this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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In case someone needs help:
Uber/Lyft
Airbnb
Bitcoin/Crypotocurrency
ChatGPT/LLMs
Because you have 2/4 general terms:
"Rideshare" is also the least accurate term used to dodge regulations. It is just a taxi/cab. You are paying someone to get you from one place to another. They aren't sharing their ride, they were never going where you are going before you told them to.
Taxis/cabs are legal. Also, perhaps because of age, I tend to view taxis and cabs as phone numbers you call for a car to show up (or go to a taxi stand), whereas I see rideshare as reserve via an app.
I think ride share really just means a vehicle that is used not solely for commercial purposes
They are legal if you follow the regulations. The problem with the "rideshare" companies is that they don't. We should just call them "unregulated taxis" rather than pretending that they are a different service. I think just about every taxi company these days is on some app or another (often the same that call unregulated cabs in countries that actually got their shit together and banned the unregulated ones).
I'd like to point out this probably would have taken another 10-15 years to achieve had it not been for the disruption of said ridesharing apps.
They literally changed the name of the company from UberCab to duck regulation.
It would have been cool if they'd renamed themselves "Calloway".
I use a local cab company. They smartened up after getting crushed by uber in the first couple years of their existence. Now they have an app that’s similar to uber, but I just call and use the web link that shows me where the car is.
It’s literally the same service, but I have to give my info to Uber’s app to get it.
Cryptocurrency not Cryptography to disambiguate again
Sorry, at this point the term "crypto" has been thoroughly claimed by the shysters.
https://www.cdc.gov/cryptosporidium/
Thanks, new anxiety unlocked
Tales from the Crypt
shouldnt 4 also include AI generated images?
Better term would probably be generative AI to also cover music, video and my grandmother's soul.
Llms generate those afaik
No, those are generally diffusion models, not large language models. Language models generate text.
Apart from the recently added surge pricing, what else is illegal about these 2?
dependent on where you are, they are textbook skirting the law. uber got crushed when they launched in sweden because taxi drivers need to do basically the same training as bus drivers. it's an extra letter on your license, with all that entails of age limits, theory and practical tests, x amount of time driven a year etc.
nowadays ubers in sweden are just taxis, which hilariously means that they by law have to have a price list on the cars. which basically kneecaps their entire business model.
They literally exist as a way for tech bro libertarian idiots to circumvent laws around Taxis and Hotels because "Its totally just people rending their own stuff/time bro."
Like, the idea of Uber where its "we go to work along the same route,lets share a ride" is vaguely admirable, ie "rideshare" where it startrd. But its become people's job and its literally just tsxis without the rules.
Due to how much circumvention goes around here (India) anyway, Uber/Ola actually ends up being a better option overall.
And the map feature ends up being pretty useful.
To be fair, they were popular at first because they were highly convenient. I remember Uber as the first to have a GPS map that told you where your taxi was. Most taxi companies and hotels were seriously lagging behind in terms of use of technology.
That being said, they were malicious companies from the start and the whole business angle was built on taking advantage of loopholes. I'd be fine with a lot of them if they were nationally owned companies though.
They were also presented as being cheaper and more ethical. You didn't risk being roped into paying a higher price because the cabbie deliberately took a long route, or be surprised by the price being different in person. You could order an Uber, and you'd pay only what was in the app.
Taxis and hotels used to be strongly regulated industries. For both, permits were required as well as regular checks. But Uber/Lyft/Airbnb created a system outside of the standard legal framework, allowing them to run an almost lawless business. So I wouldn’t say illegal but ethically grey.
oic, I guess it doesn't make much of a difference where relevant laws are either pretty lax or inadequately executed.