Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 527 posts

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#61

Post by trevor-e »

rad88 wrote: post #50
jbw976 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the in app tipping that lyft provides is what seals the deal for me. the drivers are performing a service for me and having an integrated way to enhance their compensation is really nice. a lot of the drivers have a hard time making a good living especially considering vehicle related costs are all on their shoulders. I'm happy to have a 1-click way to give them a bit extra. I've never understood why uber doesn't let…

Uber's claim is that black people are known to tip poorly, and so drivers would be incentivized to cancel their rides in favor of fares they expect will tip better. Therefore they don't allow tipping to prevent racism. Supposedly...

Couldn't drivers also negatively rate passengers in retaliation if they don't tip?

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#62

Post by rubicon33 »

mdorazio wrote: post #41
jbw976 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the in app tipping that lyft provides is what seals the deal for me. the drivers are performing a service for me and having an integrated way to enhance their compensation is really nice. a lot of the drivers have a hard time making a good living especially considering vehicle related costs are all on their shoulders. I'm happy to have a 1-click way to give them a bit extra. I've never understood why uber doesn't let…

Counterpoint: one of the reasons I prefer Uber is that it doesn't allow or encourage in-app tipping. Tipping sucks, is economically dysfunctional, and socially awkward. If the drivers aren't making enough from base fares then the fares need to go up - it's not my job to be a charity.

Couldn't agree more. It's THE reason I use Uber, instead of lift. Tipping has gotten out of control in this country. It's supposed to be reserved for when someone performs an exceptional service, not to subsidize their wage.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#63

Post by untog »

rad88 wrote: post #50
jbw976 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the in app tipping that lyft provides is what seals the deal for me. the drivers are performing a service for me and having an integrated way to enhance their compensation is really nice. a lot of the drivers have a hard time making a good living especially considering vehicle related costs are all on their shoulders. I'm happy to have a 1-click way to give them a bit extra. I've never understood why uber doesn't let…

Uber's claim is that black people are known to tip poorly, and so drivers would be incentivized to cancel their rides in favor of fares they expect will tip better. Therefore they don't allow tipping to prevent racism. Supposedly...

That is in no way true.

Suggesting that black people are somehow to blame for Uber not allowing in-app tips is one of the most out there things I've seen on HN, and that's saying something.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#64

Post by nilkn »

jbw976 wrote: post #34
smileysteve wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key points are - CEO never blackmailed journalists - No major revelations of sexual harassment - ~~No major revelations of political support~~ Related to core business - Surge Limit has prevented complaints about emergency pricing vs Uber. - Lyft takes a lower commission capped at 20%/25% - Lyft has in app digital tipping (drivers keep 100% of tips). Uber's tip policy encourages cash, which is an often cited comp…

the in app tipping that lyft provides is what seals the deal for me. the drivers are performing a service for me and having an integrated way to enhance their compensation is really nice. a lot of the drivers have a hard time making a good living especially considering vehicle related costs are all on their shoulders. I'm happy to have a 1-click way to give them a bit extra. I've never understood why uber doesn't let…

Uber wanted to make payment so easy you don't even have to think about it. Tipping seriously gets in the way of that ideal, even if it's purely digital.

The first few times I used Uber, the most impressive aspect of it to me was that at the end I could literally just get out of the car. It was done. Payment was already handled. This was a tremendous improvement over the experience with taxis, where paying could be stressful and awkward and not even easy.

To this day I'm strongly against tips for Uber. Uber already has a rating system. I don't need the ability to decline to tip to communicate that a driver did poorly: I can just give them a low rating. So the only argument remaining for tipping built into the app is to supplement their pay, but that is a slippery slope that will quickly hurt drivers.

As soon as drivers routinely expect and rely on tips, that opens up Uber to reducing their rates to grab more customers. Drivers will become totally reliant on tips to make a decent wage, just like servers are in the restaurant industry. But not every customer will tip appropriately, which means one of two things:

(1) Either the drivers' overall compensation will go down due to the non-tippers, or

(2) The expected tips will go up, so that tipping customers effectively subsidize non-tipping customers.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#65

Post by envy2 »

hackernewsacct wrote: post #42
envy2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not—and anyone who says that it is is deluding themselves. I think we've reached the point where ridesharing apps are 100% a commodity: there's no real product differentiation, so I'll choose based on price and how long it'll take the car to arrive. Lyft drivers seem 'happier,' but that hasn't translated into anything significantly different for me in terms of ride quality. This won't be a popular opinion, but I…

There are some flaws in your assumptions. You assume everyone that drives has the same license and that driving requires little skill. Some speciality driving requires skills. These drivers have to have Class A CDL licenses and have to pass training. I highly doubt automated vechiles will obselete every driving job that requires a CDL license in the next 5 years. Eventually? Quite possibly. But in 5 years? Most likel…

I'd be shocked if any significant number of UberX and Lyft drivers had a CDL. Even in NYC, where a TLC license and commercial insurance is required, drivers still don't need a CDL.

Some driving definitely requires specialized skills, but driving a Prius around SF or $random_american_city isn't it. Autonomous vehicles have gotten quite good, and I can easily see them filling the taxi/Uber use case by 2022.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#66

Post by pbreit »

techsupporter wrote: post #3

Forgive me if this is me being dense, but from an outsider's perspective I don't understand what makes Lyft any better than Uber. Neither company properly categorizes their drivers (as employees), both have a rather sizeable cut from fares, both depended on being basically illegal cabs--except for Uber Black, which uses licensed black car services--to get started, and neither has a financially viable business model.…

You have a few faulty assumptions: the contractor classification is reasonable, many disagree it is or should be illegal, business model is money-printing machine. They are somewhat interchangeable but have quite different brandings.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#67

Post by songzme »

Anyone tried carpooling services like Waze pool? As an employee at google, I decided to give Waze pool a try. I live in San Jose and usually ride the google shuttle to work. During traffic, it takes about 1 hour to 1.5 hours (keep in mind Google shuttle has multiple stops).

After using Waze Rider a few times, it has now become my main mode of transportation to work and back. It cost $5 (and possibly less) and you get to sit in a car and talk about life, share your interests, problems, with another human being. So far I have completed about 26 rides and the socializing aspect outside of my social circle makes my commute much more exciting. Since drives can't make a living off the money from Waze carpool, the drivers I tend to meet are those who doesn't really need the money and simply doing it to meet new people. They all have different backgrounds going to work (or home). I've met a nanny, tax accountant, an aspiring policeman going to the academy, VP of a company, and software engineers. Yesterday, I waze carpooled with a product manager and a startup who picked me up in his Tesla. It was the first time I've ridden in a Tesla.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#68

Post by smileysteve »

rad88 wrote: post #50
jbw976 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the in app tipping that lyft provides is what seals the deal for me. the drivers are performing a service for me and having an integrated way to enhance their compensation is really nice. a lot of the drivers have a hard time making a good living especially considering vehicle related costs are all on their shoulders. I'm happy to have a 1-click way to give them a bit extra. I've never understood why uber doesn't let…

Uber's claim is that black people are known to tip poorly, and so drivers would be incentivized to cancel their rides in favor of fares they expect will tip better. Therefore they don't allow tipping to prevent racism. Supposedly...

They changed their tipping policy in May 2016 in response to a contractor lawsuit.

Drivers are now allowed to ask for tips; I've had drivers with tip jars and squares available. And I've seen reddit discussions of drivers calling riders who don't tip dicks.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#69

Post by JumpCrisscross »

techsupporter wrote: post #3

Forgive me if this is me being dense, but from an outsider's perspective I don't understand what makes Lyft any better than Uber. Neither company properly categorizes their drivers (as employees), both have a rather sizeable cut from fares, both depended on being basically illegal cabs--except for Uber Black, which uses licensed black car services--to get started, and neither has a financially viable business model.…

> Why is either business the cat's meow?

I have, for years, commented on Uber's savvy relative to Airbnb [1]. This was partly due to Uber's retention of Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe [2]. Unfortunately, he left for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in January [3].

Uber's problems are, 80%, a PR scandal. #DeleteUber started when Uber seemed to interfere with a taxi strike at New York City's JFK airport [4]. Uber cancelled its surcharge at 7:36PM; the taxi union scheduled the strike, at 4:55PM, for between 6 and 7PM [5].

Biggest winner? Peter Thiel--numpties jumped to Lyft. Almost everyone else rallied against his competitor.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6521376#6521700

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Plouffe

[3] http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/10/ubers-david-plouffe-to-join-c...

[4] http://www.businessinsider.com/delete-uber-hashtag-jfk-airpo...

[5] https://www.axios.com/uber-didnt-deserve-deleteuber-22258932...

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#70

Post by smileysteve »

untog wrote: post #63
rad88 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber's claim is that black people are known to tip poorly, and so drivers would be incentivized to cancel their rides in favor of fares they expect will tip better. Therefore they don't allow tipping to prevent racism. Supposedly...

That is in no way true. Suggesting that black people are somehow to blame for Uber not allowing in-app tips is one of the most out there things I've seen on HN, and that's saying something.

Tipping has been studied and has been associated with discrimination on gender, race, and class.

http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a23132/why-tip...

Post reply on HN