The headlines about Uber's corporate behavior seem to only get worse by the day, but Farhad Manjoo at the New York Times has a prediction he fears will come to pass: People will tut-tut about those headlines, then shrug them off in a few days and tap their Uber app the next time they need a ride. His advice to such people: "Don't do it—at least not without considering the full weight of your decision." Alternatives are out there, from rival Lyft to old-school taxis to buses and trains. Yes, Uber is quite good at what it does—Manjoo used it himself three times last week—but the stakes are too high to simply forgive and forget.
"To encourage a better Uber, it’s time to play the only card you’ve got: If it backslides or otherwise fails to live up to the promises it’s making now, stop using Uber," he writes. Manjoo makes the case that ride-sharing, including the autonomous variety, is poised to be so huge that the company that dominates will end up being one of the most powerful in the world. Do we really want a company with Uber's current standards to get that honor? The company promises reform in the wake of Eric Holder's critical report, but we should do more than hope it's not an empty promise: "There’s an Uber app on your phone," writes Manjoo. "Think twice about tapping it, because if Uber remains terrible after this, we have only ourselves to blame." Click for the full column. (More Uber stories.)
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