231–240 of 430 posts
What's the point of these speculative pieces that just list pros and cons? Give me actual projections, explore what it would take for them to be profitable. Otherwise it's just not that interesting
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Call me a snob, but Uber's criteria for what qualifies as an acceptable car has dramatically declined to the point where even Taxis are sometimes "nicer". Combine that with the fact that the drivers often don't know the neighborhood and rely exclusively on GPS (so tend to be worse drivers than a taxi). I'm left feeling like the fare - strictly from the perspective of a consumer - is actually too high.
> Combine that with the fact that the drivers often don't know the neighborhood I used to travel to Houston quite a lot. Not sure if this is representative of taxis in general in the US, but the taxi drivers never knew the neighbourhood. I couldn't say "I want to go to Acme Stuff in X district", I had to give a "Cross road" (a very US thing, that) and the driver would use satnav based on that. It did seem that a lot…
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Option 4: Uber uses the expertise, infrastructure, and brand it built in ridesharing to expand into the becoming the de facto standard for timely last mile delivery. This is why UberEats is such a major strategic focus for the company. It's proof of concept that they can do more than be a taxi. An efficient platform for quickly and cheaply ferrying around stuff around town is a way bigger market than ridesharing. We'…
Courier services have existed for years for last mile. I have a friend who was (20 years ago) paid full time by one law office to get papers to/from the court room (he worked for a company that dedicated him to that job). Part of his job was knowing the proper way to walk into a trial in progress. My dad more than once hired a taxi to take a package to the airport. I suspect post 9-11 this isn't legally allowed, but…
I worked for a company where we would hire a courier to fly with the package when needed.
We sent a few tapes that way, but also some important equipment when it was critical to a customer.
It was by far the fastest and best way to be sure a dude would be at the office door in X minutes, on the plane in Y, and at the customer site in Z with the needed thing(s).
It was expensive, but they were really reliable and professional.
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Definitely a fan of the Select and Black options. In fact, I've been using them more and more. The price - while higher - feels more aligned with what I would consider to be "good value". Ranked in order of importance for me are: - A competent + safe driver, preferably someone who knows the area. - A nice, clean, comfortable ride. - A driver who doesn't talk to me. All 3 of these are markedly improved in both the Sel…
> A driver who doesn't talk to me I wish "Quiet Ride, Please" was an option in the app.
It'll be very hard or impossible for Uber to be a monopoly and having more competitors means the prices will have to compete to remain attractive to people.
An unlikely idea for Uber becoming profitable is if they form a cartel with Lyft and other Uber-esque services to give all users no choice but to pay the high prices, but then they'll be competing with traditional taxi services once again.
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Option 4: Uber uses the expertise, infrastructure, and brand it built in ridesharing to expand into the becoming the de facto standard for timely last mile delivery. This is why UberEats is such a major strategic focus for the company. It's proof of concept that they can do more than be a taxi. An efficient platform for quickly and cheaply ferrying around stuff around town is a way bigger market than ridesharing. We'…
> that could only emerge in a post-Uber world. Maybe, but a lot of restaurants despise Ubereats and want it to die, so they can't count on goodwill or loyalty there. (This is second-hand from a couple local restaurant owners; I am not one.) As I understand it, Uber is playing a sort of TicketMaster-ish game, demanding exclusivity (no having your own drivers, no using competitors) and funny terms about hosting your me…
This is false.
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> Without the innovation of the Uber app, I had local services with an app before Uber, I'm sure. It's really not much of a shift from a phone call either. But then, all Uber cars are the same as private hire cans anyway here. It seems like the real innovation was being big enough to ignore the local rules. That and being able to say it's "ride sharing" with a straight face.
Hacker News about Dropbox (2007): "For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem" Hacker News about Uber (2019): "It's really not much of a shift from a phone call either"
I want to talk to someone who has invested in Lyft (or plans to do so for Uber) through the public markets and is in it for a long-term buy and hold. Like someone who really thinks the share price represents the net present value of all future cash streams for Lyft/Uber. I think I'd have a hard time finding someone like this. You don't have to believe the company will make money, you just have to believe you can sell…
Almost sounds like a Ponzi scheme
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Hacker News about Dropbox (2007): "For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem" Hacker News about Uber (2019): "It's really not much of a shift from a phone call either"
You have conveniently missed that there was already an app for ordering taxis before Uber for me. Also, yes, it's not much of a shift. I'm not arguing people rebuild it or have something together but the shift from: Call cab firm and say where you are to App calls cab firm and says where you are is not massively innovative. (edit - particularly when it has been done before) I know it's fun and cool to be snarky, but…
If I order an Uber/Lyft, I'm nearly guaranteed a ride within a reasonable amount of time once my request is accepted. Yes, occasionally the driver will cancel and the app will find a new driver, which adds to the time. Sure, the time estimate itself is usually off by 10% or so. It's not perfect, but this experience is orders of magnitude better than it used to be. For the most part I only drive my car when I'm leaving the city or need to carry a bunch of things with me.