6 ms·

Internal Uber Deck Reveals Revenue, Rides, Drivers and Fares

93 points by ssclafani 12y ago

gcb0 12y ago
isn't it illegal to swindle the market with fake financial data like this, without source? or since it's not public yet that's OK?
- Moveit 12y ago
  I was thinking the same. Data could have been planted and business insider was fooled?
- gojomo 12y ago
  Illegal for whom? Which market? (Uber isn't a public company.) And BI has now made this "public" info. Do you have evidence that it's 'fake'?
- Philadelphia 12y ago
  It's not particularly great in terms of journalism ethics, either, especially with the level of detail they're providing. They basically reprinted a leaked slide deck in it's entirety, without there being much of a compelling public interest in anything it contains.
  - gojomo 12y ago
    If it's true, who's harmed? What's the ethical principle involved?
    - Philadelphia 12y ago
      That's a good question. I think it comes down to compromising credibility. Reporters have to be perceived as trustworthy to be effective, and for that they basically need to be viewed as having generally good character, or — probably more importantly — good intentions. Just taking any old information you come across and throwing it out because it brings in clicks undermines that. The answer to who's harmed, then, is reporters in general, because it's behavior that generates an aura of unsavoriness and makes people less likely to trust the whole industry. TLDR: If reporting seems like corporate espionage, people think reporters are just corporate spies.
      - rhizome 12y ago
        I'm not sure where you're coming from with this because there's a long history of journalism based on leaks and confidential sources. It's not a matter of throwing out "any old information," since vetting sources is also a part of journalism and a reporter's reputation is indeed affected by bad stories. The repercussions you speak of simply don't exist because things like this are part of the very definition of journalism, but if you have anything that speaks to the validity of the sources in this story I'm sure we'd all like to hear them.
        Philadelphia 12y ago
        I agree, absolutely, that leaks and confidential sources are critical to journalism. It's necessary to take into account the context and the content, though. The less public value the leak has, and the more confidential the information is, the more damage it can cause, the more carefully it needs to be handled. If a leak is very confidential but has a lot of value, using it is ok; the Pentagon Papers, for example. If a leak is not particularly confidential, has some public value, using it is ok; the name of the new store that's coming to a neighborhood, for instance. The first two items I was able to find for other expressions of the line of thought are the "Clandestine methods: Principles" section at [1] and this article [2]. The Business Insider article doesn't present any reason for choosing to publish the Uber information. It doesn't even offer any interesting analysis of it. It just seems to be revealing it for the sake of revealing it. There are ways to use the data that might be justified — for instance, discussing the risks of the company's legal status being uncertain in some of it's largest markets; looking at the number of drivers it has and the net effects of that on the total number of cars on the streets; looking at general trends in growth without revealing details, if they're interesting. Simply presenting the information raw and without context isn't reporting, though; it's just sharing, and, in this case, it's sharing information that wasn't meant to be shared, so it seems sleazy. [1]http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/reporting-to-canadians/acts-and-policies/programming/journalism/investigative-journalism/ http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/reporting-to-canadians/act... [2] http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/leaks.html http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/l...
  - deleted 12y ago
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- onewaystreet 12y ago
  The data isn't fake, it's inline with data that has been previously leaked. As for where it came from, Uber is in the middle of raising another round from investors. A lot of people have access to these numbers. Any one of them could have leaked this deck. BI isn't obliged to reveal its source.
- nness 12y ago
  Uber isn't a publicly traded company, so certainly not illegal from the perspective of insider-trading. Plus the article makes it very clear that it is a leaked document, and that its authenticity should be suspect as a result. Even if it were intentionally faked, not sure how it would be illegal from Business Insider's perspective to report on it.
- prostoalex 12y ago
  Investors in the private market are presumably more sophisticated, which often boils down to ability to CC a CPA and a financial advisor on an investment proposal, and ask them to chime in.
calcsam 12y ago
Note that all revenue numbers are gross not net. In other words, they represent total fare $, not the 15% of fares that Uber actually gets.
- PeterisP 12y ago
  The data includes (and the article analyzes) both gross and net numbers, and also the profit remaining after marketing burn and other costs.
- Narkov 12y ago
  Counting gross fares as revenue is about as honest as Groupon counting customer receipts as revenue. We all know how that worked out.
  - wdr1 12y ago
    How is this deceptive? They never intended it for external release.
    - 001sky 12y ago
      People use confidential figures for fundraising all the time. Just because its not public doesn't mean its not being used to trade off. That being said, the accounting issues are technical and sort of a side point. Private investors at this stage ($10BN+ valuation) can do their own math. Its more frame of mind of hyperbole that is relevant, IMHO.
    - Narkov 12y ago
      See Groupon for how the market treats these kind of tricks: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/09/23/groupon-ipo-revenue-corrected-for-error/ http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/09/23/groupon-ipo-revenue-co... It's also why Google separates "Traffic Acquisition Costs" in their reporting.
    - pbreit 12y ago
      Do you know that?
joelrunyon 12y ago
All I want to know is what my rider rating is...
- mmanfrin 12y ago
  Go to m.uber.com and fiddle around in the console. There used to be a way to get at your user object (it might have been closed off now, but I believe data is still there, hard to share data across a big app like that without exposing a little bit).
  - joelrunyon 12y ago
    There was a way to view it but they closed it off. I'm not enough of a dev to dig it up myself.
- clamprecht 12y ago
  Can you just ask your driver?
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eash 12y ago
First post. Just got a ping from an Uber recruiter who was linking to this article. If they didn't leak it themselves they're certainly embracing it.
- MBCook 12y ago
  Well 'making tons of money' is certainly better for their PR than 'driver hit-and-ran down a kid', 'exec suggests doxxing and discrediting journalist', or the usual 'is surge pricing ripping people off' stuff. At this point they're probably desperate for anything with a positive angle on it.
  - untog 12y ago
    All the more comic, given that they have so many employees now it's not like you're going to cash out in any IPO. "Why'd you go work for Uber?" "Oh, they make a ton of money." "Do you?" "Well, I mean, it's, uh..."
  - nness 12y ago
    > driver hit-and-ran down a kid For those curious: "Family sues Uber after New Year’s Eve crash in San Francisco kills 6-year-old girl" http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/family-sues-uber-driver-kills-6-year-old-girl-article-1.1594163 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/family-sues-uber-dr...
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- deleted 12y ago
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  - pbreit 12y ago
    Except that he probably wasn't meeting anyone except for the next lyft target. Lyft has sorta of secured the high road at this point. I think it's important for people who disagree with ubers behavior to vote with their dollars. Assuming a reasonable alternative exists which Lyft may be.
woebtz 12y ago
Assuming these numbers are fact, has there been any extensive research on how taxi / private car / shuttle services' revenues have been affected by Uber and the like? Pre-Uber, I probably spent $100/year on taxis / shuttles (Los Angeles). Post-Uber... I'm hesitant to look at my bank statements.
- GuiA 12y ago
  Yes, that's what I bring up every time someone starts with the whole "Uber is killing the poor taxi industry" rhetoric. Before Uber, I only took taxis to/from airports, so maybe half a dozen times a year. Now, I take Uber at least once a week. Going out with friends? I'm going to spend money on dinner/drinks anyway, what's an added $10 in Uber fares to save me 40 minutes of public transportation? Every time a new type of business replaces an older model, the market size necessarily increases because the new model is faster, cheaper, better, etc so new customers are attracted. I don't get why taxi companies aren't putting all of their resources into creating an Uber like infrastructure for themselves right now. It's clearly the way of the future, and 10 years from now the traditional model of standing on the sidewalk with your arm raised until some taxi driver feels like picking you up will be long gone, whether they like it or not. They might dig their heels in the ground and try to pass legislation all they want, that's just the way it's going. Their only chance of survival is trying to beat Uber at their own game, and every day that they spend lobbying in Washington or putting crappy ads on buses [0] is a day lost for their cause. [0]: http://i.imgur.com/GjJZQAM.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GjJZQAM.jpg
  - smoe 12y ago
    In Colombia, there are two competing companies that are doing that within all major cities. Uber like apps but with the normal existing taxis. Interestingly, their massive popularity doesn't seem to be because of ease of use, but security concerns. Especially since a couple of taxi drivers robbed and killed an NDA agent. I met a few people here, that would never wave a taxi from the streets at night and some taxi drivers that wouldn't pick up one. By using the app every ride, driver and passenger is logged. The apps are very well done and for me a perfect example on how you take an idea from somebody else and apply and sell it to your local market. My country, Switzerland, is unfortunately always far behind on nice things like this.
deleted 12y ago
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synaesthesisx 12y ago
Actually... http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/20/about-those-uber-revenue-numbers/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/20/about-those-uber-revenue-nu...
- pbreit 12y ago
  Is anyone actually fooled by high revenue low margin vs low revenue high margin?
steven2012 12y ago
It is actually viable for Uber to recognize the entire fare as Uber's revenue, even though they get 20% cut. There are a bunch of rules for revenue recognition, and one of them is that if the customer perceives the driver as being an agent of Uber, then the recognized revenue is likely the entire fare. If a customer has a problem with a particular driver, they contact Uber, they don't contact the driver directly. This is a key fact that makes a strong case for recognizing the entire fare as revenue. The difference with Groupon is that the customers were still interacting with the end merchant, ie. whoever supplied the coupon, as opposed to Groupon as a whole. One problem with recognizing the entire fare is that their margins will look a lot worse.
- polarbear5 12y ago
  By this thinking, does Airbnb then also measure the entire cost of the listing as revenue? I don't know much about accounting or finance, but this seems a little misleading to me.
  - smt88 12y ago
    In my mind, Airbnb is a marketplace and Uber is a service provider. The distinction is mostly arbitrary and driven by marketing/perception, though.
    - arjunnarayan 12y ago
      I agree, but I think the distinction is not arbitrary. The kicker is that you pick the Airbnb provider individually, based on individual house/room profiles. You don't say "give me a room in Seattle on this date, any room". Whereas with Uber you say "bring me a car now to this location, any car". You don't browse through car providers and say "ok, I'll specifically take the blue Lexus, and only the blue Lexus".
  - steven2012 12y ago
    Airbnb is likely more like Groupon, because when you deal pretty directly with the owner of the property, whereas when you get a Uber ride, they are known as an "Uber driver". The owners of the properties do not purport to be agents of AirBNB. But the case could be made either way, and it's up to the auditors to determine which is more appropriate, since they have direct access to the financials, etc.
rokhayakebe 12y ago
Side note: UBER is valued at several billions higher than the entire taxi + Limo industry in the US ($11B). Uber is probably creating more demand then there was before. If correct, entrepreneurs should take the untapped part of industries into consideration when sizing their markets.
- prostoalex 12y ago
  How did you arrive at the valuation of the entire taxi+limo industry?
  - rokhayakebe 12y ago
    Feast, my friend https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/home.aspx https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/home.aspx.
    - prostoalex 12y ago
      This https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1951 https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1951 implies 1-year revenue is $11 billion. It's different from valuation unless 1x happens to be the valuation multiple.
      - rokhayakebe 12y ago
        You are correct.
    - xtrumanx 12y ago
      Whenever I see someone say a certain market or industry's valuation, I've always wondered what would be a good place to source that kind of information. IBIS seems to be focused on the US market. Do you know someplace focused on the global market?
      - rokhayakebe 12y ago
        IBIS have both global & local. Some industries are just hard to quantify.
pbreit 12y ago
Lyft: get rid of the mustaches, fist bumps and front seats. Add town cars. People who don't like Ubers behavior: use Lyft.
- shoyer 12y ago
  Could not agree more. I'd love to use an alternative to Uber that is less scummy, but I'm turned off by Lyft's style.
- GraffitiTim 12y ago
  Most Lyfts in SF don't have mustaches anymore (or at least not displayed prominently) and about 10% do the fist bump now. I always sit in the front seat because it seems friendlier (and the drivers definitely do seem more friendly than on Uber), but I doubt they'd have any problem with you sitting in the back. I use Lyft frequently and love it.
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    - thrownaway2424 12y ago
      Please elaborate on scenarios where the passenger side of the car is not also the curb side.
      - rhizome 12y ago
        Ah crap, I don't know what I was thinking.
    - pbreit 12y ago
      I don't understand. Either way you're typically entering in the same side, which is usually the curb side.
    - spullara 12y ago
      The passenger side of the car is generally curbside unless you are on a one-way street.
pistle 12y ago
Wow, this reads nothing like a PR fluff piece misdirecting people away from the worst week ever for Uber...
rhizome 12y ago
HEY EVERYBODY, LOOK AT ALL THIS MONEY INSTEAD
- general_failure 12y ago
  Looks pretty good. Go on and do more of whatever you are doing

93 points by ssclafani 12y ago

gcb0 12y ago

isn't it illegal to swindle the market with fake financial data like this, without source? or since it's not public yet that's OK?

Moveit 12y ago
I was thinking the same. Data could have been planted and business insider was fooled?
gojomo 12y ago
Illegal for whom? Which market? (Uber isn't a public company.) And BI has now made this "public" info. Do you have evidence that it's 'fake'?
Philadelphia 12y ago
It's not particularly great in terms of journalism ethics, either, especially with the level of detail they're providing. They basically reprinted a leaked slide deck in it's entirety, without there being much of a compelling public interest in anything it contains.
- gojomo 12y ago
  If it's true, who's harmed? What's the ethical principle involved?
  - Philadelphia 12y ago
    That's a good question. I think it comes down to compromising credibility. Reporters have to be perceived as trustworthy to be effective, and for that they basically need to be viewed as having generally good character, or — probably more importantly — good intentions. Just taking any old information you come across and throwing it out because it brings in clicks undermines that. The answer to who's harmed, then, is reporters in general, because it's behavior that generates an aura of unsavoriness and makes people less likely to trust the whole industry. TLDR: If reporting seems like corporate espionage, people think reporters are just corporate spies.
    - rhizome 12y ago
      I'm not sure where you're coming from with this because there's a long history of journalism based on leaks and confidential sources. It's not a matter of throwing out "any old information," since vetting sources is also a part of journalism and a reporter's reputation is indeed affected by bad stories. The repercussions you speak of simply don't exist because things like this are part of the very definition of journalism, but if you have anything that speaks to the validity of the sources in this story I'm sure we'd all like to hear them.
      - Philadelphia 12y ago
        I agree, absolutely, that leaks and confidential sources are critical to journalism. It's necessary to take into account the context and the content, though. The less public value the leak has, and the more confidential the information is, the more damage it can cause, the more carefully it needs to be handled. If a leak is very confidential but has a lot of value, using it is ok; the Pentagon Papers, for example. If a leak is not particularly confidential, has some public value, using it is ok; the name of the new store that's coming to a neighborhood, for instance. The first two items I was able to find for other expressions of the line of thought are the "Clandestine methods: Principles" section at [1] and this article [2]. The Business Insider article doesn't present any reason for choosing to publish the Uber information. It doesn't even offer any interesting analysis of it. It just seems to be revealing it for the sake of revealing it. There are ways to use the data that might be justified — for instance, discussing the risks of the company's legal status being uncertain in some of it's largest markets; looking at the number of drivers it has and the net effects of that on the total number of cars on the streets; looking at general trends in growth without revealing details, if they're interesting. Simply presenting the information raw and without context isn't reporting, though; it's just sharing, and, in this case, it's sharing information that wasn't meant to be shared, so it seems sleazy. [1]http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/reporting-to-canadians/acts-and-policies/programming/journalism/investigative-journalism/ http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/reporting-to-canadians/act... [2] http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/leaks.html http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/l...
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onewaystreet 12y ago
The data isn't fake, it's inline with data that has been previously leaked. As for where it came from, Uber is in the middle of raising another round from investors. A lot of people have access to these numbers. Any one of them could have leaked this deck. BI isn't obliged to reveal its source.
nness 12y ago
Uber isn't a publicly traded company, so certainly not illegal from the perspective of insider-trading. Plus the article makes it very clear that it is a leaked document, and that its authenticity should be suspect as a result. Even if it were intentionally faked, not sure how it would be illegal from Business Insider's perspective to report on it.
prostoalex 12y ago
Investors in the private market are presumably more sophisticated, which often boils down to ability to CC a CPA and a financial advisor on an investment proposal, and ask them to chime in.

calcsam 12y ago

Note that all revenue numbers are gross not net. In other words, they represent total fare $, not the 15% of fares that Uber actually gets.

PeterisP 12y ago
The data includes (and the article analyzes) both gross and net numbers, and also the profit remaining after marketing burn and other costs.
Narkov 12y ago
Counting gross fares as revenue is about as honest as Groupon counting customer receipts as revenue. We all know how that worked out.
- wdr1 12y ago
  How is this deceptive? They never intended it for external release.
  - 001sky 12y ago
    People use confidential figures for fundraising all the time. Just because its not public doesn't mean its not being used to trade off. That being said, the accounting issues are technical and sort of a side point. Private investors at this stage ($10BN+ valuation) can do their own math. Its more frame of mind of hyperbole that is relevant, IMHO.
  - Narkov 12y ago
    See Groupon for how the market treats these kind of tricks: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/09/23/groupon-ipo-revenue-corrected-for-error/ http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/09/23/groupon-ipo-revenue-co... It's also why Google separates "Traffic Acquisition Costs" in their reporting.
  - pbreit 12y ago
    Do you know that?

joelrunyon 12y ago

All I want to know is what my rider rating is...

mmanfrin 12y ago
Go to m.uber.com and fiddle around in the console. There used to be a way to get at your user object (it might have been closed off now, but I believe data is still there, hard to share data across a big app like that without exposing a little bit).
- joelrunyon 12y ago
  There was a way to view it but they closed it off. I'm not enough of a dev to dig it up myself.
clamprecht 12y ago
Can you just ask your driver?
- deleted 12y ago
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eash 12y ago

First post. Just got a ping from an Uber recruiter who was linking to this article. If they didn't leak it themselves they're certainly embracing it.

MBCook 12y ago
Well 'making tons of money' is certainly better for their PR than 'driver hit-and-ran down a kid', 'exec suggests doxxing and discrediting journalist', or the usual 'is surge pricing ripping people off' stuff. At this point they're probably desperate for anything with a positive angle on it.
- untog 12y ago
  All the more comic, given that they have so many employees now it's not like you're going to cash out in any IPO. "Why'd you go work for Uber?" "Oh, they make a ton of money." "Do you?" "Well, I mean, it's, uh..."
- nness 12y ago
  > driver hit-and-ran down a kid For those curious: "Family sues Uber after New Year’s Eve crash in San Francisco kills 6-year-old girl" http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/family-sues-uber-driver-kills-6-year-old-girl-article-1.1594163 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/family-sues-uber-dr...
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- pbreit 12y ago
  Except that he probably wasn't meeting anyone except for the next lyft target. Lyft has sorta of secured the high road at this point. I think it's important for people who disagree with ubers behavior to vote with their dollars. Assuming a reasonable alternative exists which Lyft may be.

woebtz 12y ago

Assuming these numbers are fact, has there been any extensive research on how taxi / private car / shuttle services' revenues have been affected by Uber and the like? Pre-Uber, I probably spent $100/year on taxis / shuttles (Los Angeles). Post-Uber... I'm hesitant to look at my bank statements.

GuiA 12y ago
Yes, that's what I bring up every time someone starts with the whole "Uber is killing the poor taxi industry" rhetoric. Before Uber, I only took taxis to/from airports, so maybe half a dozen times a year. Now, I take Uber at least once a week. Going out with friends? I'm going to spend money on dinner/drinks anyway, what's an added $10 in Uber fares to save me 40 minutes of public transportation? Every time a new type of business replaces an older model, the market size necessarily increases because the new model is faster, cheaper, better, etc so new customers are attracted. I don't get why taxi companies aren't putting all of their resources into creating an Uber like infrastructure for themselves right now. It's clearly the way of the future, and 10 years from now the traditional model of standing on the sidewalk with your arm raised until some taxi driver feels like picking you up will be long gone, whether they like it or not. They might dig their heels in the ground and try to pass legislation all they want, that's just the way it's going. Their only chance of survival is trying to beat Uber at their own game, and every day that they spend lobbying in Washington or putting crappy ads on buses [0] is a day lost for their cause. [0]: http://i.imgur.com/GjJZQAM.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GjJZQAM.jpg
- smoe 12y ago
  In Colombia, there are two competing companies that are doing that within all major cities. Uber like apps but with the normal existing taxis. Interestingly, their massive popularity doesn't seem to be because of ease of use, but security concerns. Especially since a couple of taxi drivers robbed and killed an NDA agent. I met a few people here, that would never wave a taxi from the streets at night and some taxi drivers that wouldn't pick up one. By using the app every ride, driver and passenger is logged. The apps are very well done and for me a perfect example on how you take an idea from somebody else and apply and sell it to your local market. My country, Switzerland, is unfortunately always far behind on nice things like this.

deleted 12y ago

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synaesthesisx 12y ago

Actually... http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/20/about-those-uber-revenue-numbers/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/20/about-those-uber-revenue-nu...

pbreit 12y ago
Is anyone actually fooled by high revenue low margin vs low revenue high margin?

steven2012 12y ago

It is actually viable for Uber to recognize the entire fare as Uber's revenue, even though they get 20% cut. There are a bunch of rules for revenue recognition, and one of them is that if the customer perceives the driver as being an agent of Uber, then the recognized revenue is likely the entire fare. If a customer has a problem with a particular driver, they contact Uber, they don't contact the driver directly. This is a key fact that makes a strong case for recognizing the entire fare as revenue. The difference with Groupon is that the customers were still interacting with the end merchant, ie. whoever supplied the coupon, as opposed to Groupon as a whole. One problem with recognizing the entire fare is that their margins will look a lot worse.

polarbear5 12y ago
By this thinking, does Airbnb then also measure the entire cost of the listing as revenue? I don't know much about accounting or finance, but this seems a little misleading to me.
- smt88 12y ago
  In my mind, Airbnb is a marketplace and Uber is a service provider. The distinction is mostly arbitrary and driven by marketing/perception, though.
  - arjunnarayan 12y ago
    I agree, but I think the distinction is not arbitrary. The kicker is that you pick the Airbnb provider individually, based on individual house/room profiles. You don't say "give me a room in Seattle on this date, any room". Whereas with Uber you say "bring me a car now to this location, any car". You don't browse through car providers and say "ok, I'll specifically take the blue Lexus, and only the blue Lexus".
- steven2012 12y ago
  Airbnb is likely more like Groupon, because when you deal pretty directly with the owner of the property, whereas when you get a Uber ride, they are known as an "Uber driver". The owners of the properties do not purport to be agents of AirBNB. But the case could be made either way, and it's up to the auditors to determine which is more appropriate, since they have direct access to the financials, etc.

rokhayakebe 12y ago

Side note: UBER is valued at several billions higher than the entire taxi + Limo industry in the US ($11B). Uber is probably creating more demand then there was before. If correct, entrepreneurs should take the untapped part of industries into consideration when sizing their markets.

prostoalex 12y ago
How did you arrive at the valuation of the entire taxi+limo industry?
- rokhayakebe 12y ago
  Feast, my friend https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/home.aspx https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/home.aspx.
  - prostoalex 12y ago
    This https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1951 https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1951 implies 1-year revenue is $11 billion. It's different from valuation unless 1x happens to be the valuation multiple.
    - rokhayakebe 12y ago
      You are correct.
  - xtrumanx 12y ago
    Whenever I see someone say a certain market or industry's valuation, I've always wondered what would be a good place to source that kind of information. IBIS seems to be focused on the US market. Do you know someplace focused on the global market?
    - rokhayakebe 12y ago
      IBIS have both global & local. Some industries are just hard to quantify.

pbreit 12y ago

Lyft: get rid of the mustaches, fist bumps and front seats. Add town cars. People who don't like Ubers behavior: use Lyft.

shoyer 12y ago
Could not agree more. I'd love to use an alternative to Uber that is less scummy, but I'm turned off by Lyft's style.
GraffitiTim 12y ago
Most Lyfts in SF don't have mustaches anymore (or at least not displayed prominently) and about 10% do the fist bump now. I always sit in the front seat because it seems friendlier (and the drivers definitely do seem more friendly than on Uber), but I doubt they'd have any problem with you sitting in the back. I use Lyft frequently and love it.
- deleted 12y ago
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  - thrownaway2424 12y ago
    Please elaborate on scenarios where the passenger side of the car is not also the curb side.
    - rhizome 12y ago
      Ah crap, I don't know what I was thinking.
  - pbreit 12y ago
    I don't understand. Either way you're typically entering in the same side, which is usually the curb side.
  - spullara 12y ago
    The passenger side of the car is generally curbside unless you are on a one-way street.

pistle 12y ago

Wow, this reads nothing like a PR fluff piece misdirecting people away from the worst week ever for Uber...

rhizome 12y ago

HEY EVERYBODY, LOOK AT ALL THIS MONEY INSTEAD

general_failure 12y ago
Looks pretty good. Go on and do more of whatever you are doing