# Re "self driving cars" people talk as if this is a few years away. This seems nuts to me.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-self-driving-cars-people-talk-as-if-this-is-a-few-years-away-this-seems-nuts-to-me/764074>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 26, 2016, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-self-driving-cars-people-talk-as-if-this-is-a-few-years-away-this-seems-nuts-to-me/764074 "2016-08-26T23:18:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 11

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2016, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-self-driving-cars-people-talk-as-if-this-is-a-few-years-away-this-seems-nuts-to-me/764074/201 "2016-12-20T09:29:43Z")

</div>

> [@chappachula](#):
>
> I’m not a lawyer, but this seems similar to a malpractice claim against a professional who intentionally gives you misleading advice. For example: a tax accountant who informs you in writing that you owe no taxes on your business vehicle, but then your car is impounded for not paying taxes. I’d sue the guy.

…well, yes, there are many other issues at play here. Uber NZ won’t [“confirm or deny”](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11703290) but someone is paying the fines of the drivers that have been issued infringements, and someone is covering the court costs of the people as well, and that “someone” is likely to be Uber itself. These infringement notices are a drop in the bucket for Uber. They are a multi-national that have very big bank accounts (they lost [1.7 billion dollars](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/uber-loses-at-least-1-2-billion-in-first-half-of-2016) this year so far) and paying 150 infringements is nothing to them.

[But people are taking Uber to court.](http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/86207327/Former-driver-claims-Uber-is-like-a-sweatshop) But the process is expensive. And they are being taken to court by the people who knew how to run a profitable business. These are not the drivers Uber wants to drive for them which is why Uber dropped their prices. If it hasn’t been made clear yet: Uber are a predatory company that are targeting drivers who don’t know the “in’s and out’s” of running a business, who don’t have spare money to get the proper endorsements, and who become reliant on Uber to bail them out when they get into trouble. No other ride-sharing business in New Zealand has these issues. They are unique to Uber: who has a strategy of raising billions of dollars in capital with the goal of out-lasting the competition.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-self-driving-cars-people-talk-as-if-this-is-a-few-years-away-this-seems-nuts-to-me/764074/202 "2016-12-21T20:20:49Z")

</div>

Can the Uber debate be taken to another thread?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-self-driving-cars-people-talk-as-if-this-is-a-few-years-away-this-seems-nuts-to-me/764074.md?page=10)