If Alphabet really wants to mess with Uber, why don't they just buy Lyft and offer lower ride pricing/higher driver pay for as long as it takes to put Uber out of business?
That's going to take a lot of dollars..
Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
31–40 of 383 posts
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#32I feel like Lyft is the underdog coming back to strike the killer blow to Uber... The year Uber has had I wouldn't be surprised to see them disappear altogether by 2018/2019. Lyft seems to be doing things a lot better, but helps that their CEO isn't out starting fires instead of putting them out.
I'd just like to point out that we really don't want to Uber to die. The market will be healthier if Uber and lift are both successful.
Nah, we really do want them to die. Couldn't happen to a nicer company.
If it's competition you're concerned about: they have a well documented record of sabotaging their competition, rather than winning on merits. They're not good for the market they are in, which is bad for all of us.
There are also some other reasons we want them to die, relating to their being an abusive employer, which I'd like to think would have consequences for their reputation in our community.
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#33If Alphabet really wants to mess with Uber, why don't they just buy Lyft and offer lower ride pricing/higher driver pay for as long as it takes to put Uber out of business?
[deleted]
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Car costs $30k-$60k lifetime (repairs and such). Not many taxi services run luxury vehicles. Paying a single person full-time probably runs $30k-$40k/year, and you're probably running two to keep the duty cycle up. Gas is probably another $10k/year. Car lasts, what, five or ten years? Fifteen if you're careful and buy for reliability? Yes, people and fuel are the most expensive components.
New York City cabs seem to stay in service about 6 years, with 400,000+ miles on them at that point.
400k miles, damn.
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#35I feel like Lyft is the underdog coming back to strike the killer blow to Uber... The year Uber has had I wouldn't be surprised to see them disappear altogether by 2018/2019. Lyft seems to be doing things a lot better, but helps that their CEO isn't out starting fires instead of putting them out.
Interesting. I feel like there is no way Uber would be on the brink of bankruptcy and not be able to fundamentally change the problems that have persisted so far.
I guess what I'm getting at is that a company valued at 69 billion dollars going out of business in less than 2 years should be a surprise to everyone.
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#36I feel like Lyft is the underdog coming back to strike the killer blow to Uber... The year Uber has had I wouldn't be surprised to see them disappear altogether by 2018/2019. Lyft seems to be doing things a lot better, but helps that their CEO isn't out starting fires instead of putting them out.
Lyft - Uber might be a Facebook - MySpace story.
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#37When I use lyft now, I'm coming across drivers that only drive for lyft. The tide has definitely shifted against Uber. I'm not really sure there's a way back at this point. The one advantage Uber had was network effect, but in my experience that has diminished. Lyfts come just as fast as Ubers now because they have enough drivers on the road to support the response time. I'll never go back to Uber.
Odd. I'm in the Bay Area and have taken many Lyft's lately both in the south bay and also the peninsula. Usually the drivers I get drive for both even up to this point.
Could just be regional, not really sure? I feel like even with Uber's issues many drivers who do ride-sharing as a "job" won't want to just drop Uber as it may mean losing out on income (not sure if they can make up the loss with driving more for Lyft).
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#38this will most likely amount to nothing or very little, waymo is also launching their own competing service at some point and lyft has other suppliers for cars (GM/Cruise), this will most likely be a stop gap and used as a a good headliner grab for both companies, just look at what happened to the short lived Lyft/Didi/Grab partnership that went up in smoke
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#39I feel like Lyft is the underdog coming back to strike the killer blow to Uber... The year Uber has had I wouldn't be surprised to see them disappear altogether by 2018/2019. Lyft seems to be doing things a lot better, but helps that their CEO isn't out starting fires instead of putting them out.
I'd just like to point out that we really don't want to Uber to die. The market will be healthier if Uber and lift are both successful.
Nah. Uber and Lyft have left several cities that passed regulations they didn't like. In the case of Austin TX specifically there's now more choices of ridesharing services with significant market share, not less. The drivers also get paid better.
I think it's abundantly clear at this point that both Lyft and Uber use monopolistic anti competitive tactics.
Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars
#40I feel like Lyft is the underdog coming back to strike the killer blow to Uber... The year Uber has had I wouldn't be surprised to see them disappear altogether by 2018/2019. Lyft seems to be doing things a lot better, but helps that their CEO isn't out starting fires instead of putting them out.
Interesting. I feel like there is no way Uber would be on the brink of bankruptcy and not be able to fundamentally change the problems that have persisted so far. I guess what I'm getting at is that a company valued at 69 billion dollars going out of business in less than 2 years should be a surprise to everyone .
Would they run the coffers dry though?
The answer might be yes and I'd go with yes, but if they're for some reason on what they see as a death spiral, they could return some investor money and call it quits.