5 ms·

I'm not sure I agree that Tyler's point is of major significance, but yours seems even more wrong. I think Tyler's point is, there is a stock of underutilized

I'm not sure I agree that Tyler's point is of major significance, but yours seems even more wrong. I think Tyler's point is, there is a stock of underutilized cars that gets converted to Ubers. Hypothetically, I needed a car for work, and I decide to drive it for Uber on weekends. In the long run, I decide I don't need a car because Ubers are so available. The supply of Ubers then goes down, while demand goes up, since I don't have the option to drive myself. I don't think there is any mechanism here that would drive the cost of an Uber ride down. Total transportation cost goes down because the total of Uber plus self-driven cars go down, but the mix goes to more Uber, less self-driven cars. I think as Uber over time ceases to benefit from an 'arb' where it piggy-backs on sunk-cost cars and personal insurance, the cost of Uber-ing goes up, but overall transport cost goes down because people don't have to pay for underutilized cars. It's possible that over time the mix of cars goes to utilitarian electric models, and a 'fun' car becomes a specialty item like a high-end sports car is today, and some people don't love their new options. But if you believe in free markets, you would have to say that the market has spoken and arrived at a revealed preference for paying less for transport in a utilitarian vehicle that is not underutilized.

mattlutze 11y ago
It feels like Uber's use case is still quite a middle/upper-middle class urban thing, and that the market hasn't decided to hand itself over to microservice taxis just yet.
- ghaff 11y ago
  That's because, when you get right down to it, Ubers are taxis which have always been primarily a middle/upper-class, urban-ish thing. It increases the pool of available drivers/cars and it simplifies the whole process, especially in areas that didn't have a well-established set of taxi services. But the economics are still basically the economics of hired cars (whether taxis, limos, or whatever).

mattlutze 11y ago

It feels like Uber's use case is still quite a middle/upper-middle class urban thing, and that the market hasn't decided to hand itself over to microservice taxis just yet.

ghaff 11y ago
That's because, when you get right down to it, Ubers are taxis which have always been primarily a middle/upper-class, urban-ish thing. It increases the pool of available drivers/cars and it simplifies the whole process, especially in areas that didn't have a well-established set of taxi services. But the economics are still basically the economics of hired cars (whether taxis, limos, or whatever).