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This sounds great. I would compare it more to airbnb - using someone's stuff that would otherwise go unused. So actually extracting lost value. Uber might one
by virtuous_signal 7y ago
This sounds great. I would compare it more to airbnb - using someone's stuff that would otherwise go unused. So actually extracting lost value. Uber might one day become that (I hear the typical personal car goes unused something like 90% of the day), but when everything is self-driving.
- cnorthwood 7y agoI think the days of Airbnb being "rent out a spare room" are gone, whenever I look, most Airbnb properties tend to be used as dedicated short-term lets and has supplanted the old holiday letting market.
- organsnyder 7y agoI've seen a mix. Some are definitely dedicated AirBnB rentals where it's obvious the owners are professional landlords; but we've stayed in ADUs where owners occupied the primary residences, cottages being rent out part-time, etc.
- ghaff 7y agoOne difference is that using unused space is free (other than the transaction cost/effort). Whereas most of the cost associated with using a car is mileage rather than time based. So while there's some cost associated with a car sitting unused, there's even more cost associated with putting miles on it.
- cody3222 7y agoRent is a fixed cost so if a shop is already paying $5k / month in rent, and they can turn an unused or repurposed closet into a $1k / month revenue stream, they are very happy. Not to mention all the new people (hopefully patrons) coming into their store!
- cody3222 7y agoIt's been an incredible model. We've already paid out $100's of thousands of revenue to small business owners in new "found" revenue. It's a totally new income stream and in many cases helps with rising rents and declining retail.
- aratakareigen 7y agoThe Uber bit makes little sense to me. If Uber takes my car at night, then I doubt I'll make much money, since not many people are out at night. And if it takes my car in the day, then I don't have immediate access to the car when I need it, which is the entire reason I use my car as opposed to a bus or a train.
- virtuous_signal 7y agoI think for a certain class of workers, their car is used exactly once to get to work and once to get back. If that were the case I could see Uber usefully taken control of the car in between. A better example would have been Waze Carpool or even older the practice of "slugging" which finds riders needing to go a similar way and saves toll or gas.