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Instead of burning cash by subsidizing travels, Uber could have just bought some competitors but still... The only chance Uber has is becoming a monopoly, and I

Instead of burning cash by subsidizing travels, Uber could have just bought some competitors but still... The only chance Uber has is becoming a monopoly, and I don't see how they can achieve it.

notyourwork 9y ago
Why do they need to be a monopoly to succeed? I personally dislike Uber based on all the latest PR but what if they actually achieve a self driving car? If so, this would change the business entirely because no more contractor's to pay. Do you think if one company has self driving cars and the rest don't this is a competitive advantage? Perhaps they license the self driving car software to other companies which also presents revenue options.
- ghaff 9y ago
  Self-driving is so far out as a door-to-door taxi service as to be utterly irrelevant to Uber's business model.
  - technotony 9y ago
    I'm not sure it's 'so far out' Waymo is running such a service in Phoenix: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/waymo-begins-first-public-on-demand-self-driving-service-test-in-arizona/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/waymo-begins-first-public-...
    - ghaff 9y ago
      Right. Because the fact that there's a Google employee in the driver's seat ready to take over control makes no difference whatsoever.
  - notyourwork 9y ago
    It isn't irrelevant in the slightest if their plan is to replace all these contract drivers with automated cars. That would in fact be a long term business strategy. Considering waymo's lawsuit for alleged theft and their large monetary investment in self driving I disagree with being utterly irrelevant.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      But if that replacement won't happen for 30 years which seems likely given the tech... One can disagree about timeframes but getting to the last 1000 feet in chaotic urban environments seems challenging.
      - notyourwork 9y ago
        Business models are based indirectly on available resources. I cannot have a business with a business model that says I want to fly to Jupiter if I don't realistically have the resources (cash/engineering) to do so. Therefore, whether it happens in 10 days or 100 years, the company is directly impacting its balance sheet and business model today by investing money and resources into automated cars. What could Uber today with the resources being devoted to automated cars? Could the app be improved, could the route optimization algorithm be improved to create more ride shares? I and you won't know because those resources are going towards a different agenda today.
  - yawaworht12 9y ago
    The longer self driving cars take to completely replace cars, the harder it is for a self-driving only company to compete. You can't run a network with only self driving cars unless you they are all level 5 under all driving conditions (like poor weather) and you literally have hundreds of them in each market you want to compete in so you can guarantee availability. Customers want reliable transportation. Imagine if your internet company could only provide service when the weather was good. You'd quickly switch to the service that is reliable because being without service becomes unimaginable. This is especially important if you want to compete with car ownership and not just livery services. These companies also need to be reliable on pickup times. If a service take 5 minutes sometimes and 25 minutes at other times, most people will give up on them and go for the 5 minutes all the time service.

Instead of burning cash by subsidizing travels, Uber could have just bought some competitors but still... The only chance Uber has is becoming a monopoly, and I don't see how they can achieve it.

notyourwork 9y ago

Why do they need to be a monopoly to succeed? I personally dislike Uber based on all the latest PR but what if they actually achieve a self driving car? If so, this would change the business entirely because no more contractor's to pay. Do you think if one company has self driving cars and the rest don't this is a competitive advantage? Perhaps they license the self driving car software to other companies which also presents revenue options.

ghaff 9y ago
Self-driving is so far out as a door-to-door taxi service as to be utterly irrelevant to Uber's business model.
- technotony 9y ago
  I'm not sure it's 'so far out' Waymo is running such a service in Phoenix: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/waymo-begins-first-public-on-demand-self-driving-service-test-in-arizona/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/waymo-begins-first-public-...
  - ghaff 9y ago
    Right. Because the fact that there's a Google employee in the driver's seat ready to take over control makes no difference whatsoever.
- notyourwork 9y ago
  It isn't irrelevant in the slightest if their plan is to replace all these contract drivers with automated cars. That would in fact be a long term business strategy. Considering waymo's lawsuit for alleged theft and their large monetary investment in self driving I disagree with being utterly irrelevant.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    But if that replacement won't happen for 30 years which seems likely given the tech... One can disagree about timeframes but getting to the last 1000 feet in chaotic urban environments seems challenging.
    - notyourwork 9y ago
      Business models are based indirectly on available resources. I cannot have a business with a business model that says I want to fly to Jupiter if I don't realistically have the resources (cash/engineering) to do so. Therefore, whether it happens in 10 days or 100 years, the company is directly impacting its balance sheet and business model today by investing money and resources into automated cars. What could Uber today with the resources being devoted to automated cars? Could the app be improved, could the route optimization algorithm be improved to create more ride shares? I and you won't know because those resources are going towards a different agenda today.
- yawaworht12 9y ago
  The longer self driving cars take to completely replace cars, the harder it is for a self-driving only company to compete. You can't run a network with only self driving cars unless you they are all level 5 under all driving conditions (like poor weather) and you literally have hundreds of them in each market you want to compete in so you can guarantee availability. Customers want reliable transportation. Imagine if your internet company could only provide service when the weather was good. You'd quickly switch to the service that is reliable because being without service becomes unimaginable. This is especially important if you want to compete with car ownership and not just livery services. These companies also need to be reliable on pickup times. If a service take 5 minutes sometimes and 25 minutes at other times, most people will give up on them and go for the 5 minutes all the time service.