Blue lights on Uber vehicles

No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.
 
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.

Are you over 60 years of age?
 
The police shouldn't be giving warnings. Flashing blue lights on a civilian car are obviously illegal. Write the tickets, it's easy money for the town right there.
 
Last edited:
While being attractive, that anchor Lauren Becker has a very oblong/round head.
Kinda reminds me of a Cabbage Patch kids.
Her parents are probably children of the 80's.
coffee2.gif
 
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.

Are you over 60 years of age?


I'm almost 60 but a firm believer in free enterprise. Tech companies need to push the boundaries and laws that didn't envision their services. Let the free market decide things. Too many jurisdictions were controlled by the taxi cabal. They are one of the reasons Hertz went bankrupt. Hertz kept with old ideas and didn't adapt.
 
Originally Posted by John_Conrad
https://wsbt.com/news/local/blue-li...rs-on-the-road-police-say-theyre-illegal

i experienced this on the road early this morning like 6am, first I thought it was cops...


Break the law, get pulled over.

It is against the law in Texas to have red or blue lights on the front of a vehicle if you are not an emergency service or law enforcement vehicle. Pretty straightforward, seems rather obtuse for anyone to blatantly violate it.

In other late breaking news, water is wet and cancer is bad.
 
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.

Are you over 60 years of age?


I don't care what his age is, he's right. I guess the law is just for us little people.
 
Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.

Are you over 60 years of age?


I don't care what his age is, he's right. I guess the law is just for us little people.


I'm less than half his age and couldn't agree more. There's a taxi service in Florida the wife and I have used a few times in Florida before. Airports, ship ports etc. He says he needs so many permits for various things down there while Uber needs nothing. That isn't a level playing field.
 
Originally Posted by dlundblad
Originally Posted by dishdude
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.

Are you over 60 years of age?


I don't care what his age is, he's right. I guess the law is just for us little people.


I'm less than half his age and couldn't agree more. There's a taxi service in Florida the wife and I have used a few times in Florida before. Airports, ship ports etc. He says he needs so many permits for various things down there while Uber needs nothing. That isn't a level playing field.



Fair point. And the corrective action should be less regulations, not more. In Vegas, taxi drivers have been ripping people for years with long hauls from the airport to the Strip hotels. Now, with more competition in town, they have to stop their scams. More competition is better for consumers. But if you want government protection from the additional regulations, take a taxi instead of Uber. We should have the choice to use the service we want to use. Do we really need the government to regulate taxis?
 
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by Carmudgeon
No surprise at all. Uber has little regard for laws, even when they are clearly in violation, and have been informed of that. They've butted heads with many a jurisdiction.

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission" is an unofficial MO for some tech companies, but Uber has even gone beyond that, into active and unapologetic recalcitrance.

The frat boy/tech bro entitlement mentality is a firm part of the company's culture.

Are you over 60 years of age?


I'm not sure how my age is related to the actions of Uber, so you'll have to explain.

As for Uber, the travails of it, and its co-founder, and former CEO Travis Kalanick, are well-chronicled.

The company has openly flouted basic licensing and permitting laws, and resisted even when told to cease.

The way it treats its drivers has only improved through outside pressure, and it still does its best to keep them at arms length so that it doesn't have to provide the benefits that employees would receive, for people who are effectively de facto employees. Its long game is to discard those people anyway, by developing self-driving technology to power a fleet of autonomous taxis.

Also note that many of these drivers could probably ill-afford to be ticketed for a red/blue light violation that prompted the OP, and you can be sure Uber's going to deny any sort of responsibility and leave the burden on the driver.

As part of that self-driving research, it acuqi-hired and harbored one of Google's former key engineers in that field, who had no qualms bringing Google's trade secrets with him, was sued, and eventually copped a plea to that effect. He has declared bankruptcy to avoid paying a $179 million judgement against him, and says Uber is responsible for that, because management had a tacit understanding of the kind of baggage that came with him. Uber's current CEO disputes that. BTW, this quality individual was already moonlighting by starting his own competing companies while still working for Google, obviously using Google's IP.

It conducted that research by deploying those vehicles in its home city, and refused to stop, even after it was told to cease and desist by both the city and state vehicle authority. So it made of big stink of taking its ball to Arizona, where one of those vehicles killed a woman (albeit under difficult circumstances), because its safety driver was watching something on her phone and didn't react in time.

Kalanick co-founded the company and ran it like it was a frat house; ethically-challenged and male-dominated. It would be one thing if his own distasteful personal behavior, ironically caught by one of his own drivers, remained a personal matter, but that's the way he ran the company, and instilled in its culture.

As an app-based company, Uber relies on the platforms of Google and Apple to conduct business. Apple tries to protect the privacy of its users by prohibiting unnecessary location tracking. Uber has no need to know where you are, if you haven't requested a ride. I think that's a reasonable assumption that most would agree with. Yet, Uber's app continued to track, and collect that information even when no ride was summoned, in violation of Apple's rules. Even better, Uber's engineers incorporated a geofence into the app to pause that tracking if the user was in vicinity of Apple's HQ, in order to conceal its behavior. IIRC, it employed similar tactics to evade authorities in at least one European city.

The people at Apple are not stupid, and had no problems detecting this bit of deception. Apple's CEO personally summoned Kalanick to his office, and issued an ultimatum to cut that crap out, or get booted off iPhones. Personally, I think that was a slap on the wrist, and that a temporary removal from the app store, or a suspension was at least warranted to send an even stronger message, but Uber is the big fish in ride sharing, so avoiding user disruption probably forced his hand.

The investors who were shoveling billions into Uber's incinerator tired of burning money, while looking bad, nudged Kalanick out, and brought Khosrowshahi in as adult supervision. Yet it's hard to turn around of ship, and get rid of the old culture.

It might be one thing if some clueless Uber designer unfamiliar with these laws chose blue as the color of their shield, meant to be placed in the windshields of its taxis. But given Uber's nature, and track record, only a fool would give it the benefit of the doubt. It surrendered that long ago, and the character of those involved is plain to see.

Unfortunately, that has lead to companies like Bird, and Lime, whose scooters have created public nuisances in many cities, while using the same callous playbook.

As for those who make the feeble attempt at characterizing this as a stifling of innovation, or free enterprise, you've missed the target. Doing those things doesn't require breaking the law, or openly flouting it. Lyft, one of Uber's main competitors, while not perfect, has built its business without behaving in a similar fashion.

So, again, I'd like to know what my age has to do with this, how it provides any sort of counterpoint to the established facts, or excuses any of Uber's behavior.
 
Is this what all this is about?
[Linked Image]


If this is being confused as a police officer, well, don't know what to say.
If I saw that behind me I would totally ignore it.

But do agree that if the law is being broken, you should be punished for it.
 
...i dont speed

the car that passed me on the interstate, had 2 blue
led lights on the inside top of front windshield, one on each side driver and passenger. they were not flashing, just on like a clearance light. so maybe it wasnt uber. sorry
eek.gif
 
Back
Top