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Uber Is Taking Millions of Manhattan Rides Away from Taxis

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

#151

Post by cenal »

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…

Step 1.5) Uber implements a fleet of autonomous vehicles to replace the need for drivers.

Steps 3 and 4 are no longer relevant.

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

#152

Post by jvm »

SilasX wrote: post #145
jvm wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem solved!

Normally I'd consider your comment unhelpful and downvote it. But discussions like this are loaded with people who assure us that certain ultra-common behavior "is illegal", as if that somehow settles it, so I'm going to tolerate otherwise content-free reminders that this is not true.

Yup, I feel pretty strongly about the point I was making and, to be honest, I think it did have content despite my sardonic delivery.

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

#153

Post by Gustomaximus »

mattkopecki wrote: post #142
Gustomaximus wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the solution; 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) Alternate company, takes lower margin, pays drivers well and offer better customer experience. 5) Uber hold some inertia in via brand name while the majority of the marke…

> 4) Alternate company, takes lower margin, pays drivers well and offer better customer experience. It doesn't seem to me that your crucial step will work. Uber is worth >$50bn, but more importantly has a substantial amount of cash on hand. I can't imagine anyone could out last them in a price war.

Certainly Uber are becoming an increasingly formidable competitor in this space for alternatives. And money helps ALOT. But Uber started out as nothing against an industry worth more than 50bn.. They won on 1) price, 2) convenience and 3) customer service.

Give that response was largely about someone saying when Uber has lost their customer service quality, that would be a large switching point alone. I went to Uber more for service and convenience. Price was a bonus.

And they will be limited on price wars. If someone comes in at slim margin, paying more to drivers, Uber can hardly go negative in pricing. Firstly they have investors to appease. And in many countries they would be charged with predatory pricing and be in a heap of trouble. They might knock out a few competitors this way but eventually anyone competing would have massive regulatory protection in this area.

Convenience is another protective moat. Simply having cars available. But its easy for a car to run 2 versions at once if they feel the demand is there, even if Uber demand exclusive service (again possibly causing regulatory issues), policing it would be nightmare when one can simply have a second phone in the car. And pushing for exclusive would likely shoot themselves in the foot if there is increasing demand from the market elsewhere as some drivers will be forced to jump ship hurting their own service.

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

#154

Post by foobarian »

Disruptive_Dave wrote: post #73
bko wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think cabbies are rude because they are not paid well. I think they're rude because they aren't held accountable for their rudeness and before Uber, there was no meaningful competition. If an Uber driver is rude and got a negative review, in the current system, he would probably be let go rather promptly. It could be that Uber will have to lower the minimum acceptable rating in order to keep enough drivers, b…

This. As an NYC resident, this and this. Even beyond the review/star system, from what I understand Uber sets expectations of cleanliness and friendliness and general professionalism. I don't think the taxi industry ever started with these base expectations. It's a good start.

You know, I don't even care if they are rude. The UX is sooo much better that it's laughable:

1) No communication problems telling the driver where you are going. If you or they don't speak English, that's fine

2) No tipping.

3) No cash/form of payment shenanigans

4) ETA and location information in near real-time

5) No hailing--great if you are an introverted person/don't know how to whistle like a truck driver/etc.

Honestly, if the taxi industry adopted that dispatch system I would have no problem using it. Uber should do enterprise licensing for "Uber For Cities" so they can finally run their taxicab operations properly.

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

#155

Post by Gustomaximus »

largote wrote: post #149
jaredhansen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re #4: really? How long do drivers with All else equal (and many say all else isn't equal here of course, though that argument cuts both ways), a system with SOME accountability is better than a system with none. [1] http://uber-partners-static.s3.amazonaws.com/chicago_uberx/f...

I find it ridiculous that a 5 star rating is expected for an OK (average) ride. 5-stars should be reserved for exceptional rides.

I agree from a 'correct' sense. It would be interesting to see a graph of what people rate.

Personally I give a 5 star as default unless they are sub-service given I know they face being cut if below ~4.5. So for me it almost works as a negative only scale with no positive points for exceptional service.

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

#156

Post by tsotha »

Spooky23 wrote: post #27
jessriedel wrote: post #15

The author takes pickups as a measure of congestion, but as they (sort of) admit much later on in the article, this is a bad measure. The argument of regulators is that, in the absence of proper congestion pricing for cars on the road, the market equilibrium for number of taxis per inhabitant will be higher than is efficient. That's how they justify a cap on the number of cabs. (It increases wait times but, they argu…

It's more than that. There's a finite number of people seeking a ride, it's a zero sum market where the supply of rides will crash, and Uber will jack up the rates. Uber ultimately will have enormous leverage to submarine any meaningful competition and even to displace public transit. Their national scope will make them a force to be reckoned with.

>There's a finite number of people seeking a ride...

Is that really true? More people might ride cabs if the experience was less annoying.

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

#157

Post by slimslam »

alex_anglin wrote: post #100
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…

Check out a critique of the theory of disruptive innovation: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/the-disruption-...

I agree that this is something honest, intelligent people can disagree about. As such, it's unfair to characterize it as "laughable."

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

#158

Post by slimslam »

timdierks wrote: post #69
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…

Have you ever been to NYC? Do you have any idea how much extra vehicle capacity would be necessary for Uber to supplant the subways? A subway track has capacity of roughly 25000 people/hour (112 people per car, 10 cars per train, 20 trains per hour) in each direction; that's as much as 10 freeway lanes. Manhattan has 20 subway tracks across its width (5 lines, each with express and local, in 2 directions), so that's…

Just got back from a trip last month, amazing city and I had an absolute blast. Took subway and Uber while I was there (no medallion cabs this time, but plenty in past trips). No doubt that the world-class subway system imposes substantial competitive pressure on cars in general.

I'd arguing that Uber has the potential to pose a disruptive threat to taxis, not subways. And to lots of transportation systems in plenty of other cities around the world.

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

#159

Post by Steko »

soyiuz wrote: post #128

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 sc…

Uber pretty clearly has two main innovations:

(1) the efficiency of the app/gps combo vs traditional cab dispatch. This seems fairly easy to copy by incumbents and new entrants and in fact being a private company operating your own network has shown some weaknesses (ghost cars injected into map to fool customers, drivers not given accurate pickup info to protect from competitors which delays pickup, etc.)

(2) the quasi-legal setup of "we will pick you up and take you to somewhere else for money but we're not a taxi company" that allows them to disrupt the medallion ecosystem where it exists. This advantage only manifests in areas where supply has been heavily and artificially constrained and disappears once the medallion bubble has been burst.

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

#160

Post by dizzyviolet »

cenal wrote: post #151
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…

Step 1.5) Uber implements a fleet of autonomous vehicles to replace the need for drivers. Steps 3 and 4 are no longer relevant.

Exactly. Uber has a whole bunch of people literally climbing over each over to put themselves out of business.

I'm not sure what the solution is with this whole mess though.

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