but then what is the most important metric for Uber? AFAIR they are not growing as fast as they were, and have been all but outlawed in many places already.
Actually there are only a handful of places in the US where Uber is banned. Contrary to popular belief (and intentionally propagated by smear campaigns), Uber wasn't banned in Austin TX... they pulled out of that market voluntarily.
Why talk about the US? It's only one market of many.
In many other countries Uber has been banned.
> what prevents the now uber driver to switch to become lyft drivers ? The (non)availability of Lyft all over the world except one country. According to some quick googling, Uber exists in 80 countries without Lyft.
I think the point OP is making is that Uber doesn't really own anything outside mindshare. The drivers are after all free agents. Once the VC money used to subsidize rides dries out basically any company can challenge Uber. Which is why Uber wants to cut their dependence on drivers by using self driving cars. Then they will actually own something (the technology) in addition to the mindshare.
I just think that this will take possibly a very long time. Lyft wants to stay in the US and just partner with services in other countries. So new ones need to pop up and not suck (I tried a local South African one, besides no available drivers where I was, the app was absolutely horrible) AND manage to survive long enough to actually be a relevant service compared to uber.
If you are in London and you have got to get that famous child prodigy to the film studio with chaperone and teacher then you will be ordering them an Addison Lee private hire vehicle or better. A regular cab or some unlicenced 'Uber' gig-economy 'cab' isn't going to cut it. I expect that other parts of the world are the same.
I had an UberLUX in London a few months ago and I had a very nice experience with a professional chauffeur (complete with black suit) in a Mercedes S-Class. Uber services aren't all Priuses with signs saying "Please rate 5-stars!" hanging off the front-seat head-restraints.
Yeh, in my experience UberLUX cars in London have all been chauffeurs picking up Uber work between booked chauffeur jobs.
>>Sure Uber is losing gobs of money, but that's not the most important metric at this stage for them. Look at Tesla, they lost 330 million in 2017 Q1. Apples and oranges. Tesla is losing money because they are investing massive amounts of capital to improve their supply chain and production capabilities. Uber is losing money because they subsidize rides to try to push competitors out of business. Tesla is actually pr…
"Uber is losing money because they subsidize rides to try to push competitors out of business." ?? I think thats the wrong way to phrase this. Uber is loosing money as Uber and its competitors are giving a lot of incentives to drivers to win business. All of them are loosing money.
It is interesting that you and him describe essentially the same mechanism with different words. I would personally call it dumping.
In effect, Uber is selling something at a lower cost than it buys, in order to acquire the market.
I wish Lyft didn't have tips, it's the one thing keeping me from rooting for them to win.
It's super easy not to tip with Lyft though. I almost never do, unless the driver was especially good (provided good conversation, recommendations, etc).
Technically you don't have to tip at e restaurant either (large parties excluded). Try going back there and see the service you get.
Lyft should show the total of tips every 20 trips or so they had no chance of guessing who tipped and who didn't. Or openly state that a 15% tip would be appreciated and the passenger knows that it's the ride +15%.
Waymo will have the first self driving cars on the road. They are so ahead of everyone. I think everyone including regular car companies buy the tech from Waymo in the short term.
I'm curious where Tesla fits into this scheme. In terms of road miles, I reckon Tesla would have Waymo beat easily. They have far too many cars on the road and thus, way more data. Does this factor into the quality of self-driving tech at all?
The miles aren't equal, though. Waymo's cars have an amazing array of sensors on them, including 360 degree LiDAR, which Teslas don't have.
Tipping culture has historically trended towards an expectation of ever higher and more commonplace tips to not look like an asshole. Tipping culture also introduces uncertainty into pricing, and means that nicer people pay more and jerks get to pay less, for the same service.
>Tipping culture also introduces uncertainty into pricing, and means that nicer people pay more and jerks get to pay less, for the same service. Why is someone a jerk for not tipping? I pay for service provided - give me a receipt with the amount and I'll pay it, no problem. Let's end tipping, folks...
It would require a legislative solution to end tipping. Until that happens, most restaurants pay their servers $2.13 an hour, with the rest of their pay coming from tips. If you don't tip at a restaurant that does make you a jerk. I don't like tipping culture either, but as long as you live in one, you've just gotta play along with it. Think of tips as an added tax on the price, and go out less if necessary to keep your costs under control.
Sure Uber is losing gobs of money, but that's not the most important metric at this stage for them. Look at Tesla, they lost 330 million in 2017 Q1. You absolutely will find bears against Tesla, but that's mainly because of its current $324 share price, not its fundamental business which is losing money.
>>Sure Uber is losing gobs of money, but that's not the most important metric at this stage for them. Look at Tesla, they lost 330 million in 2017 Q1. Apples and oranges. Tesla is losing money because they are investing massive amounts of capital to improve their supply chain and production capabilities. Uber is losing money because they subsidize rides to try to push competitors out of business. Tesla is actually pr…
Uber doesn't even have competitors in many markets they expanded to. Well, save for traditional taxis.
When 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.
I'd say this assessment is clouded by your own judgements of Uber. Uber is vastly larger than Lyft. I've taken Uber's all over the world (Europe, South America), Lyft barely has market penetration in rural areas of the United States. I recently bet my friend who is supremely confident that United Airlines business will be significantly impacted due to the passenger incident. Thus far, it appears United is doing just…
Yes, another example is Wells Fargo, stock not that much affected - yet. It takes time, but consumer sentiment is eventually unstoppable like water wearing down rock