Was curious what HN thinks about Uber shutting down rides in Ukraine at a time when people may need them the most.
Uber was always a step up from the remaining local taxi companies (Bolt and Uklon) in quality and safety in my experience. And from hearsay, my friends had problems with Bolt drivers shipped in from one of the Stans without drivers licenses or IDs. Uber was better about checking and verifying their drivers.
> “Uber stops working in Ukraine, Bolt and Uklon continue to work
KYIV. Feb 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Uber service has stopped working in Ukraine, the company said in its app.
"Uber rides are not available in this region at this time," a message to passengers in Kyiv reads.
In Lviv, the application shows that there are no trips available.
In Kharkiv and Odesa, a message is also displayed stating that trips in the region are not available.
"Due to the growth of geopolitical tensions and recent events, we have decided to suspend the operation of the application. The safety of all application users is our top priority. We continue to monitor the circumstances and hope that this is a temporary situation," the company said.
Taxi calling services Bolt and Uklon continue to work.
Uber has been operating in Ukraine since 2016 and is present in nine cities.”
Thanks! This is pretty useful information. I don't have any idea why they made this choice, so I can't say if it's good or bad, but it's important to understand what's going on in Ukraine, and this is a thing that's going on in Ukraine, and will probably happen in future war zones.
In the UK Uber provides insurance during drivers' work, I wouldn't be surprised if the policy is just suspended/doesn't apply during war. Which would mean asking drivers to accept the risk personally, self insuring or finding another insurer. All seem impractical.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 33.4 ms ] threadUber was always a step up from the remaining local taxi companies (Bolt and Uklon) in quality and safety in my experience. And from hearsay, my friends had problems with Bolt drivers shipped in from one of the Stans without drivers licenses or IDs. Uber was better about checking and verifying their drivers.
> “Uber stops working in Ukraine, Bolt and Uklon continue to work
KYIV. Feb 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Uber service has stopped working in Ukraine, the company said in its app.
"Uber rides are not available in this region at this time," a message to passengers in Kyiv reads.
In Lviv, the application shows that there are no trips available.
In Kharkiv and Odesa, a message is also displayed stating that trips in the region are not available.
"Due to the growth of geopolitical tensions and recent events, we have decided to suspend the operation of the application. The safety of all application users is our top priority. We continue to monitor the circumstances and hope that this is a temporary situation," the company said.
Taxi calling services Bolt and Uklon continue to work.
Uber has been operating in Ukraine since 2016 and is present in nine cities.”
I can imagine it's to limit liability when Uber vehicles are damaged in fighting and suddenly Ubers insurance policies take massive losses.