4 ms·
The estimates here were wrong because there was nothing to estimate at all - gig economy is a marketing buzzword for an unusually isolated yet reasonably substa
by genidoi 8y ago
The estimates here were wrong because there was nothing to estimate at all - gig economy is a marketing buzzword for an unusually isolated yet reasonably substantial unemployment bracket. The upper bound of the bracket being the sub-minimum wage compensation that Uber pays their drivers[0] and the lower bound being the amortized cost of the cheapest vehicle that Uber lets drivers utilise for their 'gig'.
That's a really small demographic who would fit both criteria. Recently unemployed people and students come to mind.
Importantly - Uber knows this fact very well and are doing everything they can to survive until fully autonomous self driving cars reach mass production.
[0] https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-uber-driver-wages-20180518-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-uber-driver-w...
- toufiqbarhamov 8y agoUber betting everything on self driving cars may be their only hope, but it should be clear by now that their runway is shorter than the time required to bring lvl5 to market. We’re not even into the real edge cases yet, and automation is still really hard to get right. Maybe the tools being applied are simply not up to the task, or if they are, decades away from the maturity required. All of which is to say that Uber is in trouble, and having been such a notoriously bad actor, will be kicked down the hill at every step.
- sschueller 8y agoThey already killed one person. How many before execs at Uber are held accountable for all their crimes?
- geezerjay 8y agoThis comment is sheer idiocy. Do you also expect taxi execs to be guilty of any crime if someone dies in a traffic accident involving one of their taxis?
- kakarot 8y agoThe entire point of a corporation is arbitrating responsibility away from a company if one employee isn't doing the job they were paid for.
- polskibus 8y agoThere are others burning investor cash the same way: Lyft, Taxify, etc. I wonder when will the investors' mentality change?
- TeMPOraL 8y agoUber's competitors aren't trying to get into self-driving car business. If you're talking about investing in antisocial companies, then I guess investors' mentality might change if we somehow puncture the abstraction layer that separates the investors from the people their investees affect. For instance, if the investee breaks the law and gets fined, if there was a chance for that to flow back to the investors and take some extra money out of their pockets, I expect they'd put extra pressure on investees to behave.
- liquidmetal 8y agoChicago Tribune doesn't show the website in India?
- brandnewlow 8y agoAssuming that's true its unsurprising. Their advertisers don't care about reaching people in India.