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G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

nytimes.com

21–30 of 402 posts

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#21

Not to hijack, but how do we stop esentially duplicate URLs in "new" see ( http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/technology/gm-invests-i... ) not matching?

The subdomain is probably the issue. Suggest updating it to strip out subdomain, query string, hashes etc and do a domain and path comparison. Too many sites have a mobile subdomain with the rest of the domain the same.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#22
GM's current mktcap is about $53B. A $500m investment represents putting almost 1% of their company into Lyft. Tesla's mktcap is about half of GM's, so this investment represents 2% of Tesla. Uber's last valuation put them above both GM and Ford, so what GM is looking at is a Lyft competitor "worth" more than they are and they want in.

I don't really care about talk of tech bubbles, but seeing older institutions invest so aggressively in startups is gnarly. Both Fidelity and Blackrock went into Uber and now GM owns a huge piece of Lyft.

I don't really have a point. Just thinking out loud because I'm not sure what to think...

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#23
The "short-term car rental hubs... where people who do not own cars can pick up a vehicle and drive for Lyft to earn money" is a nice idea in the short-term. I still think Uber has the right idea long-term with a completely autonomous fleet, but once those hit the market, there will still be a pretty large demand for NON-autonomous vehicles -- take my parents, for instance, who refuse to get into a car not driven by a human.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#24
post #13

I don't know whether this is a real difference or not, but Lyft "feels" like a much nicer company than Uber. I'm not thrilled about Lyft's rampant hipster-branding, but Uber seems like a company run by pricks. Maybe it's just because they're the underdog, but I'm really rooting for Lyft.

The big difference for me is that Lyft allows you to tip in the app that's very telling.

Yes, it's very telling that Lyft offers a suboptimal experience.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#25
post #13

I don't know whether this is a real difference or not, but Lyft "feels" like a much nicer company than Uber. I'm not thrilled about Lyft's rampant hipster-branding, but Uber seems like a company run by pricks. Maybe it's just because they're the underdog, but I'm really rooting for Lyft.

The big difference for me is that Lyft allows you to tip in the app that's very telling.

personally I'd like to see startups help to move us away from a tipping economy, kind of bummed when they added that

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#26
post #23

The "short-term car rental hubs... where people who do not own cars can pick up a vehicle and drive for Lyft to earn money" is a nice idea in the short-term. I still think Uber has the right idea long-term with a completely autonomous fleet, but once those hit the market, there will still be a pretty large demand for NON-autonomous vehicles -- take my parents, for instance, who refuse to get into a car not driven by…

Your parents will be irrelevant in 2 or 3 generations from now. At some point, fully autonomous will be a norm without the fear.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#27
post #23

The "short-term car rental hubs... where people who do not own cars can pick up a vehicle and drive for Lyft to earn money" is a nice idea in the short-term. I still think Uber has the right idea long-term with a completely autonomous fleet, but once those hit the market, there will still be a pretty large demand for NON-autonomous vehicles -- take my parents, for instance, who refuse to get into a car not driven by…

Your parents will be irrelevant in 2 or 3 generations from now. At some point, fully autonomous will be a norm without the fear.

2-3 generations is a long time to make money.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#28
post #23

The "short-term car rental hubs... where people who do not own cars can pick up a vehicle and drive for Lyft to earn money" is a nice idea in the short-term. I still think Uber has the right idea long-term with a completely autonomous fleet, but once those hit the market, there will still be a pretty large demand for NON-autonomous vehicles -- take my parents, for instance, who refuse to get into a car not driven by…

Your parents will be irrelevant in 2 or 3 generations from now. At some point, fully autonomous will be a norm without the fear.

When do you want your return on investment? Within the next 20 years or within the next 60?

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#29

Not to hijack, but how do we stop esentially duplicate URLs in "new" see ( http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/technology/gm-invests-i... ) not matching?

The subdomain is probably the issue. Suggest updating it to strip out subdomain, query string, hashes etc and do a domain and path comparison. Too many sites have a mobile subdomain with the rest of the domain the same.

Also, sites like NYTimes add different URL parameters based on how you arrived at the article (eg, which menu item you clicked). I strip those out when submitting to HN, but others might not, so HN views it as a different URL.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#30
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in Colorado Springs, Lyft was much more available than Uber so I used it for the first time after only having ever used Uber for the past year. The major thing I found different was the driver wanted me to sit in the front and was much more enthusiastic about conversation. It wasn't bad but it was definitely different and somewhat offputting. Not sure if that was just a single event, but I wonder if each c…

Sounds like a Colorado Springs effect. Here in NYC I've used both fairly evenly and (unsurprisingly) the experiences are fairly similar and in line with the typical "uber" style of sitting in the back and not talking unless you choose to reach out...

From my experience in NYC many drivers drive for both Uber and Lyft. In an anecdotal poll I ran with those drivers, they say Uber riders usually like to be left alone while Lyft riders are more chatty.
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