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Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

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Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#31

Post by grandalf »

fullshark wrote: post #27
grandalf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has done nearly everything right. I think its main vulnerability is that its laborers are a fickle bunch and Uber hasn't done enough to inspire any loyalty. All Uber drivers I talk to alternate between Uber and Lyft and exploit any promotions or incentives either firm offers. Uber has the opportunity to revolutionize not just logistics but also on-demand employment, but has lagged in the latter, leaving the door…

Uber's racing to make their drivers obsolete. They view them as an unwelcome cost and have no desire to spend resources making them loyal.

All it takes is a few upsurges in populism and Uber might be forced to do it on someone else's terms and without preparing investors for it. Even with first world labor standards, Uber is a superb business model.

I had Uber eats delivered the other day by a guy driving a beautiful newish BMW who seemed like an out of work white collar worker, not a livery driver. There is tremendous value in having short-term, minimal commitment structured employment options available, the services I recommend offer more value to employees than they cost because they are hard to find in a turnkey fashion for someone who needs them.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#32

Post by ariwilson »

tyingq wrote: post #2

There's a number of things that have happened in the organic search area of Google that seem to suggest a declining interest in quality organic results. There's Matt Cutts' long leave of absence, his departure, and the announcement that he's not really being replaced. A much lower volume of communication from Google on initiatives in the space (they used to talk endlessly about Panda, Penguin, etc). Amit's original r…

The career decisions of two people do not a policy make. Both people had been at Google for over 15 years and presumably wanted a change.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#33

Post by tyingq »

nolok wrote: post #23
rryan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a number of things that have happened in the organic search area of Google that seem to suggest a declining interest in quality organic results. I think you may be falling for the SV cult of personality fallacy. There are still literally thousands of individuals you've never heard of working on organic search quality at Google who care very much about quality organic results. :)

No no no, the two person whose name he knew left after years in the same job, it must mean Google doesn't care anymore about their main product that makes roughly 90% of their revenue ! So yeah I totally agree, be it Google, Apple, Microsoft, ... A large amount of people around here are so used to small team startup represented by their founder that they always feel the need in similar stories to make a cult of perso…

I mentioned more than just two personalities.

Edit: And, I did mention more focus on ads and widgets versus the actual organic results. If those weren't more important, why are they at the top, crowding organics down? The revenue isn't really coming from the organics themselves.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#34

Post by morgante »

ycombini wrote: post #13
oculusthrift wrote: post #5

I'm really confused on what to think about Uber. My personal thinking/logic is really bearish on them, similar to the post on the front page yesterday [1]. However, I keep seeing extremely smart/accomplished people joining it which makes me second guess my intuition. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13437414

And there were times when extremely smart & accomplished people were joining Facebook

And Facebook is now a huge and profitable company... So they all made a smart move.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#35

Post by throwaway91111 »

grandalf wrote: post #31
fullshark wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber's racing to make their drivers obsolete. They view them as an unwelcome cost and have no desire to spend resources making them loyal.

All it takes is a few upsurges in populism and Uber might be forced to do it on someone else's terms and without preparing investors for it. Even with first world labor standards, Uber is a superb business model. I had Uber eats delivered the other day by a guy driving a beautiful newish BMW who seemed like an out of work white collar worker, not a livery driver. There is tremendous value in having short-term, minima…

Forced how? I have friends that eat because of Uber. What leverage do they have against Uber?

This is a tragedy of the commons problem: Uber is footing an addiction to cheap transport nobody knows how to satiate.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#36

Post by Fricken »

cm2012 wrote: post #20
grandalf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has done nearly everything right. I think its main vulnerability is that its laborers are a fickle bunch and Uber hasn't done enough to inspire any loyalty. All Uber drivers I talk to alternate between Uber and Lyft and exploit any promotions or incentives either firm offers. Uber has the opportunity to revolutionize not just logistics but also on-demand employment, but has lagged in the latter, leaving the door…

They are really worried about their contractors being classified as employees. That would be an existential threat.

They have to last until their vehicles are autonomous. If drivers were phased in to paid training maintaining the fleets and troubleshooting kinks in the system, shitty jobs will become good jobs. Most drivers will leave, but a solid chunk of them could be brought in through an apprenticeship program that certifies them in mechanics, robotics, software, remote assistance, ground crews, electricity. Robotaxis are a whole new industry that's just gonna pop up nationwide they'll be maintenance intensive in so many ways. There's good lifelong careers there, because after Robotaxis arrive they aren't going away, and the potential market is so huge that no single competitor will be able to scale fast enough to dominate the way Uber has in the rideshare wars- it will be too capital/labour/politics/logistics intensive for that.

I recommend checking out this demo video that showed up on Kyle Vogt's twitter feed yesterday. The news barely touched it, it's a dashcam timelapse of a 20 minute autonomous drive through hectic downtown San Fransisco traffic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tp6Ubf6mE4

Nobody really knew where the GM/Cruise/Lyft arrangement was at until this demo dropped, and it turns out they are advanced. Kyle Vogt is some kind of fucking dude. This industry is going to go kaboom. There's Apple, Zoox, Ford, the Germans, they've all committed massive resources, it's hard to know exactly where the state of the art really is, but they all read the same research papers papers, they all have talent onboard, they all have deep pockets, they're all moving with a sense of urgency.

If Trump keeps the full stack operation within our borders, it'll be a vital new industry. If that 1 trillion dollar infrastructure budget goes through, we'll be rejiggering our cities and everyone will have a good job that hopefully doesn't require a $50,000 degree. If Trump can make friends with the world and scale back the military industrial complex we might be able to pay for it.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#37

Post by tyingq »

8166284 wrote: post #19
tyingq wrote: post #2

There's a number of things that have happened in the organic search area of Google that seem to suggest a declining interest in quality organic results. There's Matt Cutts' long leave of absence, his departure, and the announcement that he's not really being replaced. A much lower volume of communication from Google on initiatives in the space (they used to talk endlessly about Panda, Penguin, etc). Amit's original r…

If I had a nickel for every time I heard "market share war is over, X won" and then that marked X's high water point in the industry, I mean I'd be doing ok. Guess this is the point where we short Alphabet?

My comment was a bit more nuanced than that. They appear to be shifting more effort into widgets and ads. And less into the actual organic results. It's not that odd the the lead runner slows down when they've lapped the field.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#38

Post by withdavidli »

oculusthrift wrote: post #5

I'm really confused on what to think about Uber. My personal thinking/logic is really bearish on them, similar to the post on the front page yesterday [1]. However, I keep seeing extremely smart/accomplished people joining it which makes me second guess my intuition. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13437414

Because a person is smart/ accomplished in their domain does not mean they will be in another. In this instance, people that are technology geniuses, doesn't mean they know about liquidation preferences and accounting.

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#39

Post by enjo »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #26
oculusthrift wrote: post #5

I'm really confused on what to think about Uber. My personal thinking/logic is really bearish on them, similar to the post on the front page yesterday [1]. However, I keep seeing extremely smart/accomplished people joining it which makes me second guess my intuition. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13437414

I think self-driving cars would be a major challenge for Uber. As long as ridesharing companies need human drivers network effects ensure that Uber will remain at the top. But when driverless cars become feasible Uber's moat disappears. What's stopping an upstart company to buy/lease 10,000 self-driving cars and let them loose on the street? There's no reason for customers to prefer Uber over them. (This problem beco…

What investor would invest in a competitor if the market is as commoditized as you foresee? (I agree with you fwiw)

Re: Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering

#40

Post by slightleep »

grandalf wrote: post #14
oculusthrift wrote: post #5

I'm really confused on what to think about Uber. My personal thinking/logic is really bearish on them, similar to the post on the front page yesterday [1]. However, I keep seeing extremely smart/accomplished people joining it which makes me second guess my intuition. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13437414

Uber has done nearly everything right. I think its main vulnerability is that its laborers are a fickle bunch and Uber hasn't done enough to inspire any loyalty. All Uber drivers I talk to alternate between Uber and Lyft and exploit any promotions or incentives either firm offers. Uber has the opportunity to revolutionize not just logistics but also on-demand employment, but has lagged in the latter, leaving the door…

Uber cannot afford to do any of the things you've listed because Uber cannot sustain the subsidies it is already giving out to its drivers. Moreover, Uber doesn't want its drivers to be educated about the true cost of operating a vehicle for Uber because if they realized how much it cost, most wouldn't do it.

The only one of your bullet points Uber has pursued is the last one -- they rope drivers into car leases in hopes that when they eventually ramp up the amount of money they collect from each fare their drivers will be locked into driving for Uber so they cannot leave.

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