MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
techcrunch.com
MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#2IIRC when Uber & Lyft were started, it was never supposed to be a full time job, or even a taxi service. You were supposed to make some easy money by offering a ride along a route you were already taking for your normal activities.
Any job that has no barriers (difficulty, education, licensing) to entry will be eventually driven to zero profit.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#3IIRC when Uber & Lyft were started, it was never supposed to be a full time job, or even a taxi service. You were supposed to make some easy money by offering a ride along a route you were already taking for your normal activities. Any job that has no barriers (difficulty, education, licensing) to entry will be eventually driven to zero profit.
That's what they said, but I don't think it's ever been used that way.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#4IIRC when Uber & Lyft were started, it was never supposed to be a full time job, or even a taxi service. You were supposed to make some easy money by offering a ride along a route you were already taking for your normal activities. Any job that has no barriers (difficulty, education, licensing) to entry will be eventually driven to zero profit.
> it was never supposed to be a full time job
Im not sure if this is true, they offered a lot of bonuses if you completed 20 rides within a certain amount of time you get a bonus. They wanted people to drive a lot.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#5The hegemony of car culture is so ingrained that people are not even aware of how much it personally costs them. These companies are taking advantage of this loophole. People notice gas prices go up and down with great interest, but that is just a small part of the total cost. Since you pretty much have to have a car to just exist in society, people don't count the capital expenses.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#6Being a driver is a short term strategy for the companies who plan on replacing all drivers with autonomous services. So this result is no surprize.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#7IIRC when Uber & Lyft were started, it was never supposed to be a full time job, or even a taxi service. You were supposed to make some easy money by offering a ride along a route you were already taking for your normal activities. Any job that has no barriers (difficulty, education, licensing) to entry will be eventually driven to zero profit.
IIRC that was Lyft's positioning. Uber started out as Uber black, a black car / limousine service.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#8Additional discussion of same report: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16501017
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#9Being a driver is a short term strategy for the companies who plan on replacing all drivers with autonomous services. So this result is no surprize.
This is a popular current talking point but Uber is 9 years old and most people reckon autonomous services are at least another year or two out.
Having human drivers for over a decade is not a "short term strategy" for most reasonable definitions of short term.
Re: MIT study shows how much driving for Uber or Lyft sucks
#10I live in Portugal and Uber is sometimes more expensive then an ordinairy taxi. Talking to drivers they also seem very happy with their earnings. But minimum wages in Portugal are low.
Last year in Singapore I also noticed Uber was seriously more expensive then regular cabs. I understand there its public knowledge, you pay more for the more flexible service (taxi's in SIN are often limited in supply).
Just anecdotical. But it makes me wonder what regular taxi drivers make in those places.