Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
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@riggbeck @Philsturgeon Would they be willing to put up with the regulation that comes with running a local bus service in most places? Regulated fares, transfer and through ticketing rules, no surge pricing.. not to mention performance monitoring and not being allowed to drop contracted routes or late night / early morning runs even if they're unprofitable (which they are). The concept of a service being run to maximise benefit to the people who use it rather than maximising income/passenger km is beyond their ken.
Bloomington has a commuter bus service to Indianapolis run by a private company. You can't just hop on, but need to book tickets beforehand, and it's only a morning and evening service. I don't know if they use surge pricing. I only found out about it while I was visiting family there. Publicly run bus services for the benefit of people rather than corporate profit is obviously a better way to do it. I'm just saying that Uber might see a business model they like in buses.
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Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
@Philsturgeon "50-seat van"...
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Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
@Philsturgeon
It's an ordinary bus, reinvented as The Ordinary bus. As one does.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/style/ordinary-bus-route-brooklyn-stop-running.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes -
Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
@Philsturgeon they do this regularly, but the reinvented thing is worse than the original. Fox example the Loop in Las Vegas. It is slow, has low capacity and will never be autonomous. In comparison the Clock Work Orange (Glasgow Subway) has the same tunnel diameter, runs more frequently, is an actual loop, and will become driverless in the near future. Its current per passenger driver factor is 0,00322 drivers per passenger.
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Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
@Philsturgeon Yeah, or have a tram go all the way to the stadium
Sorry: rail-electro-pod. -
Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
@Philsturgeon i despise the word "offer". Uber are not offering, they are selling places on an unregulated bus at $46 and $49 a pop, making a large profit on the event and football fans. https://www.travelpulse.com/news/car-rail/uber-unveils-new-travel-offerings-for-2026-fifa-world-cup
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Bloomington has a commuter bus service to Indianapolis run by a private company. You can't just hop on, but need to book tickets beforehand, and it's only a morning and evening service. I don't know if they use surge pricing. I only found out about it while I was visiting family there. Publicly run bus services for the benefit of people rather than corporate profit is obviously a better way to do it. I'm just saying that Uber might see a business model they like in buses.
@riggbeck @m @Philsturgeon If I won the lottery, I would start a private bus company in my city run on the Japanese model where you own the convenience stores at the bus stations as well as the buses.
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@Philsturgeon Yes, they had to call it a ’50-seat van’ to avoid saying the dirty word!
@gimulnautti @Philsturgeon yeah. The capacity of a Greyhound bus was 69 passengers. 50 might be 10 feet smaller and have wheel chair space. This is absolutely a bus.
Imagine being the first guy to offer a bus on Uber for private events and the Uber execs eyes bulging out as it got constantly booked because their techy base didn't know any other way to book a bus.
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Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
@Philsturgeon
Why do they have the space to do this?This demand was known months ago. Many different orgs could have stepped up to provide solutions.
The fans from one country, I forget which, are leasing school busses for the day. They had to arrange all that from another country.
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Tech bros have two modes and it’s a) pretend a Philippine sweatshop is an all-knowing all-powerful god in the machine, and b) reinvent the bus again.
since i doubt any tech bro has ever *TAKEN* a bus, they probably didn't know they exist or what to call them...
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