131–140 of 273 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
that's not true. it covers the driver while the app is on. https://www.uber.com/drive/insurance/ > While you’re online with Uber before you accept a request, you are covered by our insurance policy for your liability to a third party if you are in an accident when you’re at fault
Only when you're at fault?
I question the authenticity of the $3.37 number when I see that the paper this article references was published by an organization funded by these bodies: Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, BP, ClearPath Foundation, Conoco Phillips, Duke Energy, Electricité de France, EnBW, ENGIE, ENI, Eversource, Exelon Corporation, ExxonMobil, Gas Natural Fenosa, GE, Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, Inc., Iberdrola, IHI Corpo…
This doesn't surprise me at all and it's because of hidden costs incurred by the driver, combined with an implicit bidding system that drives down wages. Hidden costs: 1. Vehicle wear and tear (cars cost you money when you drive them) 2. Vehicle depreciation (cars cost you money even when you aren't driving them) 3. Interest and fees associated with auto loans and leases 4. Insurance premiums 5. Gas 6. Unexpected/unp…
I drove for a few days as an experiment. What struck me was how low skilled work it is. No judgement. Just, it felt like having a really easy job. And a little humiliating. I’m old, and with drunk kids being a little condecending, plus seemed like my car smelled like booze for days! But, how low it pays and it shocks me there are ALOT of people with free time willing to work for sub minimum wage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. In Germany the lowest legally possible coverage is 7.5 million € for damages to a person plus 1.22 million for other damages, but 50 to 100 million is the general coverage. Just to give some perspective on how expensive accidents can be.
Is this for commercial or personal drivers?
I'm also covered for accidental damages caused by me outside of my car for up to 100 million € and that costs me only about 70€/year.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not as certain about that. Potentially optimistic, but I could imagine bikes taking on a larger role as we move to self driving cars. If you read threads about biking[0], people seem to be motivated to bike more than they are motivated to drive. Although these same people are stymied by negative conditions. Self driving cars could improve biking conditions by opening up roadways, making them safer, providing bett…
I was skeptical about the business model, the bikes cost a lot, are rented for cheap, and for some reasons the companies go head to head in the same towns instead of covering different areas. And if they kill each other and the winner raises the price, I suspect Detroit wins.
Revenue
daily rides*365*$1
$250 per bike
+ $15 per month for maintenance
+ 20% chance of catastrophe amortized over the fleet
= ~$500
So maybe 2 rides per bike per day gets them in the green?
Uber is losing billions and their drivers are making peanuts. That sounds sustainable.
It's sustainable because we're on the cusp of the autonomous vehicle revolution. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/technology/driverless-car... This is similar to how the huge army of people stuffing DVDs into envelopes at Netflix is going away. It might be slow, but I don't think there will be tons of people watching DVDs from them in 2030... https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/netflix-dvd-business-still-a...
And Uber...their whole point was being an annoying, even predatory middleman who shunt all their costs onto their "workforce"...you think they are going to thrive when they need to bear all the risk and expense themselves, as well as be unable to break laws?
> “The companies are losing money. The businesses are being subsidized by [venture capital] money … And the drivers are essentially subsidizing it by working for very low wages.” Last time I pointed that out I was downvoted for some unknown reason. My neighbor was talking about buying a new car to drive for lyft/uber and I was like "the trick is to tear up somebody else's car." We'll see if he heeds my advice though…
I didn't know MBA's were that squeezed that they need second jobs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. In Germany the lowest legally possible coverage is 7.5 million € for damages to a person plus 1.22 million for other damages, but 50 to 100 million is the general coverage. Just to give some perspective on how expensive accidents can be.
That sounds insane, even with American medical prices. How much are insurance premiums in Germany? I just don't see how anyone could cause that much damage with their vehicle.
It's pretty easy to do so much damage. Imagine turning left without looking and an oncoming truck tries to avoid a collision and drives into a store front. Property damages will be very high and the injured people inside the store will need medical attention, too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's sustainable because we're on the cusp of the autonomous vehicle revolution. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/technology/driverless-car... This is similar to how the huge army of people stuffing DVDs into envelopes at Netflix is going away. It might be slow, but I don't think there will be tons of people watching DVDs from them in 2030... https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/netflix-dvd-business-still-a...
I hope you realize that ripping DVDs and putting them up for streaming is pretty easy, everyone was doing it before Netflix was, compared to having a fleet of autonomous vehicles that can safely operate in a multitude of urban environments, something nobody has ever done before. You have to question the leadership of a company that's willing to throw untold billions and counting on a long-shot bet that they'll eventu…
> “The companies are losing money. The businesses are being subsidized by [venture capital] money … And the drivers are essentially subsidizing it by working for very low wages.” Last time I pointed that out I was downvoted for some unknown reason. My neighbor was talking about buying a new car to drive for lyft/uber and I was like "the trick is to tear up somebody else's car." We'll see if he heeds my advice though…
I did the math on working for SkipTheDishes last year (Uber doesn't operate in my city). I really wanted it to be a good idea, but once I calculated gas, insurance and wear and tear on the car, it was an incredibly poor deal. That's with a paid off, cheap, car, too. Not for me.
If you have like a 2000 camry (which runs forever) depreciation seems to be virtually 0, especially if you buy the car used and only pay like 1 grand.
Also, I can imagine if you're just shuttling food around instead of passengers, you can get away with a worse car. Nobody wants to hop in a bucket and go somewhere, but food delivery doesn't matter.