Everybody loves disruption, except the people who are being disrupted. As Uber, the app-based ride-hailing service, has spread rapidly from its San Francisco home to cities around the world, it has repeatedly faced resistance from incumbent taxi operators, who are often politically influential. Regulators and legislators from Brussels to Beijing have moved to restrict Uber’s operations.每个人都热衷毁坏,除了那些受到破坏影响的人。随着基于应用于的叫车服务优步(Uber)很快从其大本营旧金山扩展至全球各地,它也大大面对来自一般来说享有政治影响力的现有出租车运营商的杯葛。
从布鲁塞尔到北京的监管者和立法者已开始对优步的运营加以容许。Some of the fiercest opposition has come in Europe, where the culture clash between the remorseless competition of the US tech industry and the locals’ respect for tradition and deference to established interests is especially stark. While Uber’s operations give rise to legitimate questions about safety and congestion, the public interest issues used as pretexts for cracking down on the company are often spurious. The proposed new restrictions in London, which would put Uber at a competitive disadvantage against the city’s black cabs, are a case in point.优步面对的一些最反感的赞成来自欧洲,在那里,美国科技业的高傲竞争与当地对传统的认同和对既得利益的顺从之间的文化冲突特别是在显著。
尽管优步的运营引起了关于安全性和交通拥堵的合理问题,但那些被用于压制优步之借口的所谓公众利益问题经常站不住脚。伦敦新的明确提出的容许就是一个典型的例子,这些容许使优步相对于伦敦的“黑色”出租车陷入有利的竞争地位。Uber has often not helped its own cause. Concerns about the company’s use of data on customers’ movements, allegations that an executive had talked about smearing unfriendly journalists and complaints about its tax planning have made it harder for Uber to win the battle for hearts and minds.优步却经常自毁长城。人们对该公司利用顾客上下班数据的忧虑、关于一名高管谈论搞臭不友好关系记者的指控、以及对其税务筹划的责怪,使优步更难在这场人心争夺战中取得胜利。
It has been seeking to bolster its soft skills by hiring experienced political operators and has sharpened up how it presents its arguments. London is a chance to show that the investment has been worthwhile.优步仍然在希望通过雇用老练的政治操手提高自己的软技能,并已改良了明确提出论点的方式。伦敦是一次证明优步的这些投资物有所值的机会。
As in other cities, the proposals of Transport for London, which regulates the city’s taxis, are dressed up as measures to protect public safety. The details of the measures reveal how flimsy those justifications are.与其他城市一样,管理伦敦出租车行业的伦敦交通局(Transport for London)的建议被粉饰为维护公众安全性的措施。措施的明确细节指出了这些理由是多么不堪一击。For example, one idea is to make riders wait at least five minutes before being picked up after hailing a ride through Uber or another similar service, even if there is an available driver close by, an obstruction that will provide nothing but irritation for passengers. Another suggestion is that drivers should be allowed to use only one ride-hailing app, which would impede one of the most effective checks on any abuses by Uber: competition between a number of different services.例如,其中一个主意是让通过优步或其他类似于服务叫车的乘客在被接通之前最少等候5分钟,即使可获取服务的司机就在附近。
这种障碍除了引发乘客的气愤什么起到也没。另一个建议是司机只不应被容许用于一种叫车应用于,这只不会使遏止优步的任何过度不道德最有效地的方式之一——让多种不同叫车服务进行竞争——受到妨碍。In this somewhat random set of ideas, it is hard not to see an attempt by Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, to restore relations with the city’s black cab drivers. Many of them backed him when he was voted into office in 2008, and plenty are natural supporters of his Conservative administration, but his perceived reluctance to clamp down on Uber has led to angry protests against him.在这套某种程度有些随便的点子中,不难看出伦敦市长鲍里斯约翰逊(Boris Johnson)企图与该市出租车司机修缮关系的点子。
2008年约翰逊被选为伦敦市长时很多出租车司机投票反对他,而且很多司机是其保守党政府天然的支持者,但约翰逊却流露出不愿抨击优步的印象,结果招来了气愤的抗议。Transport for London has opened a consultation on its proposals, and may not adopt any of them. For an ostensibly pro-market Conservative administration, it will be hard to justify restraints on innovation simply because it creates losers as well as winners. Uber has right on its side — consumers, not regulators, should decide which transport options are best for them — but that may not be enough. Its campaign to block the proposals has started well: an online petition had by this weekend received more than 132,000 signatures. But while its business relies on a technological solution for navigating a city’s streets, there is no such fix for finding a route through its politics.伦敦交通局早已就其建议启动了咨询,但也许会通过其中任何一条建议。对于表面上为亲市场为首的保守党当局来说,很难寻找合理的理由意味着因为创意同时产生了赢家和输家就加以容许。优步握一定的正义——应当由消费者(而非监管者)来要求何种交通方式是最差的——但这也许过于。
优步阻扰这些建议的活动早已奠定了很好的开局:一项网上抗议到上周末早已搜集到了逾13.2万个亲笔签名。但是,尽管优步的业务依赖获取城市街道导航系统的技术解决方案,但它没某种程度的解决方案为自己获取“政治导航系统”。If it wants to continue to grow in London and around the world, Uber needs to be able to persuade politicians that it is worth facing down the established taxi operators who are resisting change. If vested interests prevent its innovations in service from reaching their full potential, it would count as an enormous missed opportunity.要想要在伦敦及全球各地之后快速增长,优步必须劝说政客坚信,惨败那些杯葛转变的现有出租车运营商是有一点的。
如果既得利益最后制止优步的服务创意构建其仅次于创造力,优步将错失一次极大机遇。
本文来源:米兰·体育-www.13609.cn