Urgent update December 5 - on December 15 the Taxi and Limousine Commission will hold a hearing that will probably pave the way fot rules changes meant to accomodate the killer apps. You can submit written comments at tlcrules.nyc.gov . You can also get listed to comment in petson by calling 311.
Go to the search box and check it out.
Imagine a taxi piloted by an overtired driver who is feeding data into his Hailo or Uber app while he makes his way to his next call. The plan is to make this image the normal state of affairs on New York City streets. It is absolute madness on the part of the app developers and gross irresponsibility on the part of the mediatic cheerleading squad. As for the regulators who are greenlighting this bedlam it is beyond understanding. For certain they never looked at the driver app even though if they even looked at the passenger app they would know that passengers are calling drivers on the phone. Just what they imagine the driver is doing when his phone rings is beyond me. And the telephone calls are just a little part of what the driver is doing.
Imagine a taxi piloted by an overtired driver who is feeding data into his Hailo or Uber app while he makes his way to his next call. The plan is to make this image the normal state of affairs on New York City streets. It is absolute madness on the part of the app developers and gross irresponsibility on the part of the mediatic cheerleading squad. As for the regulators who are greenlighting this bedlam it is beyond understanding. For certain they never looked at the driver app even though if they even looked at the passenger app they would know that passengers are calling drivers on the phone. Just what they imagine the driver is doing when his phone rings is beyond me. And the telephone calls are just a little part of what the driver is doing.
Drivers could lose their Hack licenses unless TLC and NYPD have suspended enforcement and since this is about money anything is possible.
I have been blogging my ass off about it.
Look at it this way. if passengers are enabled to telephone call drivers who are on the way what do you imagine that the driver might be doing? perhaps he is driving the taxi? Oh, do you think so?
And there are so many fouled up dispatch instructions and so few actual taxi rides completed you can bet that there are phone calls to drivers. it is not without reason that there are very strict laws against driving and doing things like answering a telephone. New York taxi drivers are under even stricter regulations. Now the fact that many taxi drivers disregard some of these rules would not justify the authorities in encouraging these practices. Yet that is exactly what they are doing in the name of a technology fad or cult.
Statistics that were recently released by the Taxi and Limousine Commission show that the taxi app experiment in New York is a failure. yet the Commission Intends to push ahead. No one whose opinion might matter has given the safety issue a glance, so entranced they are by these toys that are now proven to be useless here in New York. I won't rest until these death toys are either completely redesigned or are outlawed on our streets.
http://gu.com/p/3hytp
