Lyft has been doing quite a lot right relative to Uber recently. Due to my employer, I had been a frequent user of Uber's platform. A few weeks ago, I decided

Lyft has been doing quite a lot right relative to Uber recently. Due to my employer, I had been a frequent user of Uber's platform. A few weeks ago, I decided to give the Lyft app a try again after a longish hiatus. I found the app comparatively uncluttered and performant. Whereas Uber's app has six billion options along the slider bar, Lyft doesn't bombard users with mostly unused choice. Coincidentally, I had a friend visiting who tried Uber's app for the first time right as Uber had rolled out some pretty massive changes to the UI and service. When his app defaulted to an interstitial prompt for carpooling, I thought he'd hit UberPool by accident, and had him back out to try again. When it happened again, I assumed something was janked with the app, and had him kill the app and restart it. Lyft's focussed approach to on-demand mobility may be an in-road against the "do everything" approach of Uber. The subsidies they are offering means I have no cost incentive to use Uber for the moment--instead I roll a large portion of the $5/trip savings into tipping. This bumps the price back up to unsubsidised Uber levels, but I feel like I've gotten a bargain, and I know those dollars are going to the driver. In that sense Lyft is getting double duty from their subsidies. Clever, considering the goal is to build both the supply and demand sides of their marketplace. Now the tipping feature in the app all of a sudden feels less of a liability and more of an asset. All told, Lyft's been handed some lucky cards and has been playing them well.