Uber, Cabify or myTaxi? We tried all three
Three apps with the same function, three very different experiences. We travelled by Uber, Cabify and myTaxi -- and in this report we tell you how it went.
They call it the sharing economy. It applies when, on a global scale, many people share resources through a common platform. It is a product of globalisation, but also of connectivity. So, in most cases, the premise is the same: technology. The same technology that has reached the private transport sector and is forcing it to change. To mutate. To transform itself. In a complicated game of competition, with accusations traded blow for blow.
At the end of September, the main points of the law that is to regulate these private transport companies became known. But the taxi drivers play the measures down, and have decided to go ahead with this Monday’s demonstration, on 10 October. The ideal opportunity to compare, side by side, three private transport services operating in Portugal. I rode with Uber, Cabify and myTaxi, an app similar to the other two but used by taxi drivers to find new passengers. I travelled on different days, but always in the morning and at the same time. The route was the same too. Only the experiences were very different.
AI translation from the Portuguese. First published in ECO on 10 October 2016.