Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Can Uber ever make money?

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 430 posts

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#311

Post by sib »

caseyohara wrote: post #225
rubicon33 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I always thought this should be a "swipe left / swipe right" thing for both driver & passenger. If they both indicate they want to chat, talk away.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#312

Post by lugg »

cyphar wrote: post #287
rubicon33 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I'm left feeling like the fare - strictly from the perspective of a consumer - is actually too high. Not to mention personal risk if you consider how dangerous some Uber drivers are. However if you consider the cost of car maintenance, annual depreciation on a taxi-like vehicle, and petrol the fares are actually very low. I would be willing to bet that a lot of Uber drivers are wavering around breaking even on the…

The beauty of the uber model is that drivers don't even need to break even. Very few I speak to are doing it full time to make money.

Most are doing it as a side hustle for a little extra cash before or after work. Or they're using the money to justify spending more on their dream car.

They don't need to break even, they needed the car anyway, it would depreciate roughly the same amount anyway. Or at least the extra uber usage is going to be negligible compared to the time based depreciation.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#313

Post by mensetmanusman »

IanCal wrote: post #249
lenzm wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call a cab and wait and pray. Get a call 30 minutes later asking if you still want a cab. Wait 20 more minutes for a cab to actually show up. This is in a major metro. Calling for a cab sucked if you weren't in a busy area, in which case you could just walk to a major street and hail one.

They said the app was innovative, it was not to me because I already had something similar, and what you're describing has nothing to do with the app. You're just describing a not terrible taxi company, which has existed in many places far before Uber. It seems the main thing they did was be big enough to ignore the rules that kept taxis in some parts of the US so terrible.

Not at all, their main innovation was combining pricing theory in a way that worked. They got drivers on the streets during major storms to keep wait time down. Fascinating

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#315

Post by fwip »

rossenberg79 wrote: post #297
kelnos wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem there is twofold: 1) Many drivers from your town would likely geofence themselves to your town, reducing the supply of drivers that will drive to the metro area, increasing wait times and driving up prices, making riders unhappy. 2) Drivers would use this feature to avoid driving to "bad" parts of town, making transportation discriminatory. (In ways that are illegal for traditional taxi companies, so Uber…

Having to do fares in the bad part of town is the reason my brother carries a loaded gun under his seat while driving for Uber.

Bringing a loaded gun with you is a good way to end up dead.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#318

Post by fwip »

clhodapp wrote: post #242
rubicon33 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm with you right until the line break. The thing is: even for the quality-declined cars, we are not paying enough to cover the costs. Those are simply the economics of using a phone app to hire a person to come and pick you up in their car and then drive you somewhere. The truth is that if you want to pay less for transport then you need to not be taking human-driven taxis.

Yep. Uber is subsidising the fares and even then the drivers are barely making minimum wage, after accounting for their expenses.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#319

Post by zip1234 »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #188
IanCal wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Wtf? It is completely different. Before Uber, you had to call dispatch, give them your location or your closest estimate of it: dispatch would then manually try to find a car that was available and send them to you. This usually took at least 30-40m, if they arrived at all. With Uber, I open the app, it looks at all available cars, finds the closest one available, and sends that car to my GPS location. Oh, and if tha…

Totally! The one and only time that I tried to get a taxi at my house, which is in a suburb of a major metro area in the US, I was told it would be a 45 minutes wait. I waited the 45 and nobody showed and I called again. 30 more minutes. No show. Now, I can have an Uber at my door in 10 minutes and I know what it will cost.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#320

Post by zip1234 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #214
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At appropriate saturation the number of cars being displaced by riders is significant, though I wonder what that is and how it trends over time. If I was in college today, I might never consider buying a vehicle.

No. What happens is that roads keep becoming saturated until they are clogged with ride shares and the riders bail out when they realize they can walk faster. The equilibrium point creates complete havoc for everyone else and little productive work is actually done.

The roads are already clogged with cars. Does it matter if they are ride shares or not?
Post reply on HN