Negatives of Ridesharing

Negatives of Ridesharing

While there are many advantages of Ridesharing it is important to know there are many disadvantages as well. First we have to get some of society to overlook the rules that they have been taught their entire lives, “don’t get into a car with a stranger.” Well that is exactly what ridesharing is. You do not know the person personally that will be picking you up, so this leads to credibility. One of the cons of ridesharings is that there are so many companies out in the market and it is difficult for the end user to differentiate the major difference amongst the leaders of market. After all, when you get into your car you want to make it to your planned destination.

There are been a lot of negative press about ridesharing from parton's being kidnapped from Lyft drivers to a lyft drive kinnapped, zip-tied and rapped a customer. While these cases may seem extreme it is important to know that they are accurate and true. In 2016 there was an incident where an “Uber driver Jason Brian Dalton, was charged with murder, assault, and criminal firearm use two days after the shootings.”() This is where six people were killed and two were injured. It was reported that Dalton shoot people between Uber Lyfts. After this incident, that is when the Illinois state House passed a bill to protect consumers by requiring ridesharing companies to conduct background checks for all drivers and safety checks for the vehicles they use. “They now require companies to get commercial insurance coverage for all drivers. Many ridesharing services claim to already take these steps, but state regulations are meant to ensure that these rules are uniform and enforceable” (Suntimes).

While there are some new rules in place, there are still no standardized safeguards for this industry, but rather standards are left at the discretion of the company. Environmentalist are also concerned with the amount of vehicles that are now on the road. How does ridesharing help this situation? According to environmentalist ridesharing hurts the world as we know it. There is more pollution put out into the air because of this new crave and if we want this earth to last, we need to make some significant changes. It is also important to note that there was a study done to determine if the recent congestion in Manhattan had anything to do with ridesharing. The results determined they did not.

When we begin to think about the autonomous part of ridesharing we open up a whole other area of concern. There was an accident in Tempe, Arizona, that was  the first time a pedestrian was killed in an incident involving a driverless car.” In response, Uber announced it would suspend testing of driverless vehicles in four North American cities where the ridesharing company had been piloting the technology: Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Tempe and Toronto.” (Pewresearch.org)

The issues are finding out how the vehicle will be able to make a “human Decision.” For example, if a car’s only option is to hit another vehicle straight on, or his a group of school kids crossing the street, how can it make that decision? Does it know that there are people crossing or can it only sense other vehicles? With this information being unknown to many potential clients, many people seem to be hesitant o even give it a try. Because this system is so new, if it doesn’t perform well while in Beta testing, it would be unlikely that this could become the next crave that business people and the car industry would like it to be.

What can be improved when it comes to atomonosy ridesharing. The state could impose harsher penalties to the companies whose workers go rogue. This will help ensure that companies are doing their due diligence when it comes to conducting background checks. This will help with the overall sense of feeling that ridesharing is unsafe. It is important for the leaders in this industry to be able to combat all the negatives that they can inorder to get more of the market on their side.

The location technology needs to be more exact or able to work in real-time. Currently there has been some geographic location errors with both Uber and Lyft getting to their customers based on the information that they plugged into their smartphones. This has left many customers waiting for longer than they expected and some late for business. In order for full automation to work correctly these errors of concern will need to be fixed in order for vehicles to be able to communicate or see other vehicles locations..

In order for the vehicles to work hand-and- hand, the vehicles will have to all be on one database within a certain range. That way each vehicle that maybe within a certain rage from a customer can be activated. Also, if there is a way to take traffic and detours into consideration that would be helpful to the customer. When a customer messages for a vehicle to pick them up, the car should also see where the drop off location is and where it is in proximity to the next needed pick up.  In order for full automation to work correctly these errors of concern will need to be fixed.

There needs to be a clear understanding of how the vehicles will make decisions in the “grey” areas. If the hardware can work seamlessly with the software then vehicles can gain full automation. It is expected that full automation will take place by 2025 according to NHTSA.gov.