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Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

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Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#391

Post by microtherion »

orthoganol wrote: post #126
nharada wrote: post #4

Presumably this is intentional -- Uber could raise prices and make more money, but right now they're choosing to keep prices very low in order to undercut Lyft and the cab companies with the assumption that having a monopoly will return more profits in the future. At least anecdotally, here in SF Lyft is almost always more expensive than Uber.

I think almost certainly their profitability is dependent on a future of driverless cars, and I'm sure that's what they are pitching investors. Fearfully, since their survival means going driverless and they are now losing $800 million a quarter, they will race to get driverless cars on the road, it will be rushed, and it could be reckless. I'm thinking the two driverless cars filmed blowing red lights in SF recently…

Ironically, one of Uber's current cost advantages is that they don't own their fleet of cars, and their drivers are bad at estimating depreciation.

Once they go driverless, they won't have to pay drivers anymore, but they will no longer have drivers renting them their car at a discounted rate.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#392

Post by Apocryphon »

snrplfth wrote: post #376
mindcrime wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a republic, the state is the citizenry. In theory. I think we're pretty far removed from that in reality.

So...apparently for Apocryphon, the American citizenry is Trump? Interesting.

The citizenry may have severe differences of opinion with the leader in charge, but they have so far seen fit to endorse the system that brought him into power. So yes, the citizenry is Trump because Trump is a citizen, and he has won the electoral process that the citizenry did not work up the effort to reform or change to make it otherwise.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#393

Post by intrasight »

orthoganol wrote: post #386
intrasight wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber autonomous doesn't have to be better than the best human drivers in all conditions. They only have to be much better than the average human driver in all conditions. This isn't a very high threshold to meet.

This is a false equivalence that I've seen a few times here and elsewhere. It's wrong because: The majority of car accidents are correlated with someone's fault, related to altered state, inexperience, distraction, or bad judgment. Some types of people are prone to accidents, others are less prone. But in the self driving car world it's all equal - it's completely arbitrary who is a victim of an accident. Someone who…

>But in the self driving car world it's all equal...

And that, my friend, is a very good thing. We slowly raise the bar and eventually get rid of bad drivers - because in the future only people with a near perfect driving record will be granted a license.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#394

Post by Daviey »

mattmanser wrote: post #337
Daviey wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people? [Citation Needed]. Most of the people I know that use it, do use it in many locations.

The vast majority of people live/work in one place. No citation needed, just common sense. Sounds like you're suffering from a pretty severe filter bubble.

So the people I know that use Uber in multiple cities (mostly for work), spanning multiple employers and multiple countries and locations is a 'filter bubble' - but the inverse perception from you is common sense?

I'd say it is bad form to base an argument like this as fact, when there is clearly significant evidence of the inverse. We know that Uber has targeted airport usage, with a seemingly offline cache of airport GPS locations baked into the app - to tap the travel market... I'd be hesitant to say this doesn't alone make an impact.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#395

Post by intrasight »

orthoganol wrote: post #386
intrasight wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber autonomous doesn't have to be better than the best human drivers in all conditions. They only have to be much better than the average human driver in all conditions. This isn't a very high threshold to meet.

This is a false equivalence that I've seen a few times here and elsewhere. It's wrong because: The majority of car accidents are correlated with someone's fault, related to altered state, inexperience, distraction, or bad judgment. Some types of people are prone to accidents, others are less prone. But in the self driving car world it's all equal - it's completely arbitrary who is a victim of an accident. Someone who…

> driving at just an "above average" level

I did say "much better than average" I agree that if "just above average" this would be a fail.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#396

Post by nasmorn »

Trundle wrote: post #312
chris_va wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this analogy breaks down with ridesharing services because there isn't any lock-in, and barrier to entry is low (now that Uber has plowed through the regulations). Many Uber drivers are already logged into Lyft at the same time, despite a disparity in demand.

Are there lock in withs ebay? Barrier to entry is certainly low.

The difference is that eBay sells a lot of things. But über sells a commodity

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#397

Post by [deleted] »

Trundle wrote: post #312
chris_va wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this analogy breaks down with ridesharing services because there isn't any lock-in, and barrier to entry is low (now that Uber has plowed through the regulations). Many Uber drivers are already logged into Lyft at the same time, despite a disparity in demand.

Are there lock in withs ebay? Barrier to entry is certainly low.

[deleted]

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#398

Post by snrplfth »

Apocryphon wrote: post #392
snrplfth wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So...apparently for Apocryphon, the American citizenry is Trump? Interesting.

The citizenry may have severe differences of opinion with the leader in charge, but they have so far seen fit to endorse the system that brought him into power. So yes, the citizenry is Trump because Trump is a citizen, and he has won the electoral process that the citizenry did not work up the effort to reform or change to make it otherwise.

So if "the citizens", or some subset thereof, are unable to change the system, then they're assume, as a group, to be endorsing the system and its actions? And to be genuinely represented, indeed manifested, by its officials, even when those officials are aggressively at odds with each other?

Remarkable.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#399

Post by Apocryphon »

snrplfth wrote: post #398
Apocryphon wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The citizenry may have severe differences of opinion with the leader in charge, but they have so far seen fit to endorse the system that brought him into power. So yes, the citizenry is Trump because Trump is a citizen, and he has won the electoral process that the citizenry did not work up the effort to reform or change to make it otherwise.

So if "the citizens", or some subset thereof, are unable to change the system, then they're assume, as a group, to be endorsing the system and its actions? And to be genuinely represented, indeed manifested, by its officials, even when those officials are aggressively at odds with each other? Remarkable.

There's different degrees of endorsement. There's "agreeing with every jot and thistle of the system's actions" and there's "not trying to violently overthrow the system as bullshit." Most people live somewhere in between, closer to the former position than the latter. Most people want to change the system, but do not dispute the necessity of the system. As such, that means "the state is made of the people" is truer in the consent of the governed sense, and not the dystopian Soylent Green sense. That isn't to say there is no need for large-scale reform and changes; of course there is.

Re: Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

#400

Post by snrplfth »

Apocryphon wrote: post #399
snrplfth wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if "the citizens", or some subset thereof, are unable to change the system, then they're assume, as a group, to be endorsing the system and its actions? And to be genuinely represented, indeed manifested, by its officials, even when those officials are aggressively at odds with each other? Remarkable.

There's different degrees of endorsement. There's "agreeing with every jot and thistle of the system's actions" and there's "not trying to violently overthrow the system as bullshit." Most people live somewhere in between, closer to the former position than the latter. Most people want to change the system, but do not dispute the necessity of the system. As such, that means "the state is made of the people" is truer…

Of course there's degrees of endorsement, there always is. I'm just responding to the notion of yours that "in a republic, the state is the citizenry." Well, no, it's not, and it doesn't need to be - and indeed, there's no real way for it, in fact, to be so. Certainly, it can represent certain preferences of the citizenry, through various mechanisms and political tools, but the state isn't the citizenry, it's an institution with particular powers and structures. That's not objecting to the concept of endorsement, it's just pointing out the distinction.
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