Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
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Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
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Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#2I thought Lyft is working with waymao
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#3I thought the big selling point for Lyft for awhile is that there profitability wasn't dependent on shifting to autonomous vehicles, where Uber's was. This seemed to make drivers move to Lyft because they felt they had more job security. Was that just perceived?
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#4I thought the big selling point for Lyft for awhile is that there profitability wasn't dependent on shifting to autonomous vehicles, where Uber's was. This seemed to make drivers move to Lyft because they felt they had more job security. Was that just perceived?
I’ve never heard anything like that. As far as I know, the only difference between Uber and Lyft is in strategy (Uber being much more aggressive about expansion). Regardless, it’s likely Uber would be profitable right now, even without self driving cars, if they stopped expanding into new markets.
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#5I thought the big selling point for Lyft for awhile is that there profitability wasn't dependent on shifting to autonomous vehicles, where Uber's was. This seemed to make drivers move to Lyft because they felt they had more job security. Was that just perceived?
I’ve never heard anything like that. As far as I know, the only difference between Uber and Lyft is in strategy (Uber being much more aggressive about expansion). Regardless, it’s likely Uber would be profitable right now, even without self driving cars, if they stopped expanding into new markets.
That seems like a highly questionable statement demanding some evidence. Perhaps you meant if they retrenched into existing markets while raising prices and laying off all of their business development staff?
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve never heard anything like that. As far as I know, the only difference between Uber and Lyft is in strategy (Uber being much more aggressive about expansion). Regardless, it’s likely Uber would be profitable right now, even without self driving cars, if they stopped expanding into new markets.
That seems like a highly questionable statement demanding some evidence. Perhaps you meant if they retrenched into existing markets while raising prices and laying off all of their business development staff?
Uber definitely has the levers to become profitable anytime they want since they are entrenched in hundreds of major cities in the world. At the end of the day they control the supply and demand of their own platform and most Uber users will pay whatever the price is since they have been a necessity in many of their user's lives.
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems like a highly questionable statement demanding some evidence. Perhaps you meant if they retrenched into existing markets while raising prices and laying off all of their business development staff?
Uber definitely has the levers to become profitable anytime they want since they are entrenched in hundreds of major cities in the world. At the end of the day they control the supply and demand of their own platform and most Uber users will pay whatever the price is since they have been a necessity in many of their user's lives.
>most Uber users will pay whatever the price
So Uber is charging their current rates as a way of giving back to the community or whatever? If Uber (or even Uber and Lyft) were to double their prices tomorrow there would most certainly be a drop in volume. Just a couple of days ago I took a Lyft from the airport for no other reason than that a cab would cost about 2x. Yes, there are also circumstances and places in which Uber/Lyft is demonstrably better than a cab but the decision can also just be about who is cheapest.
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#8Bear with me here, trying to come at this from the other end.
Why do Uber and Lyft have to develop their own self driving tech? If what they sell is their routing algorithm for drivers, they can simply lease self driving cars from the companies directly and run them on their network. The car companies would be happy to get a cut of the profits.
What advantage would they get by developing their own tech? They have to manufacture the cars themselves or lease the tech to other companies to cover the costs.
Uber and more so Lyft seem late to the game and Uber in particular seem to be fraught with problems and have not made the progress they hoped. So why pursue that? I understand if they started early and are making great progress. On the flip side is the tech no where near completion? Then that would make sense. But Google seems to indicate that they are very very close to launching their own taxi program.
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve never heard anything like that. As far as I know, the only difference between Uber and Lyft is in strategy (Uber being much more aggressive about expansion). Regardless, it’s likely Uber would be profitable right now, even without self driving cars, if they stopped expanding into new markets.
That seems like a highly questionable statement demanding some evidence. Perhaps you meant if they retrenched into existing markets while raising prices and laying off all of their business development staff?
See [1]: "we can turn the knobs to get this business even on a full basis profitable, but you would sacrifice growth and sacrifice innovation" and "He said that it’s Uber’s commitment to 'developing' markets that are dragging things down, but he views that as an 'optional investment'". I'm not and have never been an Uber employee, but I've heard very similar things from people who are. Not great evidence, but hopefully that explains my opinion.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/14/uber-could-be-profitable-i...
Re: Lyft speeds ahead with its autonomous initiatives
#10Bear with me here, trying to come at this from the other end. Why do Uber and Lyft have to develop their own self driving tech? If what they sell is their routing algorithm for drivers, they can simply lease self driving cars from the companies directly and run them on their network. The car companies would be happy to get a cut of the profits. What advantage would they get by developing their own tech? They have to…
I'm gonna have to side with you here, I don't see the point of what they're doing. Except for distinction and marketing. Distinction, as in, if you have total control of how your car, it is easier to create functionality that competitors don't necessarily have. Marketing, as in, marketing.