Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O. • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#781

Post by samstave » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

Marazan wrote: post #289

samstave wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there is a lot of cost gutting that could be done and the money they pull in is no laughing matter. Some deep cuts wil likely occur to make the company "more efficient" and "focused on core competency" etc...

Given their main cost is 'running a mini cab service' it is hard to see what they can cut and still exist.

While your comment puts the high level business model in rather simplistic terms, which I agree with, how is it that "running a mini cab system" costs them 700 million per [time period] and why does said system require 6700 employees as of April 2016 (according to quora)

Laura's post from feb stated that on the ops/sre/infra team alone they had ~126 engineers, though I don't know if that includes managers... but it made it sound like there were many layers of managers, thus all the infighting

So can't they cut some of this?

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#782

Post by nickthemagicman » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

Don't imagine for one second that Uber wouldn't jack up prices in a heartbeat if they were the sole monopoly in NYC just like Yellow Cab was.

Uber's great in that they give competition to an entrenched monopoly of Yellow Cab.

But put Uber in a monopoly position anywhere and you'll see the rates skyrocket.

There needs to be a number of forces in the ride sharing market to keep prices down.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#783

Post by accountyaccount » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

davidf18 wrote: post #768

danans wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation doubly required because if the net miles driven actually increases due to increased use of cars over public transit (very likely), and increased availability of transportation services overall, the greenhouse gas emissions would go _up_ if anything. There are situations where ride services would encourage public transit utilization (last mile services), but I'd guess those are far from the dominant use case.

Have you ever used Uber pool? Two different customers sharing the same vehicle, lowering greenhouse gas. There is absolutely no proof whatsoever, that people sharing a vehicle increases greenhouse gas. Citation is required that it would.

This is too short-sighted. In my city a lot of people use Uber INSTEAD of readily available public transit (anecdotal observation). That's kind of a bad deal if it's a widespread truth. This would continue to hurt public transportation funding over time.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#784

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

davidf18 wrote: post #768

danans wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation doubly required because if the net miles driven actually increases due to increased use of cars over public transit (very likely), and increased availability of transportation services overall, the greenhouse gas emissions would go _up_ if anything. There are situations where ride services would encourage public transit utilization (last mile services), but I'd guess those are far from the dominant use case.

Have you ever used Uber pool? Two different customers sharing the same vehicle, lowering greenhouse gas. There is absolutely no proof whatsoever, that people sharing a vehicle increases greenhouse gas. Citation is required that it would.

[deleted]

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#785

Post by gizmodo59 » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:37 PM UTC

chris_7 wrote: post #749

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

Uber might improve "customer value", but as someone that takes a cab once every three months or so, cars with TLC license plates constantly failing to yield to my attempts to use a crosswalk have not improved my experience. I've decided to solve this by 1-starring and no-tipping any driver that fails to yield to a pedestrian, drives in a bike lane, or exceeds the 25mph speed limit at any point in the ride (so, like,…

"driver that fails to yield to a pedestrian, drives in a bike lane"

At least in Uber/Lyft you can rate a driver, there are many taxi drivers in NYC who drive rashly and don't do those things you listed and yet if you don't tip they will explicitly ask you to.

To me, the following are the most important things to use a ridesharing app:

Not paying any tip (In Yellow cab, many drivers demand for tip if you don't tip them)

Rating the drivers (It's a positive thing depending on how you view it)

Booking when you are drunk (While there are some apps that let you book yellow cabs we all know how bad those apps are)

Uber as a company or Lyft as a company may be disliked for some of the things they do, but ride sharing is a positive outcome. If the above three points are there for yellow cab, I will happily use them anytime. The way a driver drives is not something specific to uber or lyft.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#786

Post by driverdan » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:37 PM UTC

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

I downvoted you because this has nothing to do with the article. Whether or not Uber is a good thing is not relevant to Kalanick stepping down or the rotten culture he cultivated.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#787

Post by jforman » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:37 PM UTC

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

The quasi-firing of TK isn't an indictment of Uber as a product, or an overall social good (although both have been intensely debated). It is an indictment of Uber as a business.

Even if we grant that Uber is a huge overall social good, it is clearly not sustainable at its current pace. Uber's burn rate is the highest in history, and the C-suite is barren. The board clearly felt that TK couldn't get Uber out of this mess. And the board, at the end of the day, only cares about long-term share price.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#788

Post by Antrikshy » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:37 PM UTC

jamisteven wrote: post #777

UBER: Crowdfunding the development of autonomous vehicles by temporarily giving people jobs and keeping all the data collected by the thousands of drivers using its app.

You make them sound so evil but all of this sounds perfectly legitimate to me.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#789

Post by davidf18 » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:37 PM UTC

theamk wrote: post #736

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

Absolutely true, but does this justify Uber's workspace culture, Waymo secrets, or sidestepping law enforcement (main reasons for Kalanick's resignation according to article)?

The law enforcement cited was mostly to keep Uber out of the market to protect incumbents from competition.

Unlike AirBnB which breaks NY City and NY State regulations, Uber does follow NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission rules imposed on them and Lyft and other services. But in NYC, the Mayor's unsuccessful efforts withstanding, we aren't trying to restrict market entry and basically asking that Uber drivers undergo the same screening as Yellow Taxi drivers.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#790

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 4:38 PM UTC

davidf18 wrote: post #752

discodave wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When Uber and Lyft came, the rates were lower, one could use Uber Pool to have even lower rates > not forcing drivers to pay excessing leasing fees for vehicles. Err, the cheaper rates were due to uber subsidising rides with VC money, which was unsustainable. Uber also did start a leasing program for drivers.

> Err, the cheaper rates were due to uber subsidising rides with VC money, which was unsustainable. Uber also did start a leasing program for drivers. The cheaper rates in NYC which are extremely high compared with the rest of the USA were because there was no $125 / 12 hour lease fee because there were no medallions. Medallion owners would get mortgages (like houses) for the $1.2 million medallions and the high leas…

> A $125 / 12 hour lease fee comes to over $90,000 per year

This comes out as 8640 hours per year, which is 360 days.

So we're talking about the income a taxi owner can get from a medallion.

What an individual taxi driver had to pay to work is a much lower number. Typically a full time job is around 2000h/year.