Yet there is a minimum viable issue to contend with. The average car will have an average value of dollars to go a unit distance and it cannot go lower than tha

Yet there is a minimum viable issue to contend with. The average car will have an average value of dollars to go a unit distance and it cannot go lower than that very simply. The US Highway Safety board has computed this number for decades. Today it stands at ~$0.52/mile driven. This takes into account many many factors like gas prices, car maintenance, driving style, etc. Uber must pay drivers, on average, something more than 52 cents per mile. Yes, they may pay much less than that, but then you have to monkey about with driver mentality, average automobile efficiencies, road conditions, etc. Those are very difficult problems to tackle and are mostly outside of the 'wheelhouse' of Uber as a software company.