EmailIn a surprising move this morning, the city of London essentialy banned Uber from operating there.
The popular ride-sharing app had been a bone of contention amongst London's black taxis for some time.
London, unlike, say New York, requires its taxi drivers to be incredibly well versed in the city's streets. This is called "The Knowledge", and it can take an aspiring black cab drive up to two years just to prepare for the test.
They are required to know every street, every lane, every major location, and to be able to recite it from memory before they can get a taxi license.
A few years ago, at one of our London Bootcamps, one of our students did a profile of an aspiring driver attending the Knowledge Point College - a place where wanna be drivers can learn The Knoweldge. As you can see, it is not easy.
As you can also see, this was done by someone who had no prior video experience - shot and edited by our student - all in the 4-day course.
This is somethig of real value, but something that GPS on your phone has pretty much destroyed.
There is a lot of chatter on the Internet of late about the beginnings of a blow-back against tech companies (see Facebook having to deliver Russian ad buyer info to Congress). Maybe this anti-Uber move is part of the same.
In any event, as we are regulars in London, we can tell you that nothing beats a London Black Taxi for comfort and dependability.
Featured Courses
Recent Posts
The Uber-ization of Content
May 26, 2023
The world of television before cable had been limited to 3 networks and a handful of local TV stations. But the advent of cable meant that suddenly there were 60, 70 soon to be 100 or more new channels. And all of those channels needed content. But where were they going to get it from? A huge market for content had just opened up.
What TV News Can Learn From Netflix
May 22, 2023
Q: What do TV news and Netflix have in common? A: They both appear on the same screen. They both tell stories.
No News is Bad News
May 15, 2023
This morning, I went out early to buy my copy of the weekend FT — a great newspaper, by the way. I was a bit surprised to see that my regular newsstand, on 6th Avenue and 55th Street, had exactly 3 newspapers for sale — one copy of Baron’s and two copies of The New York Post. That was it. No FT, no NY Times, no Washington Post, no… nothing.