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The Fall of Travis Kalanick

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Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#151

Post by freech »

> And in New York, a small union called the New York Taxi Workers Alliance declared that there would be no taxi pickups from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday night at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

> For Uber, that would create extra demand at the airport, which meant it could charge more—but this would probably cause a backlash. That had happened before when the company let its “surge pricing” algorithms do their thing. So the New York managers decided to be good citizens and suspend surge pricing for the night.

> If the company wasn’t price gouging this time, maybe it was trying to break up the JFK strike.

That's actually the opposite of what disabling surge pricing does. It makes sure that drivers aren't paid enough to bother picking up passengers there, so it protects the strike.

People are idiots. Uber should start a campaign featuring polar bears cruising around or something (or maybe make fun of trump on their twitter account if they have to save money) instead of trying to fulfill the publics demands.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#152

Post by telltruth »

I never understood the outrage against video secrely taken by taxi driver Fawzi Kamel. One can clearly see Kalanic was actually pretty humble, well behaved and trying to answer his questions. But Fawzi kept making accusations after another, cutting him off, not letting him answer, being very rude and just not listening. Kalanik’s argument that he was running a business was a legit. I just think people would have blamed Kalanik no matter what he did or said.

Taking sabbatical was his definitely big mistake. But with his parents situation he was also at the weakest point which VCs took full advantage of.

Overall, I am firmly in Kalanik’s side. Stupid VCs always want to get rid of founder who is in to long term and replace him with someone who would get exist fast. Kalanik was media’s punch bag for things he didn’t intended or even didn’t do. But world needed him, industry needed him. Without him politicians and unions would have eaten away any such companies before it became bigger. Lyft is now ripping fruits seeded by Uber. Without his audacity, Uber wasn’t possible.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#153

Post by joejerryronnie »

kahnpro wrote: post #128
misun78 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peacetime doesn’t necessarily mean not being competitive. Uber is at a stage where it doesn’t need to bend the rules anymore. Read up on how Dara handled the Brazil legislation for example. Rather than fighting any regulation as TK may have, he effectively worked with the government to legalize and legitimize Uber. I expect him to do the same in London.

Bend the rules? Are you for real? Uber not only deliberately and flagrantly breaks the law, but it developed systems to prevent police and regulators from doing their jobs. Uber is like someone who wants to rob banks until he gets rich, and then use the money to stay out of jail and transition into legitimate business.

Michael Corleone?

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#154

Post by geezerjay »

lhorie wrote: post #120
IWeldMelons wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not understand how it is possible. Public transit is soo much cheaper. In many cases, it is just unaffordable for someone to switch from taking the bus to Uber.

Think about it this way: if you already own a car, why would you use ridesharing? Taking a uber instead of public transit because you're late, or because it's faster than taking 2 buses to some one-off destination, however, seems entirely reasonable.

> Think about it this way: if you already own a car, why would you use ridesharing?

To avoid traffic, to avoid parking problems, to avoid driving drunk, to avoid leaving your car unattended in a dubious neighborhood, to avoid parking costs, etc...

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#155

Post by jackgavigan »

uberemployee wrote: post #12
zwily wrote: post #2

If you’ve followed the Kalanick story till now, there’s nothing new in this article. However, it’s interesting to see it all put together. Anyone know what it’s like inside Uber today?

Dara couldn’t be more perfect for who we need as a CEO right now and going forward. Culture is definitely shifting toward a more normal work life balance. Things were crazy for many years with how much people worked but for the most part it was out of excitement. Many, many people were overworked however and burnt out. That culture of squeezing out every ounce from everyone is gone, for the better. It’s not sustainab…

> Frances Frei is a former Harvard Business School professor and arranged for several HBX classes from Harvard professors on business strategy that were very interesting and helpful.

Which classes?

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#156

Post by londons_explore »

freech wrote: post #151

> And in New York, a small union called the New York Taxi Workers Alliance declared that there would be no taxi pickups from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday night at John F. Kennedy International Airport. > For Uber, that would create extra demand at the airport, which meant it could charge more—but this would probably cause a backlash. That had happened before when the company let its “surge pricing” algorithms do thei…

People prefer unavailability of something to it being available at a high price.

If you walk into a gas station and they say "sorry, we're out of gas" - no worries, try the next place.

Whereas if they said "we're low on gas, so you have to pay $100 per gallon", there would be public outcry. People would fill up then refuse to pay. People would be forming a mob outside the station.

Rational? No. But it's the way people think, and companies need to adapt to it.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#158

Post by mrgordon »

geezerjay wrote: post #144
mrgordon wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually 1-2 miles. We don't need to do it every day so it isn't worth having a bus pass. If we wanted to do it daily though, there are ridesharing passes too. Some people pay like $20-25 a month for a pack of Uber passes that give a certain number of rides. This is just talking about the daily commute. Say I want to go to the airport. Its $12-14 in a Lyft usually and about the same for two people on BART. Even if I h…

> Usually 1-2 miles. We don't need to do it every day You hardly count as mass transit traffic if your only use is sporadic and it covers close to a walking distance.

False. Everyone who decides to use a bus/train instead of a Lyft counts as a public transit user. In aggregate, our decisions determine how many riders use public transit. It serves no purpose to ignore anyone who rides less than 30-40 times a month (which is around what you need to break even on a pass)

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#159

Post by mrgordon »

geezerjay wrote: post #145
mrgordon wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example, in San Francisco the bus costs $2.50 to $2.75 depending on how you pay. If two people want to go somewhere, thats at least $5. Instead I can get door to door service with Lyft for between $3.90 and $4.10 for the first person and an additional $0.90 for the second person. This means I typically come out slightly ahead with Lyft with two people and its way more convenient. Its great... for now. Who knows h…

> For example, in San Francisco the bus costs $2.50 to $2.75 depending on how you pay. According to Google, sfmta fares are $2.25 per adult. Those fares however are for single trips for sporadic users. Those are don't represent mass transit users. People who use mass transit with some relevant frequency use it with enough to justify paying for a monthly pass, which sfmta's goes for between $68 and $80 a month.

Well that will teach you not to trust Google, won’t it? The cost is $2.5 to $2.75 as I indicated: https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/muni/fares

Please don’t start a conversation with a rude tone and then cite incorrect info to “correct” the facts that I provided.

As I’ve already mentioned, Lyft and Uber have frequent rider passes too so it isn’t fair to compare a single Lyft ride to the cost of a monthly bus pas per ride.

Monthly passes have also gone up $12-14 compared to what you cited. The bus is a great deal if you pay prices from 5 years ago ;)

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