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Man I hate that this is the end for Uber. I've recently been trialing Lyft and, at least in my area, it always takes longer and is more expensive. But...if Ube
by steveb0x 9y ago
Man I hate that this is the end for Uber. I've recently been trialing Lyft and, at least in my area, it always takes longer and is more expensive.
But...if Uber truly is a bunch of scumbags, they deserve to burn.
- mandeepj 9y agoI have never seen surge rates with Lyft. I find lyft to be more cheaper. There are times when from ORD Chicago, Uber would display surge rates (~$55, normally ~$35). Earlier, I used to call 303 taxi which takes forever. Now, I tried lyft which costed me $34 so competition is good
- ryanx435 9y agoIn my area it is literally the same drivers as uber: all the drivers have 2 phones, one for each app.
- lern_too_spel 9y agoThe difference is the Uber app consistently underestimates the time to pick up.
- Fuzzwah 9y agoIf all the Uber drivers switch to Lyft when/if Uber dies then surely the "takes longer" part will go away.
- j-walker 9y agoIt's easy to be cheap when you subsidize each ride with VC money.
- hyperbovine 9y agoThis seems like the correct answer, otoh VC money is still not MY money.
- _pmf_ 9y ago> This seems like the correct answer, otoh VC money is still not MY money This depends on where the 700 billion dollar from the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ended up.
- shakestheclown 9y agoThey can't burn money forever, and while I can't blame anyone for going the cheaper option for now they won't subsidize forever.
- sharkweek 9y agoNot that VC mandates are normally more than a few %s of most LP's allocations, it's still someones money; pensions, insurance, etc. all take a hit if VC funds fail.
- pembrook 9y agoHuh? And Lyft is just scaling on organic growth?? You do realize Lyft has raised 4+ billion in funding and they aren't profitable either. Their ride prices are Coke and Pepsi similar to Uber in most major US markets. Do the math.
- euyyn 9y agoWhy doesn't Lyft do similarly?
- Semaphor 9y agoThe thing is not that Lyft takes longer or is more expensive. The thing is that Lyft is not an Uber competitor for the vast majority of the world. They are US only. In a few markets they have partnerships with local services, but that's it currently.
- a3n 9y agoIf Uber suffered hard enough, do you think VC money might shift or otherwise move into Lyft? Even if all of Uber's VC money vaporized? Billionaires gotta make a living too.
- seangrant 9y agoAre these venture capitalists even seeing a return on their money? I was under the impression that with how much Uber receives and loses, the only people gaining are paid Uber employees and riders getting discounted rides. Where does the profit come from, and does it go to the VC investors?
- rockinghigh 9y agoMoney only goes back to VCs in a liquidation event (IPO or sale). Uber may have made some deals to buy back shares but it has to be limited in scope.
- enraged_camel 9y ago>>If Uber suffered hard enough, do you think VC money might shift or otherwise move into Lyft? Probably not. The main reason Uber got so much VC funding is because they promised investors that they would be treated as a technology services company, which would allow them to ignore various laws and regulations taxi companies are subject to and eventually drive them out of business to become a monopoly. If Uber fails at executing this business model, it's not clear why investors would take a second chance with another company of the same type.
- Kiro 9y agoWhy would this be the end? It's not like they're dependent on self-driving cars.
- legulere 9y agoThey need investments to keep uber running as-is. And without the possibility to self-driving cars obliterating the need for drivers a huge part of the story uber sells to investors breaks away.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Trundle 9y agoTheir CEO disagrees with you. >“If we are not tied for first, then the person who is in first, or the enemy that’s in first, then rolls out a ride-sharing network that is far cheaper or far higher quality than Uber’s, then Uber is no longer a thing,” Kalanick said. >“It starts with understanding that the world is going to go self-driving and autonomous,” he told Business Insider in an interview. “So if that’s happening, what would happen if we weren’t a part of that future? If we weren’t part of the autonomy thing? Then the future passes us by basically, in a very expeditious and efficient way.”
- Kiro 9y agoWell, I think he's wrong. I don't think Uber would have won the space anyway and I think self-driving cars will require a driver behind the wheel for a long long time, effectively eliminating any benefits for Uber.
- wdb 9y agoUber is not much cheaper compared to the normal black cabs for my journeys to the train station. Maybe around 40p-£1 so not a biggy
- amyjess 9y agoI've been using Lyft almost exclusively since Susan Fowler's blog post (only using Uber if Lyft has a surge and Uber doesn't), and it's really getting on my nerves how many Lyft drivers use Waze. Waze is spectacularly terrible at everything. The algorithm is designed to take you out of your way to run up the meter, it encourages unsafe turns, and it's literally unable to navigate to where I live, so I straight-up refuse to ride in any car with Waze running. And yet Lyft recommends it to new drivers. It's not uncommon for me to walk out of cars because the driver pitched a hissy fit when I said "Please don't use Waze", and even when I don't walk out of the car I usually end up having to navigate the driver manually because Waze is the only thing they have installed. Using Lyft has become a thoroughly unpleasant experience, but I'm not comfortable using Uber either for ethical reasons. I'm considering looking into what it would cost to straight-up hire a private driver as an on-call employee.