51–60 of 402 posts
“From a G.M. perspective, we view this as much more of an opportunity than a threat” - G.M President Something you don't hear big corps talk so about start-ups very often. It's promising.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it's very telling that Lyft offers a suboptimal experience.
Not being pressured to carry cash is a suboptimal experience? I refuse to carry cash. If I were to take Uber, I'd have drivers one-starring me and giving me a bad reputation for not tipping them. With Lyft, I can tip in the app and avoid all that mess.
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…
Now is lower tier cities costs should be lower but that chunk coming out to rent what I assume is a fairly newer model is going to put a dent in your money making. You are in effect paying the car off for someone else.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it's very telling that Lyft offers a suboptimal experience.
Not being pressured to carry cash is a suboptimal experience? I refuse to carry cash. If I were to take Uber, I'd have drivers one-starring me and giving me a bad reputation for not tipping them. With Lyft, I can tip in the app and avoid all that mess.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Didn't Uber buy the Carnegie Mellon robotics division? Is it too much to think they might try for their own hardware platform? It might be, but why else do so?
They will still need a chassis/engine before they have a viable car, and there's been no real external indication of them either developing that in house or partnering with/purchasing someone that can provide that expertise. .. at least I think that's what the question is about.
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…
Isn't that just a marketing and PR problem, first and foremost? "The new [insert brand here], safer than any other vehicle ever developed [insert statistic here]. It will bring you where you want to go, fast, safe and while you can tend to the things in life that really matter [insert family/reading/working montage]." I'm no adman, but I think it won't be too difficult to sell this. And if all fails, lower insurance…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it's very telling that Lyft offers a suboptimal experience.
Not being pressured to carry cash is a suboptimal experience? I refuse to carry cash. If I were to take Uber, I'd have drivers one-starring me and giving me a bad reputation for not tipping them. With Lyft, I can tip in the app and avoid all that mess.
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.
If nothing else, I'm rooting for Lyft so that Uber is not the only one out there. I'm scared of what would happen to service / prices if Uber had no real competition. For that reason, I only use Lyft.
This makes me wonder if Lyft can leverage the backlash against Uber and achieve success in areas hostile to Uber but not hostile to ridesharing/Car-as-a-Service services.
It is essentially a land-grab but on a global scale, with the measure of success being on-going local dominance on a per city basis. Personally I find it fascinating, the goings-ons of municipalities are usually quite opaque to outsiders and the insight is new.
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…
> I agree that this is probably the end state of this space, but I think this is much more Google's than Uber's vision - Uber is terrified of autonomous cars (since it eliminates the supply network effect of their driver network and opens up the space to anyone with deep pockets). Once autonomous cars become a reality, I think you are going to see a fierce battle between Uber and Google.
Google Ventures invested $258M in Uber in 2013 and are one of it's largest shareholders.