Transportation - Uber vs. owning a car

Culture has changed the way we see things. From the music we listened to, the clothes we wore and how we communicate. And now, culture has impacted our transportation. Before the existence of Uber, people drive around places using their own cars or a taxi. Not that it's rare to see them nowadays, it's that people prefer to go out with a driver to get to their destination rather than drive themselves to go there.





There has been a rise of ride-hailing company services like Uber as normal taxi services has been decreased. While the US has their Uber and Lyft, Malaysia and other ASEAN countries have their Grab and Brunei has Dart. 
The advantages are that it is easy and doesn't cost a lot. A simple step is to download the app and you're good to go. Customer can choose the type of car and drivers based on the reviews. Once the drivers have arrived to their destination, the customers go into the car of their choice and sometime have conversations with the driver during the drive. If they are satisfied with the driver and the service, they can rate them five stars and leave a comment. In normal taxis, they have to wait in line for how many minutes and sometimes the queue tend to be long. And sometimes, depending on the destination, taxis charge higher than Uber using the taxi meter.

Their disadvantages are the fact that people rely on the technology that sometimes it can be used wrongly. Let's say a customer wants to go back home using Uber and the app starts to act funny or had a glitch. They try to restart their phone or uninstall and reinstall the app but it will take them an hour to get the app to work functionally. And depending on the drivers, there are some who acted rude towards their customers and get easily frustrated with traffic jams and the customers' indecisiveness. 






Meanwhile, people prefer to go out using their own car mostly with themselves or family members or friends.
The advantages of owning a car are having independence to drive wherever they go which leads to convenience and it saves time.
The disadvantages are how much is cost of the car as well as the cost of servicing a car when it breaks down and filling up the gas. And also, depending on the size of car, it can be troubling to find a parking. A small car can be easily parked but a large car can be difficult to park, especially when it comes to tight spaces.




In the current climate, people have a choice between driving using an Uber or themselves thanks to technology and a change in culture.