The Uber Bubble • Hacker News Board

Re: The Uber Bubble

#361

Post by WithinReason » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:14 AM UTC

kingcharles wrote: post #280

westcort wrote: post #35

My key takeaways: 1. Uber is actually a higher cost/less efficient producer of urban car services than the taxi companies it has driven out of business 2. Individual Uber drivers with limited capital cannot acquire, finance, maintain and insure vehicles more economically than Yellow Cab 3. Expenses other than drivers, vehicles, and fuel account for 15 percent of traditional taxi costs but Uber charges drivers 25-30 p…

Good points, but I would add that what Uber is doing now is just carving out a chunk of the market for what is coming in the next few years. Most of your points revolve around human drivers and the gasoline-powered vehicles they own. The future of Uber is probably a majority of driverless vehicles that are corporately-owned. That is a vastly different model.

Or people renting out their own vehicles through Uber

Re: The Uber Bubble

#362

Post by AussieWog93 » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:30 AM UTC

the_af wrote: post #283

AussieWog93 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Gypsy is a slur Wow. Someone should probably let the creators of "Big Fat Gypsy Weddings" know this! And all the people that participated in the show. And all of the Travellers that watched it.

Well, it's true the meaning of the word has evolved into a slur. At least some of the people who used to be called gypsies in English don't want to be called that. As for shows, didn't Netflix's "Gypsy" take flak for the name?

>Well, it's true the meaning of the word has evolved into a slur.

Is it, though, or is it one of those words like "Indian" (referring to an American Indian, not someone from the country of India) that people say is a slur but is not considered offensive at all by the community it supposedly degrades (and in fact, refusing to use it in their company will get you strange looks more than anything else).

See also: my username for a similar "slur".

>As for shows, didn't Netflix's "Gypsy" take flak for the name?

Based on its Wikipedia page (especially in the "talk" page), it looks like it was mainly just a single author generating righteous outrage to get clicks.

Re: The Uber Bubble

#363

Post by lelanthran » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:32 AM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #181

westcort wrote: post #35

My key takeaways: 1. Uber is actually a higher cost/less efficient producer of urban car services than the taxi companies it has driven out of business 2. Individual Uber drivers with limited capital cannot acquire, finance, maintain and insure vehicles more economically than Yellow Cab 3. Expenses other than drivers, vehicles, and fuel account for 15 percent of traditional taxi costs but Uber charges drivers 25-30 p…

With this many billion dollars on the line, one can never be too cynical. One has to wonder if this has been the endgame all along: driving taxi services out of business, replacing them with a monopoly where consumers pay the same price (or higher) and where drivers are paid less. I will say that services like Uber have been very beneficial for areas that were previously underserved by traditional taxi companies. But…

> One has to wonder if this has been the endgame all along: driving taxi services out of business, replacing them with a monopoly where consumers pay the same price (or higher) and where drivers are paid less.

Only works if you manage to get a govt monopoly and exclusive access tot he drivers. If you don't have those two things there's no point in trying to landgrab under cost and price-gouge later.

For something like Uber, I figure a good team might push out a working solution in a month. The barrier to entry is so small, and travellers have literally no brand loyalty, that the minute the price goes too high there'll be someone else trying to get a cut of the (now profitable) business.

Re: The Uber Bubble

#364

Post by thesaintlives » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:33 AM UTC

Great article and great website. Really worth looking at all the other articles. Thanks!

Re: The Uber Bubble

#365

Post by Ekaros » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:35 AM UTC

hattmall wrote: post #330

Firmwarrior wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's definitely how it **ing worked, man. I came so close to missing so many damn flights before Uber came around, because I'd book a car the day before and it would just ghost me. I had to aim to get to the airport 4 hours early because half the time I had to reorder a fresh cab and hope for the best. Cabs had a 45+ minute lead time in the evenings and at night too, when I could order them by phone at all. It was…

It was a big thing for competing cab companies to call each other and schedule bogus pick ups. So much of the time they just disregarded calls until the 3rd or 4th time you call back, then they finally send someone.

I wonder if some new player shouldn't enter the market and start making fake pings with Uber and Lyft. Just entirely fill their system during peak times thus preventing them from operating. Can't be too complicated. And this is just exact type of play their customers love about these companies.

Re: The Uber Bubble

#366

Post by harshitaneja » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:37 AM UTC

cjbgkagh wrote: post #359

shostack wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"credit card machine is broken." Things I don't ever have to hear or put up with ever again #623.

Definitely agree. Nowadays I have Uber drivers sit around the corner refusing to show up and calling me to tell me I should cancel so that I have to pay the $5 fine. Sure I can contact support to get that $5 back but it has happened to me so many times there really should be a button for it. It’s hard for me to believe Uber is not aware of this behavior.

I don't know about US but in India the process to review cancellation fee doesn't require interacting with support but rather a two click process to state the reason for cancellation. Works quite well and the only time they don't refund is when you do it too often in a short span of time.

Re: The Uber Bubble

#367

Post by Ekaros » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:39 AM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #308

smilespray wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish people would stop calling it ride sharing, as it implies that one of your buddies is giving you a lift. It's just a marketing term. Uber and Lyft are (gig economy) cab companies.

Well, shared rides were pretty popular pre-pandemic. Cabs never really did shared rides (at least not legitimately). I pretty much always opted for the shared option whenever I Uber’d or Lyfted.

So how did these work? How did the driver tell where they were coming from and where they were going? And was it worth their time? I can't think sharing your own ride is easy to solve. And no if you add more people when you are professionally driving it is still not ride sharing, it's just bus service at that time.

Re: The Uber Bubble

#368

Post by Ekaros » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:41 AM UTC

xapata wrote: post #311

westcort wrote: post #35

My key takeaways: 1. Uber is actually a higher cost/less efficient producer of urban car services than the taxi companies it has driven out of business 2. Individual Uber drivers with limited capital cannot acquire, finance, maintain and insure vehicles more economically than Yellow Cab 3. Expenses other than drivers, vehicles, and fuel account for 15 percent of traditional taxi costs but Uber charges drivers 25-30 p…

In some countries, taxis are so often criminal that tourists are warned to avoid them. In some less extreme places, drivers simply never use the meter and the passengers must negotiate every ride. Uber and its competitors have been wonderful for hailing rides in these places.

And why shouldn't Uber be forced to be a platform where the drivers can negotiate price with riders? Seems rather bad that Uber is one dictating the pricing and their cut...

Re: The Uber Bubble

#369

Post by LudwigNagasena » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:43 AM UTC

nonrandomstring wrote: post #169

I feel this entire thread has quite missed the point of the question the way a neutrino passes through a solid object and interacts with nothing but empty space. People have talked about microeconomics, gig economies, labour shifting, bad old days, safety, subsidies, licenses.... but we've gotten no closer to understanding; "Why Is a Company That Lost Billions Claimed to Be Successful?" To answer this one must ask "W…

That’s called speculation.

Re: The Uber Bubble

#370

Post by Ekaros » Mon, Apr 18, 2022, 9:46 AM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #318

rsanek wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be looking at "trailing 12 months" -- take a look at the quarterly charts, which do indeed report profits.

They lost over 20 billion dollars and made a meagre profit in one quarter of one year thanks to Uber Eats during the pandemic. Ah, healthy business.

So made money on also questionable business on both supply, delivery side. And with actual cost realisation probably also on customer side. Doesn't look too healthy.