Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

fivethirtyeight.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 174 posts

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#121

Post by larrys »

codyb wrote: post #87
pavel_lishin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but Uber literally cannot put enough cars into the city to move five million people around every day, and they're sure as shit not going to dig their own tunnels.

They raised just North of a billion dollars [0] in September, the 2nd Ave Subway is expected to cost $4.5b [1] for 1.5m of track, three new stops, and a new entrance at an old stop. So yea, you can be sure as shit they're not building their own tunnels. At least not here. [0] - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber/funding-rounds [1] - http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/31/news/economy/nyc-subway-cons...

Obviously building a subway is not just having the money to build the subway. Anywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Avenue_Subway

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#122

Post by itsybitsycoder »

arasmussen wrote: post #58
brianwawok wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the problem 1) Uber comes in pays well - sources on the net for hip drivers - You get awesome English speaking nice drivers 2) Uber starts to drop rates 3) Good Uber drivers quit for lack of pay, existing cabbies start to drive for Uber 4) You end up getting the same cabbies as before Uber, but with surge pricing. It takes a while, but eventually it ends back up in the same exact place as before :( Totally ha…

But drivers must maintain a 4.5 star rating, which means the cabbies would at least have to fix their behavior or suffer the consequences. There are no consequences for bad taxi drivers.

That's the current policy with the current rates. If they cut the rates too much, they may have to choose between changing the policy or having no Uber drivers.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#123

Post by GauntletWizard »

brianwawok wrote: post #45
CodeSheikh wrote: post #30

I would take Uber over rude Manhattan cabbies any day. My personal experience with Manhattan taxi drivers after living in NYC for last two years. 1) They drive as if they are on a rally track. I have had never experienced motion sickness before until I moved to Manhattan. 2) If you ignore the tip or tip them in the range of $1-3 you get snarky remarks from them. 3) If you try to hail a cab and (regrettably) ask the t…

Here is the problem 1) Uber comes in pays well - sources on the net for hip drivers - You get awesome English speaking nice drivers 2) Uber starts to drop rates 3) Good Uber drivers quit for lack of pay, existing cabbies start to drive for Uber 4) You end up getting the same cabbies as before Uber, but with surge pricing. It takes a while, but eventually it ends back up in the same exact place as before :( Totally ha…

And then some newcomer comes in and disrupts Uber, and the cycle repeats. Except, this time, there's an opportunity for there to be change, and riders will briefly have gotten a better experience than before.

It's not necessarily a bad thing for business models to be cyclical. Even when it results in a downwards spiral, it usually allows the problem space to be explored, and that spiral can be disrupted upwards... at the cost of temporary lack of quality.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#124

Post by goondabba »

mbca wrote: post #75
brianwawok wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the problem 1) Uber comes in pays well - sources on the net for hip drivers - You get awesome English speaking nice drivers 2) Uber starts to drop rates 3) Good Uber drivers quit for lack of pay, existing cabbies start to drive for Uber 4) You end up getting the same cabbies as before Uber, but with surge pricing. It takes a while, but eventually it ends back up in the same exact place as before :( Totally ha…

The quality of Uber drivers in San Francisco has dropped all the way to the point where I simply will not try to use Uber anywhere near downtown. They will accept the ride and the app will show they are "1 minute" away, however it will often take upwards of 15 minutes for them to reach me because they don't know their way around the city and are confused by all the one-way streets in downtown. I promise I"m not exagg…

That's more the Uber app's fault than the driver's. I've chatted with drivers about this; the app doesn't actually tell you where the pickup is, it just starts the navigation. It seems to be a security measure.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#125

Post by billmalarky »

goondabba wrote: post #124
mbca wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quality of Uber drivers in San Francisco has dropped all the way to the point where I simply will not try to use Uber anywhere near downtown. They will accept the ride and the app will show they are "1 minute" away, however it will often take upwards of 15 minutes for them to reach me because they don't know their way around the city and are confused by all the one-way streets in downtown. I promise I"m not exagg…

That's more the Uber app's fault than the driver's. I've chatted with drivers about this; the app doesn't actually tell you where the pickup is, it just starts the navigation. It seems to be a security measure.

Probably so people can't poach uber riders with a competing service. You could easily accept riders, relay their location to your services drivers, then cancel the pickup in the Uber app right as your driver shows up.

Sounds like something Uber themselves would do come to think of it.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#126

Post by srj »

odonnellryan wrote: post #52
stevenmays wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, some percentage of taxi drivers are racist. I've had tremendous difficulties hailing a cab, Uber removes this (and having to think about it).

This is very illegal, and you can report the taxi's that pass you.

I would think this is a one person's word against another's type scenario. I mean I have had cabs nearly run me over and didn't bother reporting because I have no idea how I'd prove it, and it's usually difficult to see the cab number as they drive off.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#127

Post by billmalarky »

dotBen wrote: post #110
brianwawok wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not rate to customer. Rate to drivers - which makes the good drivers leave. In a new market Uber will pay something like 95-110% of fares taken in to drivers (not exact numbers, would need to look). Over the long run I think it drops to 60-70%, or something significantly worse (as clearly paying drivers 110% of income is not sustainable).

Not true. Uber sets a commission (differs across different markets) with a new driver and that's what they get from the miles + time portion of the fare. If Uber decides to change the commission it almost always grandfathers existing drivers to what they had when they joined.

Well sure, they don't have a monopoly _yet_.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#128

Post by soyiuz »

I think the discussion on Uber often misses the point. Uber is not disrupting the Taxi business. Look at the endgame: in most unregulated markets Uber simply becomes another hail and route management app for an existing taxi fleet.

Uber is therefore primarily disrupting the shit electronics powering the current "yellow cab" style cabs. These include the meter, the dispatcher and radio system, and the advertisement screen. That is the real source of disruption.

The ratings etc. are just noise to poach costumers away from taxis. Or more correctly, to force taxis to adopt Uber as logistics provider. Once monopoly is established the consumer-facing niceties become irrelevant. Nothing prevents Uber from lowering their minimum ratings requirements, for example.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#129

Post by devindotcom »

cm2012 wrote: post #49
brianwawok wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the problem 1) Uber comes in pays well - sources on the net for hip drivers - You get awesome English speaking nice drivers 2) Uber starts to drop rates 3) Good Uber drivers quit for lack of pay, existing cabbies start to drive for Uber 4) You end up getting the same cabbies as before Uber, but with surge pricing. It takes a while, but eventually it ends back up in the same exact place as before :( Totally ha…

But currently Uber is cheaper than cabbies anyway. You're saying Uber will drop rates even lower?

you also pay less when you don't tip - there's none included in the uber fee.

Re: Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

#130

Post by [deleted] »

telotortium wrote: post #95
slimslam wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laughable? Check out the theory of disruptive innovation. From http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/01/ec... : "The theory of disruptive innovation was invented by Clayton Christensen, of Harvard Business School, in his book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Mr Christensen used the term to describe innovations that create new markets by discovering new categories of customers. They do this partly by harnes…

Uber replacing public transit is not a case of disruption as defined by Christiansen, though, since Uber is more expensive. It's not even disrupting street hails per se. Uber is disrupting taxi dispatch, and in doing so displacing street hails by making them less relevant.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN