RE: Critical Analysis: Swarm City
One issue that I do see with Swarm City is the fact that it is a ride sharing application, meaning it is reliant on users geolocation.
I don't know much about Swarm City - My main concern is along the lines you posted above - but more to do with personal safety. The requests will be public right? We saw issues of robbery etc with Pokemon Go. What happens when you broadcast that you're at X location waiting for a ride with a smartphone in your hand? particularly if that location is a bit shady.
Also what about other concerns for instance posting that you need a ride from your house to the airport. Now people know the address of someone who wont be home.
Or just stalking type activities if someone knows your account name they can follow you right?
What about background checks for drivers. Or issues with riders causing damages? theft? insurance?
The whole thing sounds like someone just thought "Uber on Blockchain = money"
I was gonna say something about twitter and tweeting and hashtags for taxis but it didn't make any sense and you summed it up perfectly. Thank you for finding the right words. upvoted and followed @schro and @heiditravels. Keep it up!
I have the same concerns about the insurance side of the drivers/riders situation. The best answer I could get was that the creator of the hashtag group is responsible for all conflict/resolutions. So I take that as pretty much use this at your own risk. I think Swarm City has much more potential using this idea for other ways to connect freelancers with jobs rather than trying to compete with Uber.
I kind of agree, but Matchpool might be (at least) an equally sound option for those kinds of connections. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of Uber, especially after listening to this episode of the Dollop podcast about the company. I'd love to see some decentralised competition and think it could be great.
But personal safety/security etc for drivers and riders needs to be one of the primary considerations of the tech itself. Not a "Oh the guy that created the Hashtag #NeedaRide, Username xxX420NoScopeXxx Will be responsible for the injuries you sustained as a result of your drunk driver" etc. Sounds like the whole project could be destroyed by a single incident like this.
You're right about that :)
It's a shame and I hope they address these issues as the development progresses.
Edit Also despite my little rant, thanks for asking questions and providing easily accessible info for everyone. I appreciate it as do many others.
Well with Uber the drivers have no public carriage licence, so they are effectively uninsured compared to proper hackney carriages; companies in the UK advise employees not to ride in Uber because the employer has a duty of care to provide a safe work environment, and because Uber is unlicenced thats a problem.
So for Swarm City here, regulations actually can help them. Its a funny old world :)
Nice job Heidi!