The main selling point of Uber is the app--but eventually Yellow Cab, et al will also have slick apps. What's the long term competitive advantage, besides evading regulation? Self driving cars, most likely.
The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
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Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#12The main selling point of Uber is the app--but eventually Yellow Cab, et al will also have slick apps. What's the long term competitive advantage, besides evading regulation? Self driving cars, most likely.
Well, one advantage is having any competition at all. The taxi market has been so badly broken for so long that just being able to introduce new drivers and companies results in lower prices and better service all around.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#13Yeah, there's just that little price gouging problem during times of scarcity. I think they took a big PR hit when the cost of rides skyrocketed during recent storms. Old style regulated cab companies can't do that.
Have you tried getting a regular cab ride during a snowstorm? At the beginning of this year it took me three hours to get a cab after Boston got a few inches of snow.
This neatly demonstrates what the alternative to "gouging" is - a shortfall of supply. Like breadlines for transit.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#14The main selling point of Uber is the app--but eventually Yellow Cab, et al will also have slick apps. What's the long term competitive advantage, besides evading regulation? Self driving cars, most likely.
Well, one advantage is having any competition at all. The taxi market has been so badly broken for so long that just being able to introduce new drivers and companies results in lower prices and better service all around.
I agree, but in the context of the comment you're responding to, this is subsumed in evading regulation. You are more or less saying, "Taxi regulations are bad because they reduce competition without corresponding advantages that outweigh the cost, so Uber's wins when it evades those regulations and reintroduces competition." But it's still "evading regulations." Although I'd prefer to think of it as avoiding regulations -- avoidance is legal and evasion is illegal.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#15I don't get it. Doesn't every airport in the world have taxis waiting. Why would you need an app to get a taxi at an airport.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#16Yeah, there's just that little price gouging problem during times of scarcity. I think they took a big PR hit when the cost of rides skyrocketed during recent storms. Old style regulated cab companies can't do that.
I will accept Uber's argument when they zero their own commission (or perhaps lower it to whatever it costs to keep the lights on) whenever surge pricing is in effect. Then they have the ability to say, "we're also suffering here". Right now, they make more money when surge pricing is in effect and, since I don't have a view into the algorithms, I can't rule out that they more aggressively surge-price than is reasonable. In fact, I'd believe it to be almost certain that they do.
It's the fact that Uber profits from misfortune (not surge pricing itself) that is making everyone hate them.
Ultimately it's about trade-offs, not absolutes. Is that 5x price hike saving me (compared to how long getting a cab would take) two hours, or 20 seconds? That would be worth knowing. If it's 2 hours, the supply-and-demand argument makes sense: apparently, that's how high the rates must go to compensate drivers for the unpleasantness. If it's 20 seconds, then that's a case of me getting screwed for a minor convenience priced unreasonably.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#17The main selling point of Uber is the app--but eventually Yellow Cab, et al will also have slick apps. What's the long term competitive advantage, besides evading regulation? Self driving cars, most likely.
That's a lot of "eventually." Uber is a software company that runs cabs, basically. Their competitors - the old school, that is - are cab companies who are now faced with the challenge of writing good software. The track record in general of industries where long-established players find that they have to become software companies and put out a polished product there, in addition to whatever they were already doing, suggests to me that the timeline for old-school cab companies putting out an app that doesn't look like total garbage next to Uber's, is likely to extend so far out that it might as well be never. They may turn around and subcontract the work of creating and maintaining the app, but that has its own problems that we're all familiar with.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#18The main selling point of Uber is the app--but eventually Yellow Cab, et al will also have slick apps. What's the long term competitive advantage, besides evading regulation? Self driving cars, most likely.
Better accountability than normal cab companies.
Recently a (one of many) Swedish cab company had one of their more islamic drivers throw out a gay couple. Nothing has happened. No one got fired, no head rolled, nothing on Twitter.
Now imagine if a Uber driver did that....
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#19I don't get it. Doesn't every airport in the world have taxis waiting. Why would you need an app to get a taxi at an airport.
I've had Uber drivers say not to bother using the app at LAX. They need to get a separate permit from airport officials to pick up the passenger, so it's at minimum a ~30 minute ordeal to arrange pick-up.
Uber isn't right for every use-case; especially pick-ups from regulated areas where taxi stands are already prevalent.
Re: The Black Car Company That People Love to Hate
#20Yeah, there's just that little price gouging problem during times of scarcity. I think they took a big PR hit when the cost of rides skyrocketed during recent storms. Old style regulated cab companies can't do that.
I will accept Uber's argument when they zero their own commission (or perhaps lower it to whatever it costs to keep the lights on) whenever surge pricing is in effect. Then they have the ability to say, "we're also suffering here". Right now, they make more money when surge pricing is in effect and, since I don't have a view into the algorithms, I can't rule out that they more aggressively surge-price than is reasona…
"If it's 20 seconds, then that's a case of me getting screwed for a minor convenience priced unreasonably."
Wow, you must be REALLY fun to stand behind in line at the coffee shop. "WADDYA MEAN $3 FOR THIS COFFEE? I COULD HAVE MADE IT FOR 10 CENTS! WHY ARE YOU SCREWING ME?"
For reference, "getting screwed" would be what was happening if surge pricing was applied when you got out of the cab without your knowledge - not a advertised-up-front price that you don't agree with.