<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>CountSessine</author><text>Yes, here in Canada too. It just wasn&amp;#x27;t enforceable and taxi drivers regularly refused fares and kicked out passengers if they weren&amp;#x27;t lucrative enough.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;globalnews.ca&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;3907475&amp;#x2F;taxi-driver-refuses-to-drive-man-home-because-new-westminster-is-too-far&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;globalnews.ca&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;3907475&amp;#x2F;taxi-driver-refuses-to-dr...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Medallion-taxis are comprehensively awful, and California seems determined to regress to where they&amp;#x27;re the only choice for riders again.</text><parent_chain><item><author>adrianN</author><text>Here in Germany proper Taxis have to pick you up (as far as I know, I almost never need one). That&amp;#x27;s apparently the main reason they offer why they should be protected against services like Uber.</text></item><item><author>rubatuga</author><text>This is horrible for customers, the worst part is when drivers don&amp;#x27;t want to pick you up.</text></item><item><author>pininja</author><text>I work at Uber outside of the rides&amp;#x2F;eats business and observed many feature releases to adjust the business after AB5.&lt;p&gt;What I saw released:&lt;p&gt;- Enabling drivers to see where a rider is going before accepting the trip [0] [2]&lt;p&gt;- Removed a main penalty for declining rides, “No More 85% Acceptance Rate Requirement For Uber Pro” [2]&lt;p&gt;- Drivers get set their own fare with a multiplier [1] (the article details screenshots and backend balance rules)&lt;p&gt;Now every dollar coming in seems to very clearly go from rider to driver.&lt;p&gt;- removed upfront pricing in California and once again charging riders the precise trip amount based on time and distance. [0] [2]&lt;p&gt;- A new driver incentive was released too tied to purchasing the service fee at a lower rate [3] (since every dollar is supposed to flow clearly from the price breakdown)&lt;p&gt;- “Favorite Driver Feature”, so even if they set higher fares, riders will be able to request one of their favorite drivers if they’re nearby [2]&lt;p&gt;These seemed primarily to try to address the flexibility evaluated by “Prong A” of AB5, however some public experts were concerned it wouldn’t address “Prong B”, which requires the “drivers’ work is outside ‘the usual course of the company’s business,’” [0]. This might have been where the judge focused their ruling.&lt;p&gt;Other companies didn’t make changes for drivers, “Lyft [also afaik Postmates, and DoorDash] continues to operate as if it’s business as usual.” [0]&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;2020-02-03&amp;#x2F;uber-ab5-driver-app&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;2020-02-03...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;set-your-own-rates-uber-feature&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;set-your-own-rates-uber-feature&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-rolling-out-new-driver-features&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-rolling-out-new-driver-feat...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-drive-pass&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-drive-pass&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/uber-may-shut-down-temporarily-in-california.html</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>sneak</author><text>That’s the law in most places in the US, too. Uber was founded because it wasn’t really true in practice. You couldn&amp;#x27;t order a taxi in most places without giving your destination, and frequently they just wouldn&amp;#x27;t show.&lt;p&gt;Uber was, and remains, a huge improvement over the pre-Uber status quo.</text><parent_chain><item><author>adrianN</author><text>Here in Germany proper Taxis have to pick you up (as far as I know, I almost never need one). That&amp;#x27;s apparently the main reason they offer why they should be protected against services like Uber.</text></item><item><author>rubatuga</author><text>This is horrible for customers, the worst part is when drivers don&amp;#x27;t want to pick you up.</text></item><item><author>pininja</author><text>I work at Uber outside of the rides&amp;#x2F;eats business and observed many feature releases to adjust the business after AB5.&lt;p&gt;What I saw released:&lt;p&gt;- Enabling drivers to see where a rider is going before accepting the trip [0] [2]&lt;p&gt;- Removed a main penalty for declining rides, “No More 85% Acceptance Rate Requirement For Uber Pro” [2]&lt;p&gt;- Drivers get set their own fare with a multiplier [1] (the article details screenshots and backend balance rules)&lt;p&gt;Now every dollar coming in seems to very clearly go from rider to driver.&lt;p&gt;- removed upfront pricing in California and once again charging riders the precise trip amount based on time and distance. [0] [2]&lt;p&gt;- A new driver incentive was released too tied to purchasing the service fee at a lower rate [3] (since every dollar is supposed to flow clearly from the price breakdown)&lt;p&gt;- “Favorite Driver Feature”, so even if they set higher fares, riders will be able to request one of their favorite drivers if they’re nearby [2]&lt;p&gt;These seemed primarily to try to address the flexibility evaluated by “Prong A” of AB5, however some public experts were concerned it wouldn’t address “Prong B”, which requires the “drivers’ work is outside ‘the usual course of the company’s business,’” [0]. This might have been where the judge focused their ruling.&lt;p&gt;Other companies didn’t make changes for drivers, “Lyft [also afaik Postmates, and DoorDash] continues to operate as if it’s business as usual.” [0]&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;2020-02-03&amp;#x2F;uber-ab5-driver-app&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.latimes.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;2020-02-03...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;set-your-own-rates-uber-feature&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;set-your-own-rates-uber-feature&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-rolling-out-new-driver-features&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-rolling-out-new-driver-feat...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-drive-pass&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;therideshareguy.com&amp;#x2F;uber-drive-pass&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California</title><url>https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/uber-may-shut-down-temporarily-in-california.html</url></story>