Why I don't believe in Uber's Success

Post by tenminuteslater » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 3:23 AM UTC

alikoneko wrote: post #184

dchuk wrote: post #48

Uber's current problem is they have run out of things to innovate on. They've pretty much nailed the UX in their app, and all they're left with is cars taking people from Point A to Point B. What is left to improve on there? So now, their only way to grow is to race to the bottom on price and undercut their competitors. And the only way to do that is to light billions of VC dollars on fire in the form of subsidized t…

> They've pretty much nailed the UX in their app ... Ehhhh....I disagree because I have a less than stellar UX every time I use it. However, my situation is more or less an edge case. I rely on Uber to take me from the train station to work every morning. The train station is right by FLL. It's even called the Fort Lauderdale AIRPORT Station at Dania Beach. I have to call the drivers and tell them I'm at the train st…

Post by smnplk » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 3:28 AM UTC

kmicklas wrote: post #303

Trombone12 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of whole demographics who don't even get cars because they can take the bus.

I know of whole cities who don't even get cars because they can take the subway!

Post by spraak » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 3:30 AM UTC

curun1r wrote: post #329

spraak wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived a short while in Chiang Mai Thailand. At the time Uber was just getting started and Grab was WAY better than Uber. I really wanted to like Uber there, but after about 5 times of the drivers 1. not finding me (yes, even with GPS), 2. not showing up at all after a long time waiting, or 3. not knowing where they were going.. I gave up. It seemed that they lacked training and that they were mostly trying to get t…

I was in Chiang Mai for most of December and I wonder how Uber can be successful there. The songthaews and tuktuks are so cheap that I almost always took those. The only time I took Uber was to go to the airport, since I carefully planned my money so that I wouldn't have any cash left over and Uber would charge my credit card and all the other options would require a variable amount of cash. That said, the Uber was r…

Post by smnplk » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 3:37 AM UTC

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #227

frankc wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is that this is really only true for people in dense urban environments. For instance, parking is not an issue in suburbia. There are use cases, like getting from your home to the train station, but it's not nearly as universal as it is for people who can currently get by with no car at all.

I think you're being too kind to the parent. This is true for a very small subset / archetype of people. The majority of the country has much different situations and desires than just walking to ALDI.

Post by dudus » Fri, Jan 20, 2017, 3:43 AM UTC

notahacker wrote: post #117

avn2109 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TFA and a lot of commenters here don't seem to understand that Uber doesn't want to compete with taxi services, which are a niche business to be disrupted en route to the real prize. It wants to compete with your car - imagine 12 lanes of L.A. traffic composed mostly of Ubers. That's their dream. They even admit this in public. [0] The day they can get cost per mile one penny below what you'd spend owning a Toyota Ca…

I can believe that's their goal: I see little reason to believe they'll succeed in it, beyond making the market a bit bigger than the current taxi/minicab market. Just because they're very good at supplying an unlicensed minicab service (apparently subsidised by VC money in many areas) doesn't mean they can (i) run a minicab business at a profit so much more efficiently than every other minicab business in history th…