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It's not even the underlying business model that's unsound. People will always need to get from point A to B, and the app based ride hailing model has completel

It's not even the underlying business model that's unsound. People will always need to get from point A to B, and the app based ride hailing model has completely revolutionized the fulfillment of this fundamental need. That's not going anywhere. Uber's problem is in their scale. You get essentially zero benefits and all of the drawbacks from massive scale in this industry, with the fact that your technology is trivially replicable by competitors, and brand loyalty is almost non existent. Uber is doomed in its' current incarnation. But my bet is that the future for ride hailing is one of hundreds of different competing local services around the world that focus on their locality, work directly with local officials and regulators, and provide good customer service while keeping overhead extremely low and operating profitably.

bhupy 6y ago
> But my bet is that the future for ride hailing is one of hundreds of different competing local services around the world that focus on their locality, work directly with local officials and regulators, and provide good customer service while keeping overhead extremely low and operating profitably. I would argue that this is Uber's bet also. I like to joke that Uber is sort of a ridesharing index fund, since they own large minority positions in nearly every competitor / market leader in localities in which they "lost" (Didi, Grab, Yandex).
room271 6y ago
The model is unsound. Private vehicles on roads in cities cause a ton of pollution (and I don't mean CO2) that is very undesirable. Public/mass transport with good mechanisms for short journeys to and from hubs is a better model. The rise of ebikes and scooters is an encouraging alternative here too. Yes of course there are times when people need a car, but they are not the majority of the time for the majority of people. And their severe externalities need to be priced in to discourage use.
- aphextron 6y ago
  >Public/mass transport with good mechanisms for short journeys to and from hubs is a better model. Maybe in Europe or Asia. But in the US, private vehicles are the only viable option for a huge portion of the population. Our entire society is built around it. The density simply isn't there for public transit to make any sense, and distances are far too vast for scooters/e-bikes to work.

bhupy 6y ago

> But my bet is that the future for ride hailing is one of hundreds of different competing local services around the world that focus on their locality, work directly with local officials and regulators, and provide good customer service while keeping overhead extremely low and operating profitably. I would argue that this is Uber's bet also. I like to joke that Uber is sort of a ridesharing index fund, since they own large minority positions in nearly every competitor / market leader in localities in which they "lost" (Didi, Grab, Yandex).

room271 6y ago

The model is unsound. Private vehicles on roads in cities cause a ton of pollution (and I don't mean CO2) that is very undesirable. Public/mass transport with good mechanisms for short journeys to and from hubs is a better model. The rise of ebikes and scooters is an encouraging alternative here too. Yes of course there are times when people need a car, but they are not the majority of the time for the majority of people. And their severe externalities need to be priced in to discourage use.

aphextron 6y ago
>Public/mass transport with good mechanisms for short journeys to and from hubs is a better model. Maybe in Europe or Asia. But in the US, private vehicles are the only viable option for a huge portion of the population. Our entire society is built around it. The density simply isn't there for public transit to make any sense, and distances are far too vast for scooters/e-bikes to work.