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Right now, even with surge, they seem to be a bit cheaper than the normal city taxi but I would bet that as soon as there will be no more competition they will

by embro 10y ago

Right now, even with surge, they seem to be a bit cheaper than the normal city taxi but I would bet that as soon as there will be no more competition they will raise the price AND still do price surge. In the end, we will pay more than we used to. Uber seem to be always on the edge between aggressive profit and shady business. EDIT: Don't think by my comment that I meant the taxis are better. I was just saying that right now, this is a great deal in most cities where Uber does offer their services but seeing how hungry they are for max profit, I doubt this will last and eventually we will realize that a broken system was replaced by another broken one.

mahyarm 10y ago
Taxis are a shady business pretty much world wide it feels like.
- pkorzeniewski 10y ago
  It depends, for several years now I order taxis in my city from the same company and never had any problems - price is similar to Uber, ordering takes literally several seconds over the phone (call, tell the street, hang up) and drivers always take the shortest route (they usually know the city in and out, hardly ever using GPS). The only downside is that the cars are quite old, but always clean and a fun fact - a 20 years old Mercedes is more comfortable than a brand new Toyota :)
  - supercoder 10y ago
    In my city (Melbourne Aus) - There's a surcharge for phone bookings - Taxis generally refuse small fares - Taxis still just use their gps - Taxis are more expensive - Taxis drive more aggressively - The cars aren't as clean And they're wondering why their business is getting eaten alive...
    - serge2k 10y ago
      Here in Seattle they bitch when you want to use a credit card, then pull out the really old mechanical slide things to take payment. Coming from Canada where the card just works I was shocked.
      - auxym 10y ago
        Not in Montreal. The law obligating taxis to accept CC just passed a few months ago and many drivers still try to pull the broken machine stunt.
        Scoundreller 10y ago
        Or when it's "working", it's a scam to copy your PIN and give you the last victim's card back: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/taxi-debit-scam-1.3478566 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/taxi-debit-scam-1.3478... It's partly a consequence of there being so few banks in Canada, so you only need 5 or 6 fraudulent cards to hand back to the user.
        developer2 10y ago
        I've had two different taxi drivers in Montreal offer up their cell phone with their personal Square card reader and account instead of the official machine. The first one pulled out the real machine when I called him out on it. I paid and filed a complaint against him. The second refused and acted like nothing was wrong, even though I clearly knew what was up. I refused payment, filed a complaint, and have continued to receive service from the same company without issue. The taxi industry is corrupt as hell. Credit card fraud, drivers who take clueless tourists on an hour trip when it is a 15 minute drive, theft of forgotten items in cars, unlicensed drivers driving others' cars when the legal driver is off-hours, etc. Some of these people belong in jail, but the worst they ever face is a slap on the wrist or possibly losing their job. Any competition to them - legal or not, I don't give a shit anymore - is welcome. Their monopoly is abused by the owners as well as many individual drivers. Their business deserves to fall apart.
        ohyes 10y ago
    - endgame 10y ago
      I visited Adelaide once and had to get the map book out of the passenger-side pocket. For a destination in the CBD.
      - voltagex_ 10y ago
        Same in Canberra - the problem most of the time is driver turnover. Say what you will about London cabs, but The Knowledge is an amazing thing.
    - deleted 10y ago
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    - roel_v 10y ago
      I waited almost an hour for a cab in Sydney a few months ago, calling 3 times in between being told every time 'it's on its way', with a 3 and a 5 year old waiting outside on the sidewalk - not fun. Had to take the bus to get to my destination at all. Have gotten extremely suspicious of aus cabs since, despite my usual airport service being excellent.
      - fphhotchips 10y ago
        Sydney has easily the worst cab service in the country. Half the time the cab doesn't even have A/C. Also, I find that the airport service is made wonderfully redundant by the mostly excellent Airtrain.
  - vostok 10y ago
    > 20 years old Mercedes is more comfortable than a brand new Toyota Is that true? It's been a long time since I've been in a 1996 S-class [0], but the Toyota Avalon Hybrid is rather comfortable. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Mercedes-Benz_W140_S-Class_Sedan.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Mercedes...
    - hueving 10y ago
      Most Uber x drivers aren't in an Avalon. I usually get a Camry or a Prius here in the bay.
      - vostok 10y ago
        I'd wager that a Camry is still more comfortable than a 20 year old Merc. The Prius is debatable.
        voltagex_ 10y ago
        The new Camry and Prius (V) are fantastic - that's what the taxis in Canberra, Australia are being replaced with, since the Ford Falcon AU hasn't been made since 2005 and the cars are starting to fall apart.
    - deleted 10y ago
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    - z6 10y ago
      I'd say yes. Had a 92 E class and it was one comfortable car.
  - deleted 10y ago
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- denzil_correa 10y ago
  They are so due to the business of issuing medallions. http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/47636506327/the-tyranny-of-the-taxi-medallions http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/47636506327/the-tyranny-of...
- nihonde 10y ago
  In Japan taxis are very pleasant, but expensive, and can be complicated. I say pleasant because the drivers are usually super-polite, dressed in a neat uniform, quick to get out of the car to help you, keep their cars immaculate, etc. I say complicated because Japan has an infernal resistance to using street names and marking addresses. If you can get your destination to appear on the "navi", you're OK. If not, you'll be doing a lot of "more towards the castle" and similar guesswork.
  - deleted 10y ago
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  - jacalata 10y ago
    Japan's amazing urban geography doesn't seem like something Uber can fix, surely.
  - cJ0th 10y ago
    Could you tell the driver a GPS address?
    - ptaipale 10y ago
      If you know it, probably. But if you don't, and if the navigation system doesn't know, it's going to be hard. The street numbering is different from the West. In Japan and South Korea, a city is divided into small numbered zones. The houses within each zone are then labelled in the order in which they were constructed, or clockwise around the block. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_numbering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_numbering
      - germanier 10y ago
        Korea introduced street names and house numbers a few years ago and the new system is now the only official, though of course the former system is still popular. For taxis usually you still name nearby landmarks but they can also input a (western-style) address into their GPS.
    - 10y ago
- pandler 10y ago
  Uber was a godsend when I was in Kenya where metered taxis were out of the question and where taxi drivers were especially exhausting to haggle with. Even when I could possibly negotiate a cheaper price with a normal cab, I would usually call an Uber anyways just for the peace of mind. That is, unless I sought the sheer thrill of tearing through the streets of Nairobi on the back of a motorcycle taxi.
AdamJacobMuller 10y ago
Perhaps, especially if you mean that surge pricing will be above regular taxi pricing. That said, I'm fine with that. I live in a suburban area and getting a (traditional) taxi is complicated and getting a car service is both complicated and expensive. Uber is simple and convenient and I'm fine with paying (some) premium for that.
sillysaurus3 10y ago
For what it's worth, here are the prices of my last few uber rides: $4 $4 $2 $2 $2.50 $1.75 $2 $2 $3.75 These prices are so low that it would be more expensive to take public transit, let alone a taxi. The trips were pretty far, too. It's obvious that this can't last, but it's pretty great for the moment. EDIT: A few clarifications: These were in Chicago, and I haven't omitted any rides from this sample. Those really are the last 9 UberPool rides. The reason it's so cheap is because Uber keeps carpet bombing my phone with 50% and 75% off promo deals. I don't know why. The two types of deals are "Your next 5 rides are 50% off" and "All rides between 4pm and 7pm are 75% off."
- lifeformed 10y ago
  What city?
  - blhack 10y ago
    I saw prices like this in Mumbai.
- noobermin 10y ago
  Here are my last few uber rides $18.94 $13.87 $ 7.68 $13.99 $11.22 $40.05 $12.71 Some were far, some not, obviously. They are spread over a few months, obviously, given the price of a typical uber, I am not prone to using it often. It does still beat a taxi, though. Just balancing out what seems to be a biased sample.
  - microcolonel 10y ago
    I can tell you that downtown rides are about this cheap on Uber here in Toronto. Scale is a big factor as well, maybe you're in a place with fewer drivers, or posher folks?
    - noobermin 10y ago
      Can you clarify? You mean cheap as sillysaurus3's prices or mine? We are a "smaller city", large population but a little sparse.
yummyfajitas 10y ago
Just think how bad it might be if cities were to create regulations to keep out anyone besides Uber. Then Uber might create a medallion system - artificially limiting the number of cars on the road - to maximize their profits [1]. Uber would also have no real incentive to monitor their driver's behavior - after all, it's not like they'll lose any business to Ola, Lyft or Meru. They might even engage in racist protectionism, like banning cab drivers from the wrong ethnic group [2]! I sure hope no one ever gets this kind of monopoly on taxi cabs! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_New_York_City#Medallions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_New_York_City#Meda... [2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/dont-know-marathi-cant-drive-autos-heres-how-shiv-sena-plans-to-gain-from-the-move-in-maharashtra-2436220.html http://www.firstpost.com/india/dont-know-marathi-cant-drive-... (For those unfamiliar, Shiv Sena is basically the Donald Trump party of Maharashtra.)
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  There's no reason Uber would create a medallion system. They'd just raise the commissions that drivers pay.
- Scoundreller 10y ago
  Uber's headstart already makes it difficult for any upstart to compete with UberPool. In Toronto, Uber appears to be taking aggressive action against drivers that refuse Pool: http://uberpeople.net/threads/reject-2-pool-in-a-row-get-kicked-off-for-15-min-anyone-else.79105/ http://uberpeople.net/threads/reject-2-pool-in-a-row-get-kic...
- DrScump 10y ago
  Uber has no need to worry about maximizing profits via limiting drivers, or need for a medallion system, in the long term given that their long-term goal is no drivers at all: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/17/ubers-self-driving-car-future-vs-california-decision-today.html http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/17/ubers-self-driving-car-future... (one example; there are more recent articles)
agumonkey 10y ago
In Paris it will very rapidly outbid traditional Taxi companies. Uber hooks into the psychological side of in the now calculation, you only think about the base price not the end-to-end fee, by the time you're paying it's too late.
savanaly 10y ago
Why wouldn't a competitor undercut them if they did that?
- newjersey 10y ago
  In my (possibly incorrect) understanding, the promise of uber to shareholders is the network effect. However, you're right. This elasticity only goes so far. If Uber is smart, they should work hard to keep prices (and profits) low as long as they can afford to do so.
Scoundreller 10y ago
Uber says they don't surge the price because your battery is low. All that's happening here is users are less willing to wait out a surge when they're in danger of being without an Uber (and an inability to call a cab).
nickparker 10y ago
The common complaint against Uber is that drivers barely make any money when you factor in minimum wage. Their solution won't be increased prices, it'll be the end of drivers. I'd love to see someone actually run the cashflows, but the current prices seem to me about adequate for healthy profit on driverless vehicles. All this nonsense about paying drivers is just incredibly expensive market building.
- developer2 10y ago
  >> The common complaint against Uber is that drivers barely make any money when you factor in minimum wage. The question is whether drivers are making less than minimum wage. This is admittedly more difficult to calculate in an unbiased manner due to a lack of consensus as to whether gas, insurance, vehicle maintenance, etc. should be counted towards a driver's costs of operation. My intuition says that it shouldn't matter. If a driver is willing to work for a very small margin of profit or even at a financial loss, it's their fault for taking a job that doesn't provide. If Uber doesn't pay, then don't work for Uber, it's as simple as that! Let the market decide; if people were to refuse working for pennies, then Uber would be forced to offer decent income or go out of business due to lack of drivers. And yet after having this initial opinion, the thought occurs... what if this was the norm for employment? Clearly we cannot operate as a society if every job paid like that. At some point, does regulation need to kick in to prevent such abuses from being the norm? I don't know. It just makes no sense to me that anyone would be an Uber driver if it doesn't pay whatsoever. I can't decide who's more at fault - Uber, or the people offering themselves up as bait to a broken system.
  - MarkMc 10y ago
    Why is there a "lack of consensus as to whether gas, insurance, vehicle maintenance, etc. should be counted towards a driver's costs of operation"? The driver pays for these things, so they should count towards the driver's cost of operation. Seems clear to me. Also, it seems you are happy for Uber to effectively pay below minimum wage. Does that mean you want to see minimum wage abolished?
    - 10y ago
baddox 10y ago
Shhh, don't tell Uber/Lyft, but I would gladly pay more than taxi rates to use their service. In my view, price is hardly the primary advantage they have over taxis.
- zyxley 10y ago
  For me, this starts with my complete distrust of metered taxi pricing in the first place. Literally every taxi ride I've ever had in the States had the driver take a longer route than they could have just gotten from Google, sometimes to the point of absurdity. With Uber and Lyft, on the other hand, I know ahead of time what I'll be paying.
  - dawnerd 10y ago
    Thats assuming the driver follows the route uber/lyft tells them to take. It is still really nice to have an idea of the route and the bill. One reason I like Uber/Lyft more is I can take it a few blocks. A taxi driver would be upset if you only needed them for a short ride.
  - deleted 10y ago
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  - rz2k 10y ago
    Drivers are eventually going to follow pretty closely what the metering algorithm wants them to, with a moderate adjustment for passenger satisfaction for the sake of tips. Consider different per fare starting fees, and different per mile and per minutes additional fees. If the fixed revenue part is relatively high you'll end up with very fast, but probably unsafe, cab rides. High per mile rates and you'll possibly end up on unecessary freeway legs. High per minute rates and you might get dropped where there are a lot of new fares rather than where you want to go.
- tyingq 10y ago
  >>Shhh, don't tell Uber/Lyft, but I would gladly pay more than taxi rates to use their service. Pretty sure they are aware, and just waiting until they have enough market share to make good on that.
KKKKkkkk1 10y ago
Why would there be no competition to Uber? Are they lobbying for traditional taxi companies to be banned from the market?
- thesimon 10y ago
  But why should traditional taxis still drive for lower rates when they could earn more through Uber?
pfarnsworth 10y ago
The company's stated goals are to compete against mass transit, so I doubt they would raise prices. And they would be making the exact same mistake that their predecessors did, which led them to get disrupted. I'm pretty sure Uber isn't that stupid to not realize if they started acting like taxi companies, they would pretty easily get disrupted the way they have been as well. If they did all it would do is decrease demand, and would allow other competitors to make their ways into the ridesharing market. I think the CEO is smart enough to know that making a product that is great for customers with margins so low that it makes it really hard for new competitors to come up is a great business to be in.
JumpCrisscross 10y ago
Many years ago, when I shared my New York apartment with others, a relationship developed between me and my roommate. He is a Brown -educated architect/designer. I, at the time, was an entry-level analyst. From time to time, but at least a few times a week, I'd have to walk to the avenue with him to hail a cab. Because he was black. I'm not wedded to Uber out of principle, but I'm staunchly against our taxi establishment for it.
- stephenr 10y ago
  You think uber of all companies would have stood up for equal rights back then? They don't even follow the law now, what makes you think they'd have done the right thing then?
  - sp332 10y ago
    https://medium.com/matter/ubering-while-black-146db581b9db https://medium.com/matter/ubering-while-black-146db581b9db It certainly seems to be in their favor to be less racist. http://fusion.net/story/170983/uber-racial-politics/ http://fusion.net/story/170983/uber-racial-politics/
  - rspeer 10y ago
    Uber bans tipping. It collects the same amount of money regardless of who the passenger is. An Uber driver has no reason to use blunt heuristics (such as skin color) to try to visually identify fares who have more money.
    - gre 10y ago
      Uber now allows tipping. http://www.startribune.com/tip-sheet-should-you-tip-your-uber-driver/380185281/ http://www.startribune.com/tip-sheet-should-you-tip-your-ube...
      - rspeer 10y ago
        Well, that sucks. Sounds like Uber is letting its drivers make up their own rules to continue the fiction that its drivers are "independent contractors". If they keep doing that they'll be as unaccountable for customer service as the average taxi dispatcher.
jfoster 10y ago
If Uber becomes what you imagine it will get replaced.
aaron695 10y ago
Do you have any evidence of this other than normal HN parnoia? Why would they. Their cut would not be a hell of a lot more with a price hike. Why kill off sales? Why open up to competitors? They are in a numbers game. Not a high ticket game. Can you give an example of another company that has done this? McDonald's hasn't gone to $20 burgers.. why would Uber price hike?
- jacalata 10y ago
  McDonald's hasn't, quoting the OP you responded to, 'cut off all competition'. Are you imagining that with no competition, McDonald's would still not raise prices?
  - icebraining 10y ago
    The idea that Uber can cut off all competition is suspect. They had to spend a lot of money because they were fighting the taxi monopoly and introducing a new type of product. But nowadays, all you need to compete is an app. The threat of competition is always there, as there's very little lock-in for both users and drivers.
  - aaron695 10y ago
    People could still cook at home or go to restaurants, so I think McDonalds with no competition wouldn't. Why would they risk losing their monopoly if they had one in fast food. Uber doesn't care what it drivers earn, why would it hurt sales by giving them more money? Uber has broken a monopoly, yet people are prattling on that they might create one? Has a company ever done this, one real world example? Why get a monopoly by out pricing the competition then raise prices to allow someone to do it back to you?
rpgmaker 10y ago
In my area 2.1x surge (plus base fare) is still cheaper than a normal -and notoriously shitty- taxi.

by embro 10y ago

mahyarm 10y ago

Taxis are a shady business pretty much world wide it feels like.

pkorzeniewski 10y ago
It depends, for several years now I order taxis in my city from the same company and never had any problems - price is similar to Uber, ordering takes literally several seconds over the phone (call, tell the street, hang up) and drivers always take the shortest route (they usually know the city in and out, hardly ever using GPS). The only downside is that the cars are quite old, but always clean and a fun fact - a 20 years old Mercedes is more comfortable than a brand new Toyota :)
- supercoder 10y ago
  In my city (Melbourne Aus) - There's a surcharge for phone bookings - Taxis generally refuse small fares - Taxis still just use their gps - Taxis are more expensive - Taxis drive more aggressively - The cars aren't as clean And they're wondering why their business is getting eaten alive...
  - serge2k 10y ago
    Here in Seattle they bitch when you want to use a credit card, then pull out the really old mechanical slide things to take payment. Coming from Canada where the card just works I was shocked.
    - auxym 10y ago
      Not in Montreal. The law obligating taxis to accept CC just passed a few months ago and many drivers still try to pull the broken machine stunt.
      - Scoundreller 10y ago
        Or when it's "working", it's a scam to copy your PIN and give you the last victim's card back: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/taxi-debit-scam-1.3478566 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/taxi-debit-scam-1.3478... It's partly a consequence of there being so few banks in Canada, so you only need 5 or 6 fraudulent cards to hand back to the user.
      - developer2 10y ago
        I've had two different taxi drivers in Montreal offer up their cell phone with their personal Square card reader and account instead of the official machine. The first one pulled out the real machine when I called him out on it. I paid and filed a complaint against him. The second refused and acted like nothing was wrong, even though I clearly knew what was up. I refused payment, filed a complaint, and have continued to receive service from the same company without issue. The taxi industry is corrupt as hell. Credit card fraud, drivers who take clueless tourists on an hour trip when it is a 15 minute drive, theft of forgotten items in cars, unlicensed drivers driving others' cars when the legal driver is off-hours, etc. Some of these people belong in jail, but the worst they ever face is a slap on the wrist or possibly losing their job. Any competition to them - legal or not, I don't give a shit anymore - is welcome. Their monopoly is abused by the owners as well as many individual drivers. Their business deserves to fall apart.
        ohyes 10y ago
  - endgame 10y ago
    I visited Adelaide once and had to get the map book out of the passenger-side pocket. For a destination in the CBD.
    - voltagex_ 10y ago
      Same in Canberra - the problem most of the time is driver turnover. Say what you will about London cabs, but The Knowledge is an amazing thing.
  - deleted 10y ago
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  - roel_v 10y ago
    I waited almost an hour for a cab in Sydney a few months ago, calling 3 times in between being told every time 'it's on its way', with a 3 and a 5 year old waiting outside on the sidewalk - not fun. Had to take the bus to get to my destination at all. Have gotten extremely suspicious of aus cabs since, despite my usual airport service being excellent.
    - fphhotchips 10y ago
      Sydney has easily the worst cab service in the country. Half the time the cab doesn't even have A/C. Also, I find that the airport service is made wonderfully redundant by the mostly excellent Airtrain.
- vostok 10y ago
  > 20 years old Mercedes is more comfortable than a brand new Toyota Is that true? It's been a long time since I've been in a 1996 S-class [0], but the Toyota Avalon Hybrid is rather comfortable. [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Mercedes-Benz_W140_S-Class_Sedan.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Mercedes...
  - hueving 10y ago
    Most Uber x drivers aren't in an Avalon. I usually get a Camry or a Prius here in the bay.
    - vostok 10y ago
      I'd wager that a Camry is still more comfortable than a 20 year old Merc. The Prius is debatable.
      - voltagex_ 10y ago
        The new Camry and Prius (V) are fantastic - that's what the taxis in Canberra, Australia are being replaced with, since the Ford Falcon AU hasn't been made since 2005 and the cars are starting to fall apart.
  - deleted 10y ago
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  - z6 10y ago
    I'd say yes. Had a 92 E class and it was one comfortable car.
- deleted 10y ago
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denzil_correa 10y ago
They are so due to the business of issuing medallions. http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/47636506327/the-tyranny-of-the-taxi-medallions http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/47636506327/the-tyranny-of...
nihonde 10y ago
In Japan taxis are very pleasant, but expensive, and can be complicated. I say pleasant because the drivers are usually super-polite, dressed in a neat uniform, quick to get out of the car to help you, keep their cars immaculate, etc. I say complicated because Japan has an infernal resistance to using street names and marking addresses. If you can get your destination to appear on the "navi", you're OK. If not, you'll be doing a lot of "more towards the castle" and similar guesswork.
- deleted 10y ago
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- jacalata 10y ago
  Japan's amazing urban geography doesn't seem like something Uber can fix, surely.
- cJ0th 10y ago
  Could you tell the driver a GPS address?
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    If you know it, probably. But if you don't, and if the navigation system doesn't know, it's going to be hard. The street numbering is different from the West. In Japan and South Korea, a city is divided into small numbered zones. The houses within each zone are then labelled in the order in which they were constructed, or clockwise around the block. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_numbering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_numbering
    - germanier 10y ago
      Korea introduced street names and house numbers a few years ago and the new system is now the only official, though of course the former system is still popular. For taxis usually you still name nearby landmarks but they can also input a (western-style) address into their GPS.
  - 10y ago
pandler 10y ago
Uber was a godsend when I was in Kenya where metered taxis were out of the question and where taxi drivers were especially exhausting to haggle with. Even when I could possibly negotiate a cheaper price with a normal cab, I would usually call an Uber anyways just for the peace of mind. That is, unless I sought the sheer thrill of tearing through the streets of Nairobi on the back of a motorcycle taxi.

AdamJacobMuller 10y ago

Perhaps, especially if you mean that surge pricing will be above regular taxi pricing. That said, I'm fine with that. I live in a suburban area and getting a (traditional) taxi is complicated and getting a car service is both complicated and expensive. Uber is simple and convenient and I'm fine with paying (some) premium for that.

sillysaurus3 10y ago

For what it's worth, here are the prices of my last few uber rides: $4 $4 $2 $2 $2.50 $1.75 $2 $2 $3.75 These prices are so low that it would be more expensive to take public transit, let alone a taxi. The trips were pretty far, too. It's obvious that this can't last, but it's pretty great for the moment. EDIT: A few clarifications: These were in Chicago, and I haven't omitted any rides from this sample. Those really are the last 9 UberPool rides. The reason it's so cheap is because Uber keeps carpet bombing my phone with 50% and 75% off promo deals. I don't know why. The two types of deals are "Your next 5 rides are 50% off" and "All rides between 4pm and 7pm are 75% off."

lifeformed 10y ago
What city?
- blhack 10y ago
  I saw prices like this in Mumbai.
noobermin 10y ago
Here are my last few uber rides $18.94 $13.87 $ 7.68 $13.99 $11.22 $40.05 $12.71 Some were far, some not, obviously. They are spread over a few months, obviously, given the price of a typical uber, I am not prone to using it often. It does still beat a taxi, though. Just balancing out what seems to be a biased sample.
- microcolonel 10y ago
  I can tell you that downtown rides are about this cheap on Uber here in Toronto. Scale is a big factor as well, maybe you're in a place with fewer drivers, or posher folks?
  - noobermin 10y ago
    Can you clarify? You mean cheap as sillysaurus3's prices or mine? We are a "smaller city", large population but a little sparse.

yummyfajitas 10y ago

Just think how bad it might be if cities were to create regulations to keep out anyone besides Uber. Then Uber might create a medallion system - artificially limiting the number of cars on the road - to maximize their profits [1]. Uber would also have no real incentive to monitor their driver's behavior - after all, it's not like they'll lose any business to Ola, Lyft or Meru. They might even engage in racist protectionism, like banning cab drivers from the wrong ethnic group [2]! I sure hope no one ever gets this kind of monopoly on taxi cabs! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_New_York_City#Medallions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_New_York_City#Meda... [2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/dont-know-marathi-cant-drive-autos-heres-how-shiv-sena-plans-to-gain-from-the-move-in-maharashtra-2436220.html http://www.firstpost.com/india/dont-know-marathi-cant-drive-... (For those unfamiliar, Shiv Sena is basically the Donald Trump party of Maharashtra.)

HappyTypist 10y ago
There's no reason Uber would create a medallion system. They'd just raise the commissions that drivers pay.
Scoundreller 10y ago
Uber's headstart already makes it difficult for any upstart to compete with UberPool. In Toronto, Uber appears to be taking aggressive action against drivers that refuse Pool: http://uberpeople.net/threads/reject-2-pool-in-a-row-get-kicked-off-for-15-min-anyone-else.79105/ http://uberpeople.net/threads/reject-2-pool-in-a-row-get-kic...
DrScump 10y ago
Uber has no need to worry about maximizing profits via limiting drivers, or need for a medallion system, in the long term given that their long-term goal is no drivers at all: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/17/ubers-self-driving-car-future-vs-california-decision-today.html http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/17/ubers-self-driving-car-future... (one example; there are more recent articles)

agumonkey 10y ago

In Paris it will very rapidly outbid traditional Taxi companies. Uber hooks into the psychological side of in the now calculation, you only think about the base price not the end-to-end fee, by the time you're paying it's too late.

savanaly 10y ago

Why wouldn't a competitor undercut them if they did that?

newjersey 10y ago
In my (possibly incorrect) understanding, the promise of uber to shareholders is the network effect. However, you're right. This elasticity only goes so far. If Uber is smart, they should work hard to keep prices (and profits) low as long as they can afford to do so.

Scoundreller 10y ago

Uber says they don't surge the price because your battery is low. All that's happening here is users are less willing to wait out a surge when they're in danger of being without an Uber (and an inability to call a cab).

nickparker 10y ago

The common complaint against Uber is that drivers barely make any money when you factor in minimum wage. Their solution won't be increased prices, it'll be the end of drivers. I'd love to see someone actually run the cashflows, but the current prices seem to me about adequate for healthy profit on driverless vehicles. All this nonsense about paying drivers is just incredibly expensive market building.

developer2 10y ago
>> The common complaint against Uber is that drivers barely make any money when you factor in minimum wage. The question is whether drivers are making less than minimum wage. This is admittedly more difficult to calculate in an unbiased manner due to a lack of consensus as to whether gas, insurance, vehicle maintenance, etc. should be counted towards a driver's costs of operation. My intuition says that it shouldn't matter. If a driver is willing to work for a very small margin of profit or even at a financial loss, it's their fault for taking a job that doesn't provide. If Uber doesn't pay, then don't work for Uber, it's as simple as that! Let the market decide; if people were to refuse working for pennies, then Uber would be forced to offer decent income or go out of business due to lack of drivers. And yet after having this initial opinion, the thought occurs... what if this was the norm for employment? Clearly we cannot operate as a society if every job paid like that. At some point, does regulation need to kick in to prevent such abuses from being the norm? I don't know. It just makes no sense to me that anyone would be an Uber driver if it doesn't pay whatsoever. I can't decide who's more at fault - Uber, or the people offering themselves up as bait to a broken system.
- MarkMc 10y ago
  Why is there a "lack of consensus as to whether gas, insurance, vehicle maintenance, etc. should be counted towards a driver's costs of operation"? The driver pays for these things, so they should count towards the driver's cost of operation. Seems clear to me. Also, it seems you are happy for Uber to effectively pay below minimum wage. Does that mean you want to see minimum wage abolished?
  - 10y ago

baddox 10y ago

Shhh, don't tell Uber/Lyft, but I would gladly pay more than taxi rates to use their service. In my view, price is hardly the primary advantage they have over taxis.

zyxley 10y ago
For me, this starts with my complete distrust of metered taxi pricing in the first place. Literally every taxi ride I've ever had in the States had the driver take a longer route than they could have just gotten from Google, sometimes to the point of absurdity. With Uber and Lyft, on the other hand, I know ahead of time what I'll be paying.
- dawnerd 10y ago
  Thats assuming the driver follows the route uber/lyft tells them to take. It is still really nice to have an idea of the route and the bill. One reason I like Uber/Lyft more is I can take it a few blocks. A taxi driver would be upset if you only needed them for a short ride.
- deleted 10y ago
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- rz2k 10y ago
  Drivers are eventually going to follow pretty closely what the metering algorithm wants them to, with a moderate adjustment for passenger satisfaction for the sake of tips. Consider different per fare starting fees, and different per mile and per minutes additional fees. If the fixed revenue part is relatively high you'll end up with very fast, but probably unsafe, cab rides. High per mile rates and you'll possibly end up on unecessary freeway legs. High per minute rates and you might get dropped where there are a lot of new fares rather than where you want to go.
tyingq 10y ago
>>Shhh, don't tell Uber/Lyft, but I would gladly pay more than taxi rates to use their service. Pretty sure they are aware, and just waiting until they have enough market share to make good on that.

KKKKkkkk1 10y ago

Why would there be no competition to Uber? Are they lobbying for traditional taxi companies to be banned from the market?

thesimon 10y ago
But why should traditional taxis still drive for lower rates when they could earn more through Uber?

pfarnsworth 10y ago

The company's stated goals are to compete against mass transit, so I doubt they would raise prices. And they would be making the exact same mistake that their predecessors did, which led them to get disrupted. I'm pretty sure Uber isn't that stupid to not realize if they started acting like taxi companies, they would pretty easily get disrupted the way they have been as well. If they did all it would do is decrease demand, and would allow other competitors to make their ways into the ridesharing market. I think the CEO is smart enough to know that making a product that is great for customers with margins so low that it makes it really hard for new competitors to come up is a great business to be in.

JumpCrisscross 10y ago

Many years ago, when I shared my New York apartment with others, a relationship developed between me and my roommate. He is a Brown -educated architect/designer. I, at the time, was an entry-level analyst. From time to time, but at least a few times a week, I'd have to walk to the avenue with him to hail a cab. Because he was black. I'm not wedded to Uber out of principle, but I'm staunchly against our taxi establishment for it.

stephenr 10y ago
You think uber of all companies would have stood up for equal rights back then? They don't even follow the law now, what makes you think they'd have done the right thing then?
- sp332 10y ago
  https://medium.com/matter/ubering-while-black-146db581b9db https://medium.com/matter/ubering-while-black-146db581b9db It certainly seems to be in their favor to be less racist. http://fusion.net/story/170983/uber-racial-politics/ http://fusion.net/story/170983/uber-racial-politics/
- rspeer 10y ago
  Uber bans tipping. It collects the same amount of money regardless of who the passenger is. An Uber driver has no reason to use blunt heuristics (such as skin color) to try to visually identify fares who have more money.
  - gre 10y ago
    Uber now allows tipping. http://www.startribune.com/tip-sheet-should-you-tip-your-uber-driver/380185281/ http://www.startribune.com/tip-sheet-should-you-tip-your-ube...
    - rspeer 10y ago
      Well, that sucks. Sounds like Uber is letting its drivers make up their own rules to continue the fiction that its drivers are "independent contractors". If they keep doing that they'll be as unaccountable for customer service as the average taxi dispatcher.

jfoster 10y ago

If Uber becomes what you imagine it will get replaced.

aaron695 10y ago

Do you have any evidence of this other than normal HN parnoia? Why would they. Their cut would not be a hell of a lot more with a price hike. Why kill off sales? Why open up to competitors? They are in a numbers game. Not a high ticket game. Can you give an example of another company that has done this? McDonald's hasn't gone to $20 burgers.. why would Uber price hike?

jacalata 10y ago
McDonald's hasn't, quoting the OP you responded to, 'cut off all competition'. Are you imagining that with no competition, McDonald's would still not raise prices?
- icebraining 10y ago
  The idea that Uber can cut off all competition is suspect. They had to spend a lot of money because they were fighting the taxi monopoly and introducing a new type of product. But nowadays, all you need to compete is an app. The threat of competition is always there, as there's very little lock-in for both users and drivers.
- aaron695 10y ago
  People could still cook at home or go to restaurants, so I think McDonalds with no competition wouldn't. Why would they risk losing their monopoly if they had one in fast food. Uber doesn't care what it drivers earn, why would it hurt sales by giving them more money? Uber has broken a monopoly, yet people are prattling on that they might create one? Has a company ever done this, one real world example? Why get a monopoly by out pricing the competition then raise prices to allow someone to do it back to you?

rpgmaker 10y ago

In my area 2.1x surge (plus base fare) is still cheaper than a normal -and notoriously shitty- taxi.