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Between Tesla and Uber the auto industry is quickly reorganising, becoming more efficient and cutting out the middle man, aka dealerships and taxi companies. I

Between Tesla and Uber the auto industry is quickly reorganising, becoming more efficient and cutting out the middle man, aka dealerships and taxi companies. It's only a matter of time before drivers are cut out of the equation as well with riders ordering a cab and getting picked up by a self driving Tesla.

jacquesm 12y ago
Uber has very little to do with the auto industry. If anything they're in the taxi business.
- TulliusCicero 12y ago
  For now. But if self-driving taxis become sufficiently cheap and popular, they'll have a huge impact on the auto business.
  - mjwhansen 12y ago
    Or, less far off in the future, will the rise of paid ridesharing change how cars are designed? Perhaps they could be more businesslike in the back where the passenger sits, and more sparse in the front. (I just realized I effectively described the car version of a mullet.)
  - npizzolato 12y ago
    Which is only tangentially related to Uber, unless you're confusing change now with "wouldn't it be nice if we can make self driving cars reliable sometime in the future".
mindslight 12y ago
erm, Uber is a middle man taxi company.
bostonpete 12y ago
I think Uber is great, but I don't think it's cutting out a middleman. It's just replacing one middleman with another, albeit a more efficient one.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  Uber is the stepping stone to self driving cars. Their valuation will drop when investors realize that anyone can purchase a self-driving car with financing. There is an ocean of mobility demand out there, and its naive to think its going to be captured by Uber because someone installed the Uber app first.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > Their valuation will drop when investors realize that anyone can purchase a self-driving car with financing. While personal purchase of self-driving cars will be a thing, one big value proposition of self-driving cars is a drives down the relative cost of cars-for-hire compared to personally-owned-vehicles because you no longer need an operator in the vehicle whenever it is available for use (which means that the per-trip fee no longer needs to be enough to pay not only for the maintenance on the car and the operator's time on the trip, but also the operator's down time "on call" to be ready for the next trip.) Uber might not win the space, but I think its naive to think that self-driving cars don't shift the balance more in favor of for-hire cars.
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      > Uber might not win the space, but I think its naive to think that self-driving cars don't shift the balance more in favor of for-hire cars. I completely agree. For-hire self-driving vehicles are the future, I just don't believe Uber and Lyft are going to be the platform. Off-topic: Whenever I see analysts argue that Tesla isn't making cars fast enough to compete with Big automakers, I chuckle. Elon doesn't have to replace every car, he just has to replace the door to door trips, which he can do with only ~10-15% of the current US vehicle fleet on the road. Self-driving Tesla vehicles for hire would further fund Tesla expansions (which provides additional capital for their Gigafactory to drive down battery storage costs, thereby enabling the wide-spread transition to intermittent renewables such as solar, wind, and tidal).
chrismcb 12y ago
How are taxi companies a middle man in the auto industry? Is uber suddenly using bicycles or some other non auto conveyance to transport people around? Even in the taxi industry, uber is not cutting out a middle man, they are becoming one.

jacquesm 12y ago

Uber has very little to do with the auto industry. If anything they're in the taxi business.

TulliusCicero 12y ago
For now. But if self-driving taxis become sufficiently cheap and popular, they'll have a huge impact on the auto business.
- mjwhansen 12y ago
  Or, less far off in the future, will the rise of paid ridesharing change how cars are designed? Perhaps they could be more businesslike in the back where the passenger sits, and more sparse in the front. (I just realized I effectively described the car version of a mullet.)
- npizzolato 12y ago
  Which is only tangentially related to Uber, unless you're confusing change now with "wouldn't it be nice if we can make self driving cars reliable sometime in the future".

mindslight 12y ago

erm, Uber is a middle man taxi company.

bostonpete 12y ago

I think Uber is great, but I don't think it's cutting out a middleman. It's just replacing one middleman with another, albeit a more efficient one.

toomuchtodo 12y ago
Uber is the stepping stone to self driving cars. Their valuation will drop when investors realize that anyone can purchase a self-driving car with financing. There is an ocean of mobility demand out there, and its naive to think its going to be captured by Uber because someone installed the Uber app first.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > Their valuation will drop when investors realize that anyone can purchase a self-driving car with financing. While personal purchase of self-driving cars will be a thing, one big value proposition of self-driving cars is a drives down the relative cost of cars-for-hire compared to personally-owned-vehicles because you no longer need an operator in the vehicle whenever it is available for use (which means that the per-trip fee no longer needs to be enough to pay not only for the maintenance on the car and the operator's time on the trip, but also the operator's down time "on call" to be ready for the next trip.) Uber might not win the space, but I think its naive to think that self-driving cars don't shift the balance more in favor of for-hire cars.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    > Uber might not win the space, but I think its naive to think that self-driving cars don't shift the balance more in favor of for-hire cars. I completely agree. For-hire self-driving vehicles are the future, I just don't believe Uber and Lyft are going to be the platform. Off-topic: Whenever I see analysts argue that Tesla isn't making cars fast enough to compete with Big automakers, I chuckle. Elon doesn't have to replace every car, he just has to replace the door to door trips, which he can do with only ~10-15% of the current US vehicle fleet on the road. Self-driving Tesla vehicles for hire would further fund Tesla expansions (which provides additional capital for their Gigafactory to drive down battery storage costs, thereby enabling the wide-spread transition to intermittent renewables such as solar, wind, and tidal).

chrismcb 12y ago

How are taxi companies a middle man in the auto industry? Is uber suddenly using bicycles or some other non auto conveyance to transport people around? Even in the taxi industry, uber is not cutting out a middle man, they are becoming one.