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Is the Ride over for Uber?

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Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#61

Post by voz_ »

johnebgd wrote: post #49
voz_ wrote: post #25

Uber is an example of a company that wants to be a tech company, but (1) really shouldn't (2) kinda lacks the technical leadership to really be one. It feels like the right call, around 2017, was to either: (A) double down and build a platform for every kind of physical multisided marketplace (matching as a service, maps+routing+locations+geofences as a service, physical product ops as a service, etc) Where Amazon we…

Uber crushed themselves in food. As a customer, I would get the wrong food about half the time in NYC even pre-pandemic. I complained and got a refund the first couple of times but then they stopped refunding me when it kept happening. Clearly thought I was fraudulently trying to get meals for free. Thing is, I’ve been a customer since the black car only days. Been Uber VIP for my high rating as a customer. Problem w…

I think your NYC centric anecdote kinda reinforces my point, in an old-man-yells-at-cloud kinda way. The eats usecase was supposed to be around delivery for places that did not already offer it. If you are talking about the eats experience vs in house delivery, that's kind of an edge case...

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#62

Post by oldstrangers »

tbrownaw wrote: post #53
oldstrangers wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modesty is an underappreciated aspect of running a successful company. The endless pursuit of growth is usually a byproduct of ego or at the behest of some intangible idea of "creating shareholder value." Just fucking create a killer product and work on refining that product to the best of your abilities. If you get bored, start a new company. You don't have to grow every company into the next Apple.

> The endless pursuit of growth is usually a byproduct of ego or at the behest of some intangible idea of "creating shareholder value." Previous discussions here have repeatedly told me that it's a condition for or result of getting vc funding.

Yeah, file that under "creating shareholder value."

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#63

Post by martinald »

gruez wrote: post #47
martinald wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food delivery is practical, mainstream and has been for 40+ years in the West. It works great "inhouse". They tend to know all their regular customers and area and know exactly how to get there, where to park, which bell to press etc. They will also know if there is bad traffic or an accident closing a major road and adjust wait times and order frequency accordingly. The person that runs the delivery joint can also w…

>They tend to know all their regular customers and area and know exactly how to get there >They will also know if there is bad traffic or an accident closing a major road and adjust wait times and order frequency accordingly. irrelevant in the age of GPS navigation with live traffic (ie. google maps) >where to park, which bell to press etc. while I don't doubt delivery drivers accrue such knowledge over time, I doubt…

In urban areas (where most of the demand comes from), Google Maps does not provide the detail required to get this right. If you are delivering to an apartment block you often can't just park on the street outside, you'll get ticketed straight away. This can make an enormous amount of difference, I've had uber eats take 10-15 minutes to find the (quite easy) building I live in, vs seconds from local takeaways who know the area.

This is one of the reasons uber eats often delivers horrendously cold food (with no refund option these days). If you got cold food from a local joint with inhouse delivery they'd usually refund or redeliver for free, because they know it was their fault. They can't offer that through these platforms as it is rarely their fault and even if it was they don't get an option to interface with the customer like that.

On the final point - firstly, it's not as simple as that as not 100% of orders are coming through uber eats, so they don't really know exactly how busy the kitchen is. Secondly, uber was so desperate to grow market share they would push kitchens to take orders regardless of capacity to serve them. The only option AFIAK was to shut off Uber orders entirely, there was no "take 4 orders per 30 minutes max" option (maybe they have added that now).

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#64

Post by wyre »

cheriot wrote: post #50
martinald wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food delivery is practical, mainstream and has been for 40+ years in the West. It works great "inhouse". They tend to know all their regular customers and area and know exactly how to get there, where to park, which bell to press etc. They will also know if there is bad traffic or an accident closing a major road and adjust wait times and order frequency accordingly. The person that runs the delivery joint can also w…

> Food delivery... works great "inhouse". but > Plus they also want to take 30-50% commission for the privilege. If food delivery works great in house then why do restaurants pay Uber so much? I'd wager employing drivers is impractical for a lot of restaurants.

“All of your competitors pay us 30% so they can order food from their iPhone, pay us the same amount so they won’t take your customers away”

Doordash would offer a restaurant before partnering with them by calling in the orders so they could have sales numbers to pitch to the restaurant owner when they want to take the 30%.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#65

Post by jeffbee »

elektor wrote: post #3
paulpauper wrote: post #2

I think the ride is much shorter for lyft than uber.

How come? Fewer markets?

A much smaller company that has never turned a profit, where the sharedholder's equity will soon become negative. They can't afford to lose money forever, and they've never demonstrated they can make money.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#66

Post by alvah »

flatline wrote: post #6

I was on work travel last week. No Uber from the airport - three cancelations then I caught a Lyft. It was over $500 for a 50 mi ride to a neighboring city which I was mostly looking at out of curiosity. My friend was recently held up (well, attempted) by an Uber driver in Nashville who had canceled last second so he could not even find who the driver was to file a complaint. It seems like the former gap in user expe…

I screenshot every time a driver accepts the ride, for the almost inevitable dispute later.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#67

Post by octoberfranklin »

tbrownaw wrote: post #53
oldstrangers wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modesty is an underappreciated aspect of running a successful company. The endless pursuit of growth is usually a byproduct of ego or at the behest of some intangible idea of "creating shareholder value." Just fucking create a killer product and work on refining that product to the best of your abilities. If you get bored, start a new company. You don't have to grow every company into the next Apple.

> The endless pursuit of growth is usually a byproduct of ego or at the behest of some intangible idea of "creating shareholder value." Previous discussions here have repeatedly told me that it's a condition for or result of getting vc funding.

There is more to life, and indeed more to the economy, than "getting vc funding".

There is also such a thing as "HN bias".

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#68

Post by moralestapia »

elektor wrote: post #3
paulpauper wrote: post #2

I think the ride is much shorter for lyft than uber.

How come? Fewer markets?

Same business model, so similar margins and problems BUT Uber has 10x more brand presence, cash flow, runway and valuation.

Both companies are crashing down but one of them is closer to the floor.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#69

Post by edmundsauto »

voz_ wrote: post #61
johnebgd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber crushed themselves in food. As a customer, I would get the wrong food about half the time in NYC even pre-pandemic. I complained and got a refund the first couple of times but then they stopped refunding me when it kept happening. Clearly thought I was fraudulently trying to get meals for free. Thing is, I’ve been a customer since the black car only days. Been Uber VIP for my high rating as a customer. Problem w…

I think your NYC centric anecdote kinda reinforces my point, in an old-man-yells-at-cloud kinda way. The eats usecase was supposed to be around delivery for places that did not already offer it. If you are talking about the eats experience vs in house delivery, that's kind of an edge case...

I’m not sure I agree. People in NYC are in for the market - you just have to beat the existing haphazard setup, create a unified payment and support and order taking platform, and do as well as the incumbents in delivery quality.

Re: Is the Ride over for Uber?

#70

Post by nrmitchi »

voz_ wrote: post #61
johnebgd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber crushed themselves in food. As a customer, I would get the wrong food about half the time in NYC even pre-pandemic. I complained and got a refund the first couple of times but then they stopped refunding me when it kept happening. Clearly thought I was fraudulently trying to get meals for free. Thing is, I’ve been a customer since the black car only days. Been Uber VIP for my high rating as a customer. Problem w…

I think your NYC centric anecdote kinda reinforces my point, in an old-man-yells-at-cloud kinda way. The eats usecase was supposed to be around delivery for places that did not already offer it. If you are talking about the eats experience vs in house delivery, that's kind of an edge case...

“Supposed to be around delivery for places that did not already offer it” is beside thee point. It isn’t an excuse to be so terrible across the board (but note this isn’t unique to Uber and DoorDash is pretty terrible as well)
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