4 ms·
Lyft already has the full implementation in their app. Uber has a beta sign up list and a blog post. Occam's razor says that Uber got wind of this launch and qu
by ladon86 12y ago
Lyft already has the full implementation in their app. Uber has a beta sign up list and a blog post. Occam's razor says that Uber got wind of this launch and quickly wrote up a blog post announcing the same thing in order to spear it.
- jabo 12y agoAlso, the TC article mentions that Lyft made an acquihire a while ago of Rover and the Rover team has been working on this feature. So it sounds to me like Uber got wind of Lyft pushing out this feature and stole their thunder with a beta signup page.
- blaines 12y agoI agree. Also worth noting the Lyft had a TC article about this. Getting a product and press definitely takes more time and effort than a beta signup.
- malandrew 12y agoConsidering that Uber is going open beta on the 15th per their blog announcement (11 days away), I would imagine that there is more there than just a blog post.
- Igglyboo 12y agoOr maybe thats the minimum amount of time they need for the service to function and they're planning on working out the kinks later.
- teej 12y agoI would put my money on this. Back in the early days of social games my company did the same thing - got wind of a Zynga announcement, pre-empt it in the press, and work like hell to get it out. The next two weeks are going to be busy at Uber.
- mynameisvlad 12y agoAccording to the blog post, they're in closed beta right now, so clearly the service functions. I can't talk about the kinks, since I'm not in the beta, but it's out there.
- boomzilla 12y agoBut how do you know it's out there if you haven't seen it? Anyone from the HN crowd has seen this closed beta feature?
- bps4484 12y agoI upvoted but want even more attention to this question to see if anyone has actually seen the feature. HN? Bueller? Has anyone seen this feature?
- nedwin 12y agoThey say it's out there in a blog post, so it must be true.
- res0nat0r 12y agoThese types of services just don't get thrown together in a couple of days in reaction to a competitor, they require a lot of work and engineering to implement properly. I'm sure both Uber and Lyft were aware of this feature being designed by their each and are trying to get their respective features out the door. Ever notice how AWS and Google release price decreases within the same days? Same thing. They have been told it is upcoming and are doing the same thing. I've seen it personally.
- rentnorove 12y ago"Closed beta" as in developer testing.
- joncalhoun 12y agoHow do they define open beta? Anyone with the app can opt into the beta, or is there some form of filtering out users?
- argonaut 12y agoI believe you, but to be fair, I don't think Occam's Razor applies here.
- technotony 12y agoGiven Hitch launched months ago I think it's fair to say that the idea of shared rides was out in the open and neither Uber nor Lyft were first on this.
- avree 12y agoOccam's Razor says that both parties developed the feature on their own, without knowing about either party doing it. It's a common "transit" feature that people have done for years—the simplest, most assumption free case dictates that neither "stole" from each other etc, but that they just were doing it because it's obvious. To be fair, SideCar launched this feature a good deal before either of them.