How a 30K-member Facebook group filled the void left by Uber and Lyft in Austin
I&#x27;ve always wondered how necessary something like Uber or Lyft really was. Centralized networks lead to critical mass and that&#x27;s what I always saw as the appeal. No one wants to hunt for something manually.<p>I feel like something like craigslist, but with an ebay-like &quot;95% driver approval rating&quot; would do the job well enough. Sure, there are people that won&#x27;t use it for security reasons and lack of standards, but if that&#x27;s the case an alternative should prop up that ensures these things with standards for their drivers. One being cheaper as all funds go between driver and driven, the other providing a middle man that spends some of these funds to filter bad actors.<p>In my opinion, the mandatory regulation isn&#x27;t really necessary if competition is healthy. If there&#x27;s enough demand for finger-printed drivers, a service should crop up to provide it. Facebook though sounds like a terrible medium for this kind of thing. People will use what&#x27;s familiar I guess.