Live data from Hacker News

Uber's Still Not Profitable

pluralistic.net

11–20 of 105 posts

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if Elon Musk's nonsense was involved - they had their own autonomous driving project in-house didn't they?

Have you forgetton the whole Google lawsuit against Uber? Anthony Levandowski. Uber’s self driving project is still no where near production ready.

What does that have to do with Musk? Musk never worked at Google and Tesla s self driving technology lacks key sensors compared to what Waymo and Uber were working with.

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#12
Predatory pricing should be made more illegal than it is. No one wins when a company operates at a loss to kill incumbents in a market.

At least for markets where the incumbents have no other protections (unregulated taxi markets). This is very few of Uber’s markets and probably not those where they do best, but the principle of not being allowed to operate at a loss with investor money year after year feels sound.

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#13

i am not siding with Uber but to claim that they are going to fail is a bit of hyperbole . the value proposition is quite simple for both drivers and passengers . for drivers you would make more income by driving more consistently , for passengers you get a cab instead of shouting like a cave-person on the street. It is true that there is an element of bezzle with money pumping and dumping over the last few years . T…

Many cities in the world have cabs on equally capable apps now so that competitive advantage is gone. Nobody screams like a cave person on the street anymore

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#14

Predatory pricing should be made more illegal than it is. No one wins when a company operates at a loss to kill incumbents in a market. At least for markets where the incumbents have no other protections (unregulated taxi markets). This is very few of Uber’s markets and probably not those where they do best, but the principle of not being allowed to operate at a loss with investor money year after year feels sound.

This only occurred to me now in reference to Uber and other serial offenders, and I don't know what the situation in other countries is, but... In Switzerland there's actually a law against unfair competitive practices, and it has a clause prohibiting you from constantly or repeatedly (i.e. not as a one-off clearance sale or whatever) offering goods or services below cost! Wonder how it would go if you were to sue one of these companies operating here under that...

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#15

i am not siding with Uber but to claim that they are going to fail is a bit of hyperbole . the value proposition is quite simple for both drivers and passengers . for drivers you would make more income by driving more consistently , for passengers you get a cab instead of shouting like a cave-person on the street. It is true that there is an element of bezzle with money pumping and dumping over the last few years . T…

Many cities in the world have cabs on equally capable apps now so that competitive advantage is gone. Nobody screams like a cave person on the street anymore

And even before apps became common-place, in Europe it was common to call a dispatch and ask for a cab at an address.

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#16

i am not siding with Uber but to claim that they are going to fail is a bit of hyperbole . the value proposition is quite simple for both drivers and passengers . for drivers you would make more income by driving more consistently , for passengers you get a cab instead of shouting like a cave-person on the street. It is true that there is an element of bezzle with money pumping and dumping over the last few years . T…

>for passengers you get a cab instead of shouting like a cave-person on the street.

Maybe I'm a cave person but to me just waving to hail a cab or just entering the first car in line at a taxi stand seems much more convenient than having to fiddle around with a mobile app and wait until it arrives.

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#17
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many cities in the world have cabs on equally capable apps now so that competitive advantage is gone. Nobody screams like a cave person on the street anymore

And even before apps became common-place, in Europe it was common to call a dispatch and ask for a cab at an address.

Uber was founded because the same was true in SF; however then oftentimes the cab only arrived after an hour, if at all.

Re: Uber's Still Not Profitable

#18
post #16

i am not siding with Uber but to claim that they are going to fail is a bit of hyperbole . the value proposition is quite simple for both drivers and passengers . for drivers you would make more income by driving more consistently , for passengers you get a cab instead of shouting like a cave-person on the street. It is true that there is an element of bezzle with money pumping and dumping over the last few years . T…

>for passengers you get a cab instead of shouting like a cave-person on the street. Maybe I'm a cave person but to me just waving to hail a cab or just entering the first car in line at a taxi stand seems much more convenient than having to fiddle around with a mobile app and wait until it arrives.

Not if these taxi drivers do their best to scam you.
Post reply on HN