4 ms·

I think the profit motive would lead to somebody serving the top end of the market. People aren't going to give up their BMWs unless the experience is better.

• lmm 10y ago
  People will pick based on cost. Look at air travel: everyone bitches about the low-cost airlines with their narrow seats and $5 sandwiches, but they fly with them anyway.
  • inimino 10y ago
    First, there isn't an individual plane coming to pick you up (not for most flyers). Second, you can still fly first class if you want a better experience. Most people don't buy BMWs either, but enough do that they stay in business. Uber doesn't compete with public transit by bus, either.
• rhizome 10y ago
  You mean like how Uber itself began with black cars only, then started moving further and further downmarket with increased investor pressure, even reaching the humiliating step of dealing in subprime loans? You're right to imply that initially there would (probably) be a luxury factor to get the sector off the ground -- what's the opposite of a loss leader? -- but the invisible hand reaches through the centuries and demands satisfaction, or so the story goes.