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For that all you need to do is check the price difference between renting for a day or getting taxi for a day There's also the burden of convenience. A taxi is
by NamTaf 10y ago
For that all you need to do is check the price difference between renting for a day or getting taxi for a day
There's also the burden of convenience. A taxi is an instant, summonable affair that ends completely with the trip. A hire car has to be hired and returned to a specific location, you have to stow it during your hire period and you have to fuel it. Beyond the tangible costs of fuel, parking, etc. there's also the opportunity cost. For exmaple, people will pay for convenience of a car to pick them up and take them home when drinking, and they may only need the hire car for a couple of 10 minute bursts but you can't hire a car for less than a 24 hour period. Both of those help buoy the cost of a taxi.
I'm not suggesting you're wrong, but it's not as simple as [hire car] + [driver] = [taxi] from a cost perspective.
- timewarrior 10y agoI agree it's not the same from the user point of view. However from Uber's point of view - cost of 24 hours to rental company vs cost of 24 hours of taxi+driver would probably be a good approximation to get an idea of the order of saving which might make owing self driving cars feasible for Uber vs their current business model.
- pricechild 10y agoI don't think that's necessarily true... but I don't think anyone's cracked it yet either. There's https://www.car2go.com https://www.car2go.com which ran for a year or so in my city but has since shut down. You could leave the car within the bounds of the city. There are also various bike schemes with a similar idea?
- ghaff 10y agoCar schemes exist like Zipcar. I know people who live in cities and don't own a car who use them all the time. But it's turned out to be a pretty niche business. Zipcar is the highest profile of these businesses, at least in the US, AFAIK and even they ended up bought by Avis. I suspect that with all the VC money subsidizing Uber et al, for most people the gap between regular rentals for a day+ and just calling an Uber isn't large.
- throw_away 10y agocar2go and reach now are much more usable than zipcar. * cars are littered throughout the city rather than in designated parking spots * cars are rented by the minute rather than by the hour * cars don't have to be returned to where you got them from The last point is the game changer. Now, it's feasible to do things like drive to the bar, but get a taxi back, or go on a long walk and grab a car back home when you're tired out.