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the_remainder_17 OP t1_j3jg22p wrote

From article:

A few of us have had orders dropped on our lawns by drone already. Millions more will be within range of drone deliveries in 2023.

Drone deliveries could be dropping into your life, too, as the technology involved matures and expands beyond isolated test projects. In 2023, drones could replace vans and your own trip to the store when you need medicine, takeout dinners, cordless drill batteries or dishwasher soap.

Drone delivery companies are cagey about specifics, but all expect to expand operations this year.

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shavinghobbit t1_j3ji6mw wrote

Honestly I know a lot of people are against this, for one reason or another, but it could be huge. If for no other reasons then to cut down on traffic congestion.

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Fenrisvitnir t1_j3jjl4v wrote

I, for one, welcome the free pizza that will inadvertently be entering the airspace over my Nerf cannons.

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polecy t1_j3jk20e wrote

Not against it, I think it's the right path. What I'm concerned about is that people will be out of jobs and we haven't planned out a way for the jobs to stop existing. Universal basic income needs to come soon, and these jobs that don't require humans anymore need to be taxed, to provide money for UBI.

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shavinghobbit t1_j3jla1o wrote

I completely agree, I just hope we reach UBI before we're forced into it. The fallout we could see in just the next 5 years from lack of jobs is horrifying to contemplate. I do believe (because I'm a humanist and an optimist I guess) that we will get UBI some day, I just hope we don't have to go through a lot of suffering to get to it.

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FuturologyBot t1_j3jltfb wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/the_remainder_17:


From article:

A few of us have had orders dropped on our lawns by drone already. Millions more will be within range of drone deliveries in 2023.

Drone deliveries could be dropping into your life, too, as the technology involved matures and expands beyond isolated test projects. In 2023, drones could replace vans and your own trip to the store when you need medicine, takeout dinners, cordless drill batteries or dishwasher soap.

Drone delivery companies are cagey about specifics, but all expect to expand operations this year.


Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/106ysl1/drones_are_already_delivering_pizza_if_you_havent/j3jg22p/

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jfcarr t1_j3jnfp8 wrote

This is probably going to bring a lot of legal fighting in the courts soon, at least in the US.

Here's a PDF describing the current drone overflight rules: https://www.namic.org/pdf/drones/1703_privateairspace.pdf

There are sure to be challenges to the current state of the laws and regulations as delivery drones become more common.

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Herodriver t1_j3jrta9 wrote

Unless the whole pizza place is operating at full automation, then I'm not impressed.

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polecy t1_j3jwolr wrote

"Most drones are self-piloting..." Nope, someone prob needs to code it and build them but the delivering part of the job is being self-driven. And unless the delivery workers learn to code or fix up drones, most likely they will be out of a job.

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billy_the_p t1_j3jy8yq wrote

> Most drones are self-piloting, with safety features like redundant components and return-to-home behavior if there's a problem. Drones typically pilot themselves autonomously but under the oversight of human observers in the US.

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Cognitive_Spoon t1_j3jyffz wrote

I won't be impressed until the pizza place produces an entire simulated reality where I'm a seven year old having a birthday party at a Pizza Hut in 1995 while it rains lightly outside and we go and see A Goofy Movie in theaters.

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polecy t1_j3jyyj8 wrote

That doesn't mean there's one observer per drone tho. Say for pizza drivers, for one day maybe you have 2 drivers per shift, maybe have 2 shift. I highly doubt you will hire 1 driver per drone.

I'm also sure the observers are not people without degrees, they are probably observers from the company that made the drones. Because if some regular driver observers the drones, what good would that do if it broke or something goes wrong, the observer basically would need to be some type of repairman.

In the end these companies are trying to cut down on human workers to increase profits.

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h8street t1_j3k5dg1 wrote

>Drone delivery could provide a new level of convenience and immediacy when you want a cup of coffee or need some medication. It could reduce traffic and cut carbon emissions. And it could help lock in our pandemic habits of ordering stuff that we once ventured out into the real world to pick up.

This makes me fear we'll be surrounded by buzzing drones if we do choose to venture outside.

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EqualityWithoutCiv t1_j3k6kg2 wrote

Some companies are eager to consider this because they're too cheap to employ human couriers, but I'm not sure if everyone will like hearing the buzzing of these things going around.

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NeedmoOrexin t1_j3k7vlw wrote

Yum…sideways/mashed up pizza according to the pic :p

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marshinghost t1_j3k9lge wrote

A BB gun is all it takes for a free pizza? Hooray for drones!

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Recent_Mirror t1_j3kbdto wrote

I wonder if some HOAs will try to ban drone deliveries in neighborhoods, and what that legal battle would look like.

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beepbeep_beep_beep t1_j3kf084 wrote

Right up until one gets blown into a power line and knocks our power to a neighborhood with people on life support systems.

Part 107 and Part 135 exist for a reason.

The liability insurance requirements states and municipalities are going to require are going to be pretty costly once the lawsuits start rolling in.

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joeschmoe86 t1_j3kgl3t wrote

It'll be Uber all over again: Don't care if it's illegal, do it anyway and scale it so fast that the political fallout from prosecuting such a popular service into oblivion would be too great.

For anybody who doesn't remember, Uber started out as an illegal taxi service with a phone app until cities passed ordinances to accommodate it.

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ConfirmedCynic t1_j3kgohc wrote

Seriously? They're going to parachute the cargo? What could possibly go wrong with that?

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joeschmoe86 t1_j3kgt10 wrote

>The liability insurance requirements states and municipalities are going to require are going to be pretty costly once the lawsuits start rolling in.

I hear what you're saying, but it also doesn't take much to be safer than the average delivery driver.

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racoons_on_NMN t1_j3kgvbx wrote

I think this drone delivery idea is ripe for misuse and dangerous.

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JaquesStrappe t1_j3kk6iy wrote

Wait? Pizza? A food product that already has issues with keeping the cheese from pooling up when delivered in a car (that’s likely a lot more stable transport than a drone)? THAT pizza? And you’re going to parachute it down to the lawn? Just, out in the open?

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critic2029 t1_j3knd8s wrote

I’d much prefer this to Pizza Hut outsourcing my delivery to DoorDash…

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MsPI1996 t1_j3kqyk1 wrote

And I just have to be living in an apartment building downtown. Hmm...

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Avaricio t1_j3kr17t wrote

I can predict the future, wanna see?

  • Drones are used for delivery, in general drone airspace

  • Autonomous flight at higher speeds with no real ability to see and avoid results in collisions with hobbyist UAVs

  • Drone delivery companies lobby, and blanket bans on hobbyist flight are imposed "for safety"

  • Practically the entire aerial R/C hobby is lost to regulatory capture.

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DigitalSteven1 t1_j3kvsur wrote

Actually curious how that'd be illegal. Seems like it'd also really be on a state by state basis. But I still don't see how it'd be illegal for a middleman to deliver food for you. That'd be like saying paying my mom to pick up carry out for me would be illegal.

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menellinde t1_j3l1saj wrote

I mean, as we speak crime is already at insane heights, and in some cities people are getting their windows smashed and the stuff taken out of their cars while they're paused at a stop light, nevermind the porch pirates running rampant all over the place. If they're willing to take that much of a risk in broad daylight, taking out a drone or 5 in an evenings from the relative safety of some sort of cover would just be a moderately interesting afternoon activity.

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Excludos t1_j3l6jdx wrote

This is all well and good, and I wish them luck. However it's not new or untried technology. This has been tried by numerous companies for years, including big boys like Amazon, and the restrictions, challenges and even safety concerns are too numerous to expand into anything other than small scale test areas. It's a bit like the autonomous Google cars, in the sense that it works, it's been proven to work, but expanding it into a useful business model remains problematic.

Currently, the best use for autonomous delivery drones I've seen is shipping medicine long distances into remote areas, where things like cost isn't as much of a problem compared to the value of the cargo.

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Excludos t1_j3l78aa wrote

>how that'd be illegal

It's about the safety of drones flying above people, cars and houses. If one falls out of the sky, at worst case scenario, what kind of damage can it do? Imagine what one of these can do, and then imagine thousands of these in the air at the same time. Drones are already heavily regulated, and these trial areas have special allowances to operate. You can't just expand it nation wide without changing the rules

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iama_bad_person t1_j3l7jqo wrote

I'm in the RC plane community and some people are having to quit because their states are placing insane requirements on what they need on their planes and the FAA changing legal height restrictions to bow to these delivery companies.

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Excludos t1_j3l7sk0 wrote

Yeah, honestly, that's the main upside of this. Food delivery people are paid next to nothing, and has zero benefits. If that's a profession which disappears because of drones, it's only a win-win for everyone.

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Shawn_NYC t1_j3lc8m0 wrote

Drone delivery has been 1 year away for the last 10 years.

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birdpix t1_j3lgige wrote

"dagnabit, we got this here fancy new mcmansion in our safe gated community to keep the riff raff out and now we're getting bombed from the sky from obnoxious buzzing drones!" - bubba

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NoxFortuna t1_j3lgyp3 wrote

It's not just one at a time imo, the logistics of it all are going to be very difficult to pin down without massive, heretofore unseen cooperation between all entities using them. Think of how many straight lines exist between a single Domino's and every house it can service, and imagine drawing that straight line on a map. Now do that for every single Domino's. Then do it for every McDonald's, every BK, every Wendy's, every DD, every Starbucks, and that's just a few restaurants. If this were somehow simultaneously implemented in every store and restaurant overnight tonight, there would be nothing but colliding drones all over the streets. We'd have to pin down regulation altitudes that didn't mix each other and be prepared to prove and fine any violators- since lower heights should be faster processes and thus entities will fight over those "rights." Delivery points would need to be slightly different down to a foot or two so a house ordering two things at the same time doesn't have them collide at the destination or land on each other. If someone decides to plant a tree in their yard, we need to hope the drone doesn't divebomb into it thinking that space was clear the last few times.

We could probably solve this with more technology, and communication between delivery drones- similar to how a city full of auto cars could have them transmit location information to each other to speed up traffic. However, similarly, that requires all the entities making the drones to play nice and nobody trying to exploit the system to gain an edge.

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timbocool t1_j3lhp1n wrote

I bet the mortality rate of drones in the USA will be much higher than in the rest of the world. Bang bang, fuhhh got anuva one paaa

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Slobbadobbavich t1_j3ljd7d wrote

That's a very rude way to describe those poor delivery drivers. It's not their fault they haven't passed their scooter license yet.

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oracleofnonsense t1_j3lmfb8 wrote

My mom has a .22 long rifle that shoots (nearly) silent rounds. If things get rough - hunting Dominos drones sounds like an easy way to feed the family. We all know where their home nest is - just wait in the parking lot for your feast.

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Excludos t1_j3lorb7 wrote

Not even them. We can't halt developing ourselves just so people can keep working unproductive jobs. History shows that society as a whole is better off automating manual labour, and that people don't need to do the lowest of the lowest jobs. There isn't really a lack of jobs atm either, so while I absolutely do sympathise with the annoyance of having to look for a new one, it shouldn't be too big of an issue, and we can't halt society because of it.

And if we look at some specifics, like Uber Eats drivers, who are technically self employed and there can earn way less than even minimum wage, it's basically just a giant scam. That "job" needs to burn and die

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Asd_dsA_Dsa_asD t1_j3lp0lm wrote

Hah! Jokes on you, the Taco bell Judge™ will send you to the Disney Jail to do time for your crime of interfering with the delivery drones. You will be slaving away to mine bitcoin with your hands for Amazon Prime, our new ruler and AI overlord.

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QristopherQuixote t1_j3lp44r wrote

Drones would never work in my neighborhood. We have too many trees, above ground powerlines with poles, and other cables such as TV, internet, etc. We also have winds, including strong gusts in the winter and summer. There would be narrow windows where you could use flying drones and only in certain relatively new neighborhoods with many fewer obstructions than older more established neighborhoods. We also have some large raptors who patrol the neighborhood. I would love to see the drones and the Red Tailed hawk who keeps our small animals and small birds wary mix it up :)

I could see automated vehicle deliveries becoming a thing where I live, but not airborne drones.

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Excludos t1_j3lp8xz wrote

Absolutely. There's definitively some very specific scenarios were drones could be super useful. Pizza delivery probably just isn't one of them, at least not quite yet. Who knows in 20 years

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SaladBarMonitor t1_j3lpx8u wrote

I used to love pizza as much as anyone but I got over it. It’s really not that good for your health

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rymisoda t1_j3lqn0u wrote

Drones are delivering pizza whether I notice or not.

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nydwarf t1_j3lv2yh wrote

I didn't get my pizza. Sorry sir you delivery got shot down...

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SHAWNANOMALY t1_j3lwgdb wrote

Until the courts side with those that have the power (corporations) against you in a lawsuit to cover damages done while you scream to the top of your lungs about the airspace over your property.

Then they'll nicely slap you into reality that the airspace over your property is not yours when the big $$$ decide they have new plans. And of course the politicians side with the $$$ as well over you...the random nobody in their eyes.

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DemonLlama77 t1_j3lwj4k wrote

I’m not tipping a drone, I don’t care what they say.

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Candycanetoy t1_j3lyz9u wrote

They thought they could bypass traffic lights , but there is still this thing called ‘air traffic’ ye

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Excludos t1_j3lzja3 wrote

I don't disagree, but this highlights more of a problem with the failure of the US to take care of their own people.

To contrast, if you lose your job in Norway, the Labour and Welfare department not only will cover parts of your salary while you're out of a job, they can also help you get new qualifications, and even cover your salary for a limited time while taking a new job, enticing potential employers to hire free employees, who either continues in the company afterwards, or at the very least gets relevant job experience on their resume.

I'm not going to proclaim all of Europe is like this (mostly because I don't know). I bet the variety is huge, but probably the vast majority has similar solutions for taking care of people who who loses their jobs and/or needs to change their careers. I am also aware that every state in the US operates differently, some worse than others. But by and large, the US needs to get their shit together when it comes to socialism, and stop treating it like a boogeyman, or somehow equal it with communism.

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MellowTigger t1_j3m10tg wrote

In high crime neighborhoods like mine, any recipient who hopes to keep their delivery will need a target pad somewhere behind property fences. I imagine new "delivery pads" becoming a product with a large pattern on them, easily visible from flight altitude. They will attach to deck railings or the top of 4x4 posts. That flight altitude will need to be higher than usual (in nice parts of town) to reduce attacks. We already lack pizza delivery here in north Minneapolis because companies had their drivers attacked too many times.

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RedditEzdamo t1_j3m5fnt wrote

I think legality falls on Uber not actually being a real job if I remember correctly? I know they have so bizarre rules that make it so the drivers don't actually "work" for Uber. They're like volunteers that can get tips.

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MXXIV666 t1_j3m8tjb wrote

Seems like the old microwave transformers are going to, instead of just preheating them, obtain whole pizzas after frying the drone circuit above your roof. Just add an aluminum cone.

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Excludos t1_j3mgxbe wrote

I mean, you don't need to dream up incredibly unlikely scenarios. Imagine thousands upon thousands of these in the air, crashing daily. They'll hit powerlines, people, cars, windows, etc. Not all of them dangerous necessarily, but when they happen enough times, it's bound to go wrong

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f10101 t1_j3mkwxp wrote

There are food delivery drones in my area. You don't hear them. Their rotors are too big, and they fly too high, unlike infernal ratty photography drones you normally see.

You might hear them gently as they do a drop-off, but it's quieter than the car or motorbike that would otherwise be delivering the food.

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flickh t1_j3mp8la wrote

The occasional pirated pizza will raise the average price, as will the cost of a parachute added to each order.

You don’t think they’ll re-use parachutes after they’ve been out and about in Joe Blow’s backyard or wherever!?

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DecentChanceOfLousy t1_j3mpb4i wrote

Unless you live in an area where it's being used, in which case it's been there for the last few years. The future is here, it's just not very evenly distributed.

"Pshh, drone delivery is always 10 years away" as a comment on article about it literally being used, right now, is sorta baffling to me.

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jezra t1_j3n9eob wrote

when ordering a pizza for drone delivery, what is the default lowest tip amount?

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BlaineBMA t1_j3ngprq wrote

I paid the guy who delivered the pizzas but these all looked like they were dropped from a drone

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kripptopher t1_j3nplwl wrote

I’m sure the quality of the pizza will be unaffected by its turbulent descent and sudden deceleration. This seems a feature for people more enamored with technology than they are hungry for a pizza that resembles a pizza instead of a casserole.

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AwesomeDragon97 t1_j3nraqj wrote

Yes, you own the land from the surface up to right below federal airspace (so someone can’t build an overhang over your property or fly a drone over your property without trespassing on your land or public airspace). In addition, at least theoretically if you also have mineral rights to the land you own all of the land from the surface to the core of the earth in an upside down pyramid shape.

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ThePokemon_BandaiD t1_j3nrqgt wrote

that's actually not entirely true, someone can fly a drone in your yard, the law is pretty ambiguous there, but you're also allowed to use as much of the airspace as you want, and a hanging net structure probably wouldn't count as interfering with aircraft in the same way that retroactively shooting them down etc would

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Momojanaimo t1_j3ntt8i wrote

I saw this one video of balloons blowing up transformers or something. Crazy stuff like that sounds disastrous. At the end of the day, I don't know if we should trust pizza employees with drone deliveries. Maybe like a 3rd party drone control center

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AwesomeDragon97 t1_j3nxkav wrote

There is no specific federal laws on this issue in the US or Canada, so it depends on the municipal laws. In many cities there are laws that say you can intercept a drone if it is flying over your yard below a certain altitude (usually up to 300 to 400 feet).

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threadsoffate2021 t1_j3p99a9 wrote

You do realize we're at a point where technology will eliminate 99% of jobs within our lifetime, right?

You honestly think those in power will be happy with most of the population sitting on their ass doing nothing and sucking up welfare dollars?

This isn't the beginning of the industrial revolution where new inventions created more jobs than were lost...we're well beyond that curve.

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I_love_tac0s69 t1_j3qix66 wrote

Why do I get the feeling that a pizza drone would still whip out an iPad and ask me if I want to tip 30%

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Excludos t1_j3qx63u wrote

Did 99% of jobs get eliminated in one previous lifetime then? Since you're basing it on history.

Or did you take the entierty of human history under one umbrella, see that most jobs have changed over time, and somehow jumped to the conclusion that 99% of jobs is going to get eliminated in one lifetime from now on?

Either one is fucking bonkers

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threadsoffate2021 t1_j3rejek wrote

Ah, you think when jobs are gone, our wonderful leaders and capitalists will make money rain down from the sky for all of us little plebs that will be unable to work.

Because, you know, the rulers and kings throughout history have been so magnanimous to the commoners.

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joeschmoe86 t1_j43fl8l wrote

And those licenses were usually limited in number, hard to get due to competition, and extremely valuable. Then Uber just came in and ignored all of that, got away with it, and the people who followed the law got totally fucked.

That said, the people who followed the law were taxi services who were using the rarity of their licenses to charge exorbitant prices, so not many people outside the industry cared.

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