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That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. Uber is the classic case of aggressive government st

by msde 11y ago

That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. Uber is the classic case of aggressive government style intervention in a market causing it to collapse - no riders or drivers in high demand areas during surge pricing. This is a total failure of market policy because no price discrimination is allowed. Fasten is akin to setting minimum wage. They set a low base price but if you want to get somewhere faster or get preference during a busy period then YOU can raise your price by what it's worth to you. This is a big stumbling block for Uber to which Fasten has a rather decent solution.

te_chris 11y ago
That sounds worse than surge pricing as a customer.
forgetsusername 11y ago
>That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand. Uber's system is a central planner trying to simulate the results of a two-sided auction by centrally setting prices to try to achieve a desired result given supply and demand signals. Fasten's system strips out the simulation and just is an auction, which allows supply and demand to align without requiring central planning. I think its pretty fair to describe the latter as evidencing a better understanding of economics.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Especially since its been proven that surge pricing doesn't incentivize more supply. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/how-uber-surge-pricing-really-works/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/ho...

by msde 11y ago

te_chris 11y ago

That sounds worse than surge pricing as a customer.

forgetsusername 11y ago

>That's just good economics. Fasten clearly understands economics and incentives far better than Uber does. It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand.

dragonwriter 11y ago
> It sounds like an auction. It's a clever system, but I don't think it represents a more fundamental understanding of economics than Uber's system, which is to raise prices to induce supply to match demand. Uber's system is a central planner trying to simulate the results of a two-sided auction by centrally setting prices to try to achieve a desired result given supply and demand signals. Fasten's system strips out the simulation and just is an auction, which allows supply and demand to align without requiring central planning. I think its pretty fair to describe the latter as evidencing a better understanding of economics.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Especially since its been proven that surge pricing doesn't incentivize more supply. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/how-uber-surge-pricing-really-works/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/17/ho...