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Can Uber ever make money?

economist.com

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Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#381

Post by kelnos »

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.

I'm going to guess that if someone in a bad part of town is pulling a gun or even a knife on your brother, they're not going to just lazily stand there staring at him as he fumbles to find a gun under his seat to defend himself.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#382

Post by plankers »

55555 wrote: post #303
danieltillett wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now for the million dollar question - how is this different to a ponzi scheme?

It isn't JUST a ponzi scheme, but to some degree it sure seems like it is in part a ponzi scheme. Public investors pay back VCs and the entreprenuer and then get shafted. Actually, let's work through the Wikipedia definition line by line. > A Ponzi scheme ... is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.[2] One distinction that could be made is th…

So... you're saying that the entire market is currently churning out legal ponzi schemes? Or is it that the entire market is itself currently a ponzi scheme?

Either way, I get the distinct impression that I've seen this movie before and I didn't like the ending.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#383

Post by lotsofpulp »

Simon_says wrote: post #343
geofft wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a "healthy" market in the sense of a liquid market with high levels of information communication. That's not necessarily the same thing as a "healthy" market in the sense of good public policy. For instance, very few people would say that a "healthy" labor market has no minimum wage or discrimination protections, trusting supply and demand to solve those adequately. Similarly, letting the market price trips to…

> very few people would say that a "healthy" labor market has no minimum wage or discrimination protections ... Unfortunately, you're talking to one of those few people. I'm against government mandating minimum wages or mandatory maternity/paternity leave. If you want those things, you can try to negotiate for it. > customers already seem not thrilled with surge pricing This is a true statement, but I wonder about th…

Negotiating for everything is not the most efficient way of conducting business for society as a whole. Negotiating offers the benefit of price discovery, but it also consumes resources in the form of opportunity cost with other things that could have been done with that time and effort.

Yes, we can expose the reality that most people aren't economically worth enough right now to demand parental leave or living conditions, but what is the benefit of exposing that?

It's not like figuring out the true price of a product is low because it's low quality, so if people stop buying it then the producer will stop making it. The people that aren't worth enough, whether it be because they are lazy, stupid, came across an illness, born into a poor family and never had the opportunity and mentors to teach them, should we just let them rot away?

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#384

Post by lotsofpulp »

URSpider94 wrote: post #349
aglavine wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to change it is affordable EV cars ===> less fuel costs

Fuel costs aren’t a huge factor for most cars. It’s the time and vehicle depreciation and maintenance that add up.

I don't know the numbers, or if there's even enough long term data to provide the numbers yet, but supposedly the lack of a combustion engine should eliminate much of the maintenance. How much is offset by other problems EVs have compared to combustion engines, I don't know.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#385

Post by sundaeofshock »

lukevdp wrote: post #330
sib wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or you can use the voice activated option with the driver. You just need to say “I’m feeling pretty tired right now and don’t feel like chatting”

Immune that case, the passenger has to worry about the rating they will get from the driver.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#386

Post by sunstone »

Tesla is in the best position to win in this arena. As the article points out it's cutthroat so the one with the lowest costs, acquisition and operation will win.

Telsa makes it's own cars, the cars have super low operating costs: built for 1m miles, almost no ongoing maintenance, powered by electricity that is already much cheaper than gas and will continue to get cheaper. And finally no driver with self driving software.

No one else has this combination attributes for the lowest cost operation. Though it could be Tesla after it's bought by Google.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#387

Post by LifeLiverTransp »

cabaalis wrote: post #266
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…

For #1, it seems the market would adjust. We already see complaints about drivers not knowing the area they're driving in. Would it reassure riders to know that their driver spends 99% of driving time in an area they're riding? For #2, sincere problem for which I am not aware of a good solution.

You could also allow for auto-handshakes, drivers who prefer to drive only within a radius handing over there passenger to another driver in transit.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#388

Post by LifeLiverTransp »

fwip wrote: post #315
rossenberg79 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, but the criminal always has first draw, first action. Unless the criminal is a bad shot or otherwise unlucky, you just escalate a situation in which you are already on the losing end of a stick.

Just explain to me the game theory plus of a main-street battle, where the bad guy already holds you at gun point- and you have the chance to accelerate towards the bitter end?

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#389

Post by heyoni »

plankers wrote: post #382
55555 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't JUST a ponzi scheme, but to some degree it sure seems like it is in part a ponzi scheme. Public investors pay back VCs and the entreprenuer and then get shafted. Actually, let's work through the Wikipedia definition line by line. > A Ponzi scheme ... is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.[2] One distinction that could be made is th…

So... you're saying that the entire market is currently churning out legal ponzi schemes? Or is it that the entire market is itself currently a ponzi scheme? Either way, I get the distinct impression that I've seen this movie before and I didn't like the ending.

They just finished explaining why it’s not really a Ponzi scheme yet you keep calling it one.

Re: Can Uber ever make money?

#390

Post by deanCommie »

rubicon33 wrote: post #97
Skunkleton wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As it stands the price you pay for a ride in an uber is unfairly low. Driving it even lower would be irresponsible.

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.

Where are you finding these magical cabbies that know the city better than GPS? My p99 experience is the opposite (Except in London where they have The Knowledge

I agree that when it comes to finding the most efficient routes across town, cab drivers are better (especially during rush hour), but once they get to the right street the experience is so much better with Uber/Lyft/GPS.

"It's the red building in the middle of the next block. No, the next block. No, a bit further. The...it's fine, I'll just get out here."

vs.

"Perfect, thanks!"

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