6 ms·

I live in Austin and sold my car about 2 years ago to Uber exclusively. Any given month of ubering costs about a quarter what my commuting costs would be with m

by nthj 10y ago

I live in Austin and sold my car about 2 years ago to Uber exclusively. Any given month of ubering costs about a quarter what my commuting costs would be with my own car. My wife is unable to drive for health reasons, so now that Uber is gone, just buying a car isn't ideal, regardless of economics. While I'm grateful for the new ride sharing companies, I wish Uber was back. There are a lot of tiny details that Uber nailed that without, my day-to-day life requires quite a bit more mental overhead. For example, I cannot have multiple cards on file, so I often have to remember to swap out the card before I can call a ride based on whether it's a business meeting. Uber would almost always pick me up within 3 or 5 minutes; even when the new apps show drivers right around the corner, I usually get matched with someone 15 minutes away—and the ETA is always way off. This makes scheduling things more difficult. They're quite a bit more expensive. None of those things are deal-breakers, of course. But it's kinda like having an iPhone and then going back to a flip-phone. It still works, you're glad you can still call people, but a lot of the magic is gone. And while I know all of the companies are working hard to catch up, the edge cases are numerous enough that I don't think it's realistic for them to deliver a magical experience anytime soon.

alistproducer2 10y ago
I'm curious, how could Uber have been cheaper than driving your own vehicle?
- failrate 10y ago
  If you are not commuting daily.
- nthj 10y ago
  UberPool got me to Capital Factory for ~$4.50 1-way; $4.50 * 2 trips per day * 20 business days => ~$180/month. I could spend roughly that much on any one of parking, maintenance, depreciation, gas, or insurance. edit: I use the time to clear out email, so it has a not-insignificant time benefit as well, but it's still a win on the raw numbers.
  - claystu 10y ago
    Do you go anywhere else except to work? What about groceries? Doctor's appointments? School stuff? Etc... It's hard to imagine that you never leave the house except for work.
    - nthj 10y ago
      Instacart handles groceries for about $100 a year. Drizzly picks up alcohol if we're throwing a party or get-together. Amazon Prime handles almost everything else. Some months are more expensive because of doctor's appointments or an unexpected trip to the Apple Genius Bar and the like, but it's always still a win. I'll get a ZipCar for about $40 if we want to take the whole day and travel about here and there. When we go out in the evenings, I usually order a beer or a cocktail with dinner, so I'd rather not drive; and parking in Austin during the weekend hours can easily be more expensive than the Uber rides. We categorize that under our Entertainment budget because we'd still take Uber for nights out even if we owned a car, but even if I recategorized it as transportation it wouldn't affect the results of the equation. A large part of my lifestyle is subsidized by investors trying to capture a global market (Uber, Instacart, to some extent Amazon), and I recognize that this may not last forever, but I'm happy to game the system while I can.
      - lawnchair_larry 10y ago
        Curious (and somewhat OT), do you actually feel intoxicated after a single beer over dinner?
        nthj 10y ago
        I'm 120 pounds sopping wet, so regardless of my own opinions on my intoxication level, one standard American pint is enough to cause potential legal issues I am very happy to pay Uber to avoid entirely. http://www.brad21.org/bac_charts.html http://www.brad21.org/bac_charts.html
        lawnchair_larry 10y ago
- haskal 10y ago
  To prove: Uber cannot be cheaper than driving your own vehicle. Proof of negation of the TP using counterexample: 1. Monthly insurance cost for own vehicle = a few hundred dollars = $k. Monthly insurance cost for Uber = $0. 2. Assume an extreme case where you don't travel at all in the entire month. Total cost of transportation for owning a car = $k. Total cost of transportation for Uber-ing everywhere = $0. 3. Assuming that the costs are proportional to the kms you have traveled you get this: http://imgur.com/A61dXx9 http://imgur.com/A61dXx9 The inflection point where Uber is no longer cheaper than driving is (k / (mu - mc)), where mu and mc are the slopes for the lines for Uber and own car, and "k" is the insurance intercept.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
EpicEng 10y ago
Do you have time to share the cost breakdown? Hard to imagine Uber being cheaper than driving your own car.
- fencepost 10y ago
  Uber and Lyft are absolutely more expensive than driving your own car, barring questions of your pay and time use. They're not more expensive than possessing a car and keeping it available for your use. That generally includes capital or leasing costs, maintenance, insurance, licensing/registration, storage/parking, etc. Edit: Expanding on this from a real keyboard, costs include: * Capital or leasing on the vehicle itself (generally at least $200/month for several years even for cheap new vehicles, possibly lower for used) * Maintenance for the vehicle - low for new ones, higher for older/used ones * Insurance - again higher for new ones and lower for older ones, * Licensing/registration. A drivers license is a wash (you'd probably have a comparably-priced state ID) but at least in Illinois registration is > $100/year, varying some by vehicle. * Storage & parking. This includes any use of paid parking lots (not uncommon in cities), but may also include the cost of your garage, or the time cost of finding and using street parking.
criddell 10y ago
> There are a lot of tiny details that Uber nailed Yeah, I can see that. If it were as easy as I initially thought it would be, then the taxi companies would have apps as good as Uber's. It's hard for me to understand why the existing taxi companies are so slow to adopt the best parts of Uber's business. I've used Uber quite a bit and even if it were the same price or slightly more expensive than a regular cab, I would still use it because (so far) my Uber experiences have been much better than any taxi experience. I just wish Uber would either pay the drivers more or let me tip through the app.
- rpgmaker 10y ago
  > I just wish Uber would either pay the drivers more You can leave it at that. Tipping is an odious practice that needs to go away. Actually, I would like to extend that wish to all the employees of the service industry if it means getting rid of tipping and yes, I would gladly accept the resulting higher prices, we are all (inefficiently) paying the supposed difference anyways.

by nthj 10y ago

alistproducer2 10y ago

I'm curious, how could Uber have been cheaper than driving your own vehicle?

failrate 10y ago
If you are not commuting daily.
nthj 10y ago
UberPool got me to Capital Factory for ~$4.50 1-way; $4.50 * 2 trips per day * 20 business days => ~$180/month. I could spend roughly that much on any one of parking, maintenance, depreciation, gas, or insurance. edit: I use the time to clear out email, so it has a not-insignificant time benefit as well, but it's still a win on the raw numbers.
- claystu 10y ago
  Do you go anywhere else except to work? What about groceries? Doctor's appointments? School stuff? Etc... It's hard to imagine that you never leave the house except for work.
  - nthj 10y ago
    Instacart handles groceries for about $100 a year. Drizzly picks up alcohol if we're throwing a party or get-together. Amazon Prime handles almost everything else. Some months are more expensive because of doctor's appointments or an unexpected trip to the Apple Genius Bar and the like, but it's always still a win. I'll get a ZipCar for about $40 if we want to take the whole day and travel about here and there. When we go out in the evenings, I usually order a beer or a cocktail with dinner, so I'd rather not drive; and parking in Austin during the weekend hours can easily be more expensive than the Uber rides. We categorize that under our Entertainment budget because we'd still take Uber for nights out even if we owned a car, but even if I recategorized it as transportation it wouldn't affect the results of the equation. A large part of my lifestyle is subsidized by investors trying to capture a global market (Uber, Instacart, to some extent Amazon), and I recognize that this may not last forever, but I'm happy to game the system while I can.
    - lawnchair_larry 10y ago
      Curious (and somewhat OT), do you actually feel intoxicated after a single beer over dinner?
      - nthj 10y ago
        I'm 120 pounds sopping wet, so regardless of my own opinions on my intoxication level, one standard American pint is enough to cause potential legal issues I am very happy to pay Uber to avoid entirely. http://www.brad21.org/bac_charts.html http://www.brad21.org/bac_charts.html
        lawnchair_larry 10y ago
haskal 10y ago
To prove: Uber cannot be cheaper than driving your own vehicle. Proof of negation of the TP using counterexample: 1. Monthly insurance cost for own vehicle = a few hundred dollars = $k. Monthly insurance cost for Uber = $0. 2. Assume an extreme case where you don't travel at all in the entire month. Total cost of transportation for owning a car = $k. Total cost of transportation for Uber-ing everywhere = $0. 3. Assuming that the costs are proportional to the kms you have traveled you get this: http://imgur.com/A61dXx9 http://imgur.com/A61dXx9 The inflection point where Uber is no longer cheaper than driving is (k / (mu - mc)), where mu and mc are the slopes for the lines for Uber and own car, and "k" is the insurance intercept.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

EpicEng 10y ago

Do you have time to share the cost breakdown? Hard to imagine Uber being cheaper than driving your own car.

fencepost 10y ago
Uber and Lyft are absolutely more expensive than driving your own car, barring questions of your pay and time use. They're not more expensive than possessing a car and keeping it available for your use. That generally includes capital or leasing costs, maintenance, insurance, licensing/registration, storage/parking, etc. Edit: Expanding on this from a real keyboard, costs include: * Capital or leasing on the vehicle itself (generally at least $200/month for several years even for cheap new vehicles, possibly lower for used) * Maintenance for the vehicle - low for new ones, higher for older/used ones * Insurance - again higher for new ones and lower for older ones, * Licensing/registration. A drivers license is a wash (you'd probably have a comparably-priced state ID) but at least in Illinois registration is > $100/year, varying some by vehicle. * Storage & parking. This includes any use of paid parking lots (not uncommon in cities), but may also include the cost of your garage, or the time cost of finding and using street parking.

criddell 10y ago

> There are a lot of tiny details that Uber nailed Yeah, I can see that. If it were as easy as I initially thought it would be, then the taxi companies would have apps as good as Uber's. It's hard for me to understand why the existing taxi companies are so slow to adopt the best parts of Uber's business. I've used Uber quite a bit and even if it were the same price or slightly more expensive than a regular cab, I would still use it because (so far) my Uber experiences have been much better than any taxi experience. I just wish Uber would either pay the drivers more or let me tip through the app.

rpgmaker 10y ago
> I just wish Uber would either pay the drivers more You can leave it at that. Tipping is an odious practice that needs to go away. Actually, I would like to extend that wish to all the employees of the service industry if it means getting rid of tipping and yes, I would gladly accept the resulting higher prices, we are all (inefficiently) paying the supposed difference anyways.