the discussion about this important issue

Why did you write this Dave?

I am a driver and I care for my other drivers. I have been driving since 2013. I dont like seeing how Uber treats their drivers. I believe in the fundamental dignity of every human person. I’m no rocket scientist but I think a company valued at $63 billion dollars could get a couple of people in a room together and figure out a way to be more respectful to its workers and pay them a bit better.

Are all people nice and care about people other than themselves

Nope. Some people don’t care.

eesh. Some people.

What are your thoughts on hiring people?

I’ve been blessed to run a small design and marketing studio and hire 54 people. I would like to hire many more. I believe that a CEO actually has the ability to pay their employees badly. But they shouldn’t. Especially not when the company in mention is worth billions of dollars. Why not share the love a bit?

I find it disingenous for Uber to continally try to shirk responsibility to the people that are doing hard work for them.They have a workforce of over 400,000 drivers in the US and 1.1 million worldwide. They should treat each driver with respect.

Are you a driver?

Yes I am! I drove for Uber for about 2 years. Over 1,000 passengers. And I still am a driver with Lyft (drove yesterday) and plan on continuing to drive from time to time. It’s fun meeting people but I wouldn’t recommend doing it full time. Too much risk is transferred onto the drivers.

Here was my driver pic. I tried to often dress up professionally.

When did you start driving?

November 10th, 2013. I was one of the original Uber and Lyft drivers in Denver. I would keep in touch with all the well known drivers like @Batlyft @DiscoLyft and @HipHopLyft. Here is my first tweet I sent out:

What do you have to gain with this post?

Not much really. I’ll be honest, it is a bit scary standing up for stuff sometimes. But I think this is the right thing to do. Sometimes you just gotta call a spade a spade.

Did you really want to spend 8 hours on a Saturday doing this research and writing this post?

No, not at all actually. I was going to do some robotics research today. So this is kind of wasting my time, but it needs to be said.

What do you think of the Uber CEO Travis?

I don’t mind him as a fellow person. I actually met him in Denver a few years back. I bought him a drink and talked about the story of how he moved his team to Thailand for a previous company.

As a CEO I am very disappointed in him. He doesn’t seem to know how to make win win decisions for his workforce.

I don’t believe he is building a truly great transportation company.

I do hope he takes a good look at this Detroit issue though.

What about John Zimmer, CEO of Lyft?

I was just asking him about this stuff as well earlier today actually. I think he is an important part of this discussion.

UPDATE: Nope !

Why write all this, will it change anybody’s mind?

Well you are reading this right now aren’t you :)

Can you prove it.

Yep

Has Uber responded yet?

Not yet, still waiting to hear back!

UPDATE: They have responded in corporate speak here:

That seemed weak to me though. Either you are paying Detroit drivers 30 cents a mile or you aren’t. Step up to the plate.

Here is my response. Waiting to hear back.

Tell me about Lyft and tips

I like Lyft because you can tip your drivers. I think Uber should add tips. I bet they could grab a couple of engineers and push a working version of their app within a few days.

I am committing to #TipEveryTime. I know the driver is working hard and is probably making like $11 an hour with no health insurance. Here is an example of what this looks like:

Show me a screenshot where it shows Uber offering a good amount of money when they first enter a market and then cutting payments ruthlessly.

Sure.

Show me where you challenged Uber to cut THEIR fees?

Here:

Is Uber in trouble?

Well, that was one of the theories from the Uber drivers community.

Here is an article from at Recode that seems to indicate they are burning tons of money: http://recode.net/2015/08/05/yes-uber-lost-a-lot-of-money-and-it-will-lose-more/

Should customers come first or should a CEO’s workers come first?

Let’s see what Richard B has to say:

Should we look at this more as a per/minute discussion rather than a per/mile discussion?

Yes, great question ! We are looking into this.

We are sending out a call for research? We would love to find the average number of Detroit trips and miles per Uber driver in Detroit.

www.twitter.com/davecraige/status/686303900643688448

The bottom line is that these fares seem incredibly low. There is concerns that some drivers will be taking shifts and may even make below minimum wage.

Do Leaders Of Companies Often Have to Have a Fake Veneer of Confidence

Yes, as a startup CEO you are required to be an eternal optimist and try to keep morale high. Here is a great essay about this:

What about the free market? Shouldn’t we just let the market decide? If the prices go too low people just won’t drive.

This is another excellent question. But I would counter with what about the drivers that have bought a car and got trapped into multi year loans . What about the fact that about 95% of Uber drivers don’t know their real net earnings since Uber obfuscates that info and it requires some decently complex accounting work with multiple variables:

What about the 45% of drivers with families?

What about the drivers with medical conditions?

Here is an Uber earnings calculator that drivers can use to understand their actual net income and takes into account:

gas

insurance

depreciation

wear and tear and maintenance

Uber could easily install this calculator directly in the app and clearly tell their 1.1 million drivers the correct rates. This doesn’t seem to serve their interests and so they make it even more challenging for the drivers.

UPDATE: We are currently using the standards IRS deduction of .54 cents a mile to calculate the true costs of operating a vehicle.

Can you show me a screenshot or something of how Uber uses technology to control its driver workforce

Sure, here is a screenshot of drivers that are reporting getting “timeouts” if they don’t do what Uber wants them to do.

Does Uber view it’s full time workers in the same way it views it’s drivers?

Doesn’t look like it.