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Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

wsj.com

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Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#201

Post by lev99 »

codereflection wrote: post #114
prolikewhoa wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rode up Capitol Hill at 4:30PM every day last spring/summer, took me 10-15 minutes to get home from 2nd & Seneca and never had any safety issues. Drivers in Seattle are fairly aware of their surroundings with everyone walking randomly at all times and the city is adding new bike lanes often. Going up the hill on a Lime, Spin, or Ofo...no way -- you see those at the bottom of every hill.

I'm in Seattle as well, I have to disagree. Drivers here are mostly clueless. I know many who bike or ride motorcycles, and they have many stories to tell about the cluelessness of Seattle drivers. It's a dangerous city to ride a bike.

Every biker in every North American city has stories about clueless drivers and close encounters, if not full impacts.

Seattle is probably in the top 5 cities for driver awareness, but it has room for improvement.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#202

Post by cdelsolar »

notatoad wrote: post #68
wpietri wrote: post #7

This is a puzzle to me. Uber faces some critical issues ahead. If they can solve them, the bikes will be a rounding error. If they can't, the bike business won't be enough to save them. Why add the complexity when they could buy or build something later? I especially can't figure out why the Jump CEO would do it. The odds of their work surviving to the 10 year mark seems so small. It reminds me of something like Dodg…

This seems like a defensive play against google maps. The most likely future for Uber is to be a route option in Google maps or some other app, where the user chooses the app first, and the transport method first, and Uber will just be an option with a price tag and time beside it, alongside Lyft and waymo and whatever other services are operating. Bringing other transport methods under the Uber umbrella seems like a…

How is this their most likely future... where did this idea even come from?

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#203

Post by lev99 »

prolikewhoa wrote: post #173
adjohn wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limebike now has electric assist bikes[1] scattered throughout Seattle which makes climbing those hills a breeze. [1] - http://www.limebike.com/electric-assist-bike

I haven't tried the Lime e-bikes yet, but I'm definitely interested because I see them all around my workplace now. Have you tried and confirmed you can make it up the hill with little to no issues?

I've watched people go up the hills on e-bikes. It looks easy enough.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#204

Post by ggregoire »

Analemma_ wrote: post #43
ggregoire wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The consumer benefits seem great How so? We have dockless bikes here (the Chinese Mobike) but it seems like you never know where to pick them up. At less with the public bikes, I know where is the closest docking station to my house.

> but it seems like you never know where to pick them up. That's a major design failure on their part then. Seattle's dockless bikes all have GPS trackers so you can see them on a map on the phone app.

No, I meant you never know before looking at your phone if there is a dockless bike at less than 15 min from your home. And I have 2 public dock stations at 5 min from my home so...

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#205

Post by [deleted] »

ams6110 wrote: post #183
toomuchtodo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/copenhagenize-worlds-most-bike...

The only thing that article says about snow is to prioritize clearing it on bike routes. That isn't good enough by a long shot. Sorry I'm not riding a bike when it's below freezing and I'm not riding a bike in the snow or the rain. Just forget it.

[deleted]

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#206

Post by intrasight »

I stopped road riding several years ago. It's just gotten too dangerous in my opinion - probably due to smartphones. Unlike many European cities, ours are and will likely remain geared towards cars only. That isn't going to change in my lifetime. But if I'm wrong, and there are some US cities rebuilding their roads to separate bikes and cards, please do let me know which ones.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#207

Post by [deleted] »

wpietri wrote: post #7

This is a puzzle to me. Uber faces some critical issues ahead. If they can solve them, the bikes will be a rounding error. If they can't, the bike business won't be enough to save them. Why add the complexity when they could buy or build something later? I especially can't figure out why the Jump CEO would do it. The odds of their work surviving to the 10 year mark seems so small. It reminds me of something like Dodg…

[deleted]

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#208

Post by r00fus »

wpietri wrote: post #7

This is a puzzle to me. Uber faces some critical issues ahead. If they can solve them, the bikes will be a rounding error. If they can't, the bike business won't be enough to save them. Why add the complexity when they could buy or build something later? I especially can't figure out why the Jump CEO would do it. The odds of their work surviving to the 10 year mark seems so small. It reminds me of something like Dodg…

If the goal is to jump in and steer the market away from affecting its other line of business then it may make sense... in a protective move that aligns with its car manufacturer partners as well.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#209

Post by nugi »

itakedrugs wrote: post #186
kchoudhu wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look forward to Uber Airlines in that case.

What would it take for a airplane to be able to pickup someone without stopping?

The army figured this out in ww2 to extract soldiers and others. Using a harness and pole attached to the rider, and catch cable attached to a plane, the rider is plucked at speed into the air. Much like the old air-mail systems. There are youtube videos of it.

Re: Uber enters dockless bike wars with Jump acquisition

#210

Post by Karrot_Kream »

clairity wrote: post #61
fataliss wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would take a lot of political will to do something like that though and it would take YEARS! I don't think the US is a great market (right now) for city-bikes. Outside of maybe Manhattan & SF I can't think of any major city where a bike would take you places faster/better than another way of transportation would. When you consider all the hassles that biking as a transportation comes with, I doubt this has any l…

los angeles is perfect for bike transport. it's sunny and doesn't get too hot or too cold most of the year (in the LA basin proper, the san fernando and inland valleys are a different story). the city government is pro bike path and installing more bike lanes every day. biking is faster during the 6 hours of rush hour a day. most amenities are within 2-3 miles (~15 minutes) of where you live. you can take your bike o…

I biked around LA as a tourist, but the sprawl was so bad, that the majority of the time you spent in transit only to stop off at certain points. Biking in the Berkeley area is like night-and-day, where I don't have to sit on the bike for 10 min. to get to the next plaza. I'd do it again as I enjoy biking much more than driving, but I'm definitely more on the bike-nut side of things.
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