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Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

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Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#111

Post by serge2k »

iamdave wrote: post #106
the_watcher wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Austin kicked them out for bullshit reasons, citing safety of riding with un-fingerprinted drivers, when if you simply go out downtown in Austin now or before Uber, you'd see dozens of people knocking on random car windows and offering them cash for a ride. None of whom were fingerprinted. The competitors who have gotten traction also do not fingerprint, but as they are decentralized, there's not really a way to…

Austin kicked them out? That's news to me as a resident because the distinct impression I got was that we the people voted we wanted drivers fingerprinted, and if they could do that, they could stay but apparently it was more cost effective to launch a million+ dollar campaign against the proposal and try running a sitting councilmember (who, sure, I'll admit, probably doesn't have good approval ratings) out of offic…

I don't understand. Uber's a disruptive startup, surely that means they are right. Regulations are for companies that aren't startups disrupting. Taxpayers should be able to be disrupted by startups.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#112

Post by Paul-ish »

forgetsusername wrote: post #13
tachyonbeam wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same reaction when I rode UberPool from the south bay into SF (a 45 minute ride) for just under $18, and nobody else pooled with me. How could this be fair to the drivers? So I asked the driver how much he was getting for the trip. I believe he said something like $50. Fortunately, he wasn't getting shortchanged. Later, someone pointed out to me that Lyft and Uber are aggressively competing right now. It se…

> for just under $18, and nobody else pooled with me. How could this be fair to the drivers? So I asked the driver how much he was getting for the trip. I believe he said something like $50 Quite the business model. I wonder if they really believe they're earning goodwill at the rate of an Andrew Jackson per ride?

It's just an anecdote. On the other side of this, I have gotten a pool ride from the airport that took 3 riders including myself. We all got dropped off within a few blocks of each other. Uber must have made 2x on that ride.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#113

Post by serge2k »

ianferrel wrote: post #88
twblalock wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but now there seems to be no barrier to entry for any competing service except writing an app. If that's true, why isn't Lyft doing well?

Because Uber is outcompeting them on VC subsidies. The point of the parent is: How does Uber turn all these subsidies into an actual profit someday? It's easy to undersell your competitors when you're burning money. Once the VC dries up, how does Uber compete with any other entrant?

If Uber grows to a point where they can set their prices to get a reasonable profit margin. If their competitors can't really undercut and make money then they have to rely on VCs who are willing to burn cash to help a competitor grow. But why a VC do that?

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Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#114

Post by iamdave »

serge2k wrote: post #111
iamdave wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austin kicked them out? That's news to me as a resident because the distinct impression I got was that we the people voted we wanted drivers fingerprinted, and if they could do that, they could stay but apparently it was more cost effective to launch a million+ dollar campaign against the proposal and try running a sitting councilmember (who, sure, I'll admit, probably doesn't have good approval ratings) out of offic…

I don't understand. Uber's a disruptive startup, surely that means they are right. Regulations are for companies that aren't startups disrupting. Taxpayers should be able to be disrupted by startups.

You may want to indicate the sarcasm for those at home.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#115

Post by Paul-ish »

lsc wrote: post #104
laksjd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they can kill the competition they can then crank the prices back up and profit of this for years and years. It feels slightly 'evil' but it does make business sense, especially if they know they can outlast their competitors.

I don't know. Right now? It costs me ten bucks a day to uber pool from my house in Santa Clara to my gig in mountain view and back. At those rates, I am totally paying and reading. But if that were twenty or thirty a day? Maybe not, or at least it would not be an every day thing. The problem for uber is that I am paying the majority of the cost of owning a car, the parking space, either way, so switching back to driv…

> Now if uber would bully the city into letting someone build a parking free tower of studio condos? Yeah o.k. Maybe they could exploit the lack of competition to get me to pay a lot more for transport.

If Uber gets big, expect this to happen in addition to blocking the construction of effective bike lanes.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#116

Post by capkutay »

the_watcher wrote: post #97
nicwolff wrote: post #66

Uber has taken $12B of capital, broken the regulatory regimes and opened the drive-for-hire markets, marketed the benefits of drive-for-hire and ride-sharing to drivers and consumers, and helped drivers finance vehicles – but now there seems to be no barrier to entry for any competing service except writing an app. I'm happy to let VCs pay for my comfortable daily ride to work but I don't see how this is sustainable.…

> but now there seems to be no barrier to entry for any competing service except writing an app. Except network of drivers, network of riders with the app installed, name recognition, capital to run the backend systems and delve into mapping algorithms, etc.

Yeah I think barrier to entry is misunderstood as a technical attribute of a company.

Of course it's possible to build some app that tells people nearby to pick them up with metering/billing services built in.

From a business standpoint, it would almost be impossible to duplicate what they have today.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#117

Post by linkregister »

revelation wrote: post #83
jbrambleDC wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so i suspect they are trying to kill of Lyft, then replace drivers with autonomous driving and keep the prices relatively constant by having loyal customers join in on a subscription model like pool pass and use it as your daily commute. I am actually already taking Pool, with pool pass every day in DC for $1.00 per ride, $30 up front fee. Only way this is sustainable is to eventually replace drivers. Also to really…

So they are building a worse rail?

More like the last mile to stem the gap in coverage by Metro. Metro will always beat surface streets within downtown.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#118

Post by davidf18 »

effinggames wrote: post #103
davidf18 wrote: post #45

Hey Uber, it is very nice to offer this in SF, SD, Boston, but what about NYC? :-(

Seems like they offered something similar last month: https://www.giltcity.com/newyork/ubernycjuly16

Unfortunately, there was a limited number of offers and I was unable to get one. The SF, SD, Boston offers don't have that limit.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#119

Post by linkregister »

koolba wrote: post #94
calvinbhai wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot understand, why even highly educated people fail to make this distinction between gross pay and the net pay. If that "provided you accept certain amount of rides" keeps increasing since more people will make use of such subscriptions, the operating expenses (fuel + wear and tear) continues to increase.

Plus gas. Plus depreciating your car. Plus paying your own benefits. Plus 1099 double taxation. Yes that's pretty disingenuous.

After deducting the IRS per-mile amount, the 1099 double taxation drastically drops.

Re: Uber launches flat fares in San Francisco through subscription

#120

Post by serge2k »

laksjd wrote: post #30
forgetsusername wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for just under $18, and nobody else pooled with me. How could this be fair to the drivers? So I asked the driver how much he was getting for the trip. I believe he said something like $50 Quite the business model. I wonder if they really believe they're earning goodwill at the rate of an Andrew Jackson per ride?

If they can kill the competition they can then crank the prices back up and profit of this for years and years. It feels slightly 'evil' but it does make business sense, especially if they know they can outlast their competitors.

Well they are built off ignoring regulation, so I guess they just figure they will get away with ignoring laws against monopolies.
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