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> Drivers will only be able to make two trips per day, and the software will ensure they only travel from their home neighborhoods to their workplaces. > There

> Drivers will only be able to make two trips per day, and the software will ensure they only travel from their home neighborhoods to their workplaces. > There also won’t be a ton of money changing hands as a passenger will pay the driver only a nominal fare for the trip I'd hardly call it a Uber rival

chockablock 11y ago
Yep--it seems more like a smartphone-enabled extension of the 'casual carpool' concept (http://sfcasualcarpool.com/ http://sfcasualcarpool.com/) [Edit: except you can set up rides the night before; see Haaretz link in my other comment.]
- eli 11y ago
  Or the similarly non-app-enabled Slug Lines in DC: http://www.slug-lines.com/ http://www.slug-lines.com/
andybak 11y ago
The title is truly misleading. That's either bad journalism or someone is shorting Uber stock...
- jedmeyers 11y ago
  Uber is not a public company so it does not have any stock on the open market.
  - ebbflowgo 11y ago
    However, correlation trading is a viable option.. for example: http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/19/heres-one-way-to-bet-on-ubers-success/ http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/19/heres-one-way-to-b...
electric_sheep 11y ago
Indeed. > ...allows users to share rides to work and back I'm not sure how many people take Uber to and from work every day. I'd imagine it doesn't contribute to the bulk of ridership, though.
- JohnTHaller 11y ago
  Given UBER's past and current market plays, commuter ride-sharing is a natural extension of UBER's array of segments.
rendambathu 11y ago
Exactly. Sounds like a Social Carpool application than competition to Taxi Hailing service.
minthd 11y ago
UBER plans to attack the "drive to work" segment of the transportation market, and it's potentially a huge opportunity for UBER.This Google service, if successful, might fill that role very well. And the fact that it's cheaper is basically "disruption from below" - a proven strategy in many businesses. While this exact transport service model generally failed , it did succeed in France(blabla car), and Google has unique marketing advantages that might make it succeed elsewhere. Also, the main competitive barrier for UBER is that many consumers have the habit of ordering transportation through it's app. If Google gets that , the rest is relatively easy.
- freehunter 11y ago
  Just FYI, it's Uber, not UBER. It's not an acronym.
  - fennecfoxen 11y ago
    https://www.uber.com/ https://www.uber.com/ take a look at that-there all-caps branding. It's pretty prominent in the app, too. (At least for UBER as an overall brand - uberX and the like are gladly lowercased.) Though they do use lowercase in some minor text. Still easy enough to make the mistake, though.
    - appletree 11y ago
      That's just the logo. Looking at their legal documents is just Uber Technologies Inc. http://newsroom.uber.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FormRules.pdf http://newsroom.uber.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FormRule...
    - freehunter 11y ago
      Everything on their home page is in all-caps, not just the word Uber. If you look at press releases, their social media accounts, their emails, anything other than their all-caps homepage, it's shown as Uber.
- shostack 11y ago
  Yep, a big factor to consider here is that while Uber has a head start, Google has a massive chest derived from other products and political clout to deal with the regulatory piece. They can absolutely price Uber and others out of the market on this if they felt like it.
onion2k 11y ago
I wouldn't have called Uber a "taxi rival" when they were an app for hiring a town car either. Things change. This is Google's first toe-in-the-water for apps to request a ride, but it obviously won't be their last. Considering how much they've invested in autonomous vehicles only a crazy person would believe they're going to leave the entire market for self-driving taxis wide open for Uber etc. Google will have a taxi request service within a couple of years.
- minthd 11y ago
  But why doesn't Apple doesn't try to create an UBER ?
  - roosterjm2k2 11y ago
    Because Apple is smarter than that... they will do what they do best... Let someone work out the kinks, then step in and make it better... Why waste all the money on all of this regulatory squabbling... let Uber and Lyft do that, give all the free rides, lose money to make this thing legal... then when it's legal, swoop in and take over...
    - minthd 11y ago
      It's not so simple. There are network effects at play(if we're talking about shared trips) - and those are hard to fight against , even for large companies like Google and Apple. This is why i think, Google is entering now - because UBER and Lyft started offering shared rides(which BTW grow rapidly).
  - eli 11y ago
    I don't follow the question. Why doesn't Walmart?
    - minthd 11y ago
      Apple(and Google) has unique advantages as the owners of the major platforms, and and major mapping apps, with access to all travel data. Those are major building blocks of such a travel service.
sebastianavina 11y ago
> pilot project
TorKlingberg 11y ago
Right, this is actually a ride share/carpool service, not taxi like Uber.
dataker 11y ago
With Google's amount of data, 2 trips will 'force' drivers to restrict input to commuting habits and have more insights on it. Google still holds 5% of Uber. For commuting, I'd call it Uber's abandonment and Lyft's death.
- chinathrow 11y ago
  > Google still holds 5% of Uber. Is that public knowledge?
  - icebraining 11y ago
    I don't know if the exact percentage is publicly known, but that Google Ventures invested $258M into Uber certainly is: http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-into-uber-its-largest-deal-ever/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-i...
    - chinathrow 11y ago
      Is it even still public that Google still holds that investment?
stephengillie 11y ago
> I'd hardly call it an Uber rival Isn't this what Lyft does? I'm guessing Uber put some money in a reporter's pocket to submarine them in this article instead.
- adevine 11y ago
  Lyft certainly lets you take more that 2 drives per day, and certainly not just too and from work. Also, at least in some locales Lyft has gotten rid of the "donation" fiction as many local laws explicitly state that any type of payment counts as a ride-for-hire. This is basically just a carpooling app, and is nowhere near a rival to Uber or Lyft.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - j_camarena 11y ago
    yet.
- SilasX 11y ago
  You are correct: that's pretty much exactly how Lyft started: "oh, this is just ridesharing [1]", it's "just trips to places the driver would go anyway", and for which "you can choose to give them a nominal amount" to cover gas, totally optional (though they'll rate you poorly). They've since dropped the pretense but a lot of the trappings remain. Edit: Don't mean to sound like I'm "hatin' on" Lyft, just amused at the dance they have to go through to fend off busybodies. [1] a term they still use against protest from journalists, and TBH, reasonable people
vinnyc 11y ago
I suspect many of these things will change as features like only two trips per day doesn't seem very sustainable. Right now it's not even close to being a rival, but what it evolves into very well may.
peterjlee 11y ago
Considering 90% of my Uber usage is for commuting, this could take significant market away from Uber.
ChuckMcM 11y ago
I keep seeing a bunch of Google Express vans sitting around idle because they don't have any goods to deliver, this sort of thing could easily capture a bit of revenue from those idle vehicles. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw that Uber was doing deliveries.
- philsnow 11y ago
  How do you weigh 8 hours of idle time vs 8 hours of driving time in the long term ownership cost of one of those vans, though?
  - ChuckMcM 11y ago
    Well according to the drivers they aren't getting paid if they aren't driving. So it perhaps motivates them. EDIT: Thinking about this a bit more what is the value of having nominal control over a fleet of vehicles of various capabilities sitting around a metropolitan area? Someone wants to go from point A to point B? Dispatch a nearby passenger capable vehicle to pick them up and drop them off. Package needs to go from here to there? Send a vehicle and driver over to get this package and take it over. Imagine the economics of consolidating courier service, taxi cabs, emergency transport, into a single 'app' will all 'contract' labor.
bl4ckm0r3 11y ago
The legal implications of this approach (compared to uber's) are way easier to deal with. They are not trying to fix taxis, they are trying to fix car-pooling.

chockablock 11y ago

Yep--it seems more like a smartphone-enabled extension of the 'casual carpool' concept (http://sfcasualcarpool.com/ http://sfcasualcarpool.com/) [Edit: except you can set up rides the night before; see Haaretz link in my other comment.]

eli 11y ago
Or the similarly non-app-enabled Slug Lines in DC: http://www.slug-lines.com/ http://www.slug-lines.com/

andybak 11y ago

The title is truly misleading. That's either bad journalism or someone is shorting Uber stock...

jedmeyers 11y ago
Uber is not a public company so it does not have any stock on the open market.
- ebbflowgo 11y ago
  However, correlation trading is a viable option.. for example: http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/19/heres-one-way-to-bet-on-ubers-success/ http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/06/19/heres-one-way-to-b...

electric_sheep 11y ago

Indeed. > ...allows users to share rides to work and back I'm not sure how many people take Uber to and from work every day. I'd imagine it doesn't contribute to the bulk of ridership, though.

JohnTHaller 11y ago
Given UBER's past and current market plays, commuter ride-sharing is a natural extension of UBER's array of segments.

rendambathu 11y ago

Exactly. Sounds like a Social Carpool application than competition to Taxi Hailing service.

minthd 11y ago

UBER plans to attack the "drive to work" segment of the transportation market, and it's potentially a huge opportunity for UBER.This Google service, if successful, might fill that role very well. And the fact that it's cheaper is basically "disruption from below" - a proven strategy in many businesses. While this exact transport service model generally failed , it did succeed in France(blabla car), and Google has unique marketing advantages that might make it succeed elsewhere. Also, the main competitive barrier for UBER is that many consumers have the habit of ordering transportation through it's app. If Google gets that , the rest is relatively easy.

freehunter 11y ago
Just FYI, it's Uber, not UBER. It's not an acronym.
- fennecfoxen 11y ago
  https://www.uber.com/ https://www.uber.com/ take a look at that-there all-caps branding. It's pretty prominent in the app, too. (At least for UBER as an overall brand - uberX and the like are gladly lowercased.) Though they do use lowercase in some minor text. Still easy enough to make the mistake, though.
  - appletree 11y ago
    That's just the logo. Looking at their legal documents is just Uber Technologies Inc. http://newsroom.uber.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FormRules.pdf http://newsroom.uber.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FormRule...
  - freehunter 11y ago
    Everything on their home page is in all-caps, not just the word Uber. If you look at press releases, their social media accounts, their emails, anything other than their all-caps homepage, it's shown as Uber.
shostack 11y ago
Yep, a big factor to consider here is that while Uber has a head start, Google has a massive chest derived from other products and political clout to deal with the regulatory piece. They can absolutely price Uber and others out of the market on this if they felt like it.

onion2k 11y ago

I wouldn't have called Uber a "taxi rival" when they were an app for hiring a town car either. Things change. This is Google's first toe-in-the-water for apps to request a ride, but it obviously won't be their last. Considering how much they've invested in autonomous vehicles only a crazy person would believe they're going to leave the entire market for self-driving taxis wide open for Uber etc. Google will have a taxi request service within a couple of years.

minthd 11y ago
But why doesn't Apple doesn't try to create an UBER ?
- roosterjm2k2 11y ago
  Because Apple is smarter than that... they will do what they do best... Let someone work out the kinks, then step in and make it better... Why waste all the money on all of this regulatory squabbling... let Uber and Lyft do that, give all the free rides, lose money to make this thing legal... then when it's legal, swoop in and take over...
  - minthd 11y ago
    It's not so simple. There are network effects at play(if we're talking about shared trips) - and those are hard to fight against , even for large companies like Google and Apple. This is why i think, Google is entering now - because UBER and Lyft started offering shared rides(which BTW grow rapidly).
- eli 11y ago
  I don't follow the question. Why doesn't Walmart?
  - minthd 11y ago
    Apple(and Google) has unique advantages as the owners of the major platforms, and and major mapping apps, with access to all travel data. Those are major building blocks of such a travel service.

sebastianavina 11y ago

> pilot project

TorKlingberg 11y ago

Right, this is actually a ride share/carpool service, not taxi like Uber.

dataker 11y ago

With Google's amount of data, 2 trips will 'force' drivers to restrict input to commuting habits and have more insights on it. Google still holds 5% of Uber. For commuting, I'd call it Uber's abandonment and Lyft's death.

chinathrow 11y ago
> Google still holds 5% of Uber. Is that public knowledge?
- icebraining 11y ago
  I don't know if the exact percentage is publicly known, but that Google Ventures invested $258M into Uber certainly is: http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-into-uber-its-largest-deal-ever/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-i...
  - chinathrow 11y ago
    Is it even still public that Google still holds that investment?

stephengillie 11y ago

> I'd hardly call it an Uber rival Isn't this what Lyft does? I'm guessing Uber put some money in a reporter's pocket to submarine them in this article instead.

adevine 11y ago
Lyft certainly lets you take more that 2 drives per day, and certainly not just too and from work. Also, at least in some locales Lyft has gotten rid of the "donation" fiction as many local laws explicitly state that any type of payment counts as a ride-for-hire. This is basically just a carpooling app, and is nowhere near a rival to Uber or Lyft.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- j_camarena 11y ago
  yet.
SilasX 11y ago
You are correct: that's pretty much exactly how Lyft started: "oh, this is just ridesharing [1]", it's "just trips to places the driver would go anyway", and for which "you can choose to give them a nominal amount" to cover gas, totally optional (though they'll rate you poorly). They've since dropped the pretense but a lot of the trappings remain. Edit: Don't mean to sound like I'm "hatin' on" Lyft, just amused at the dance they have to go through to fend off busybodies. [1] a term they still use against protest from journalists, and TBH, reasonable people

vinnyc 11y ago

I suspect many of these things will change as features like only two trips per day doesn't seem very sustainable. Right now it's not even close to being a rival, but what it evolves into very well may.

peterjlee 11y ago

Considering 90% of my Uber usage is for commuting, this could take significant market away from Uber.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

I keep seeing a bunch of Google Express vans sitting around idle because they don't have any goods to deliver, this sort of thing could easily capture a bit of revenue from those idle vehicles. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw that Uber was doing deliveries.

philsnow 11y ago
How do you weigh 8 hours of idle time vs 8 hours of driving time in the long term ownership cost of one of those vans, though?
- ChuckMcM 11y ago
  Well according to the drivers they aren't getting paid if they aren't driving. So it perhaps motivates them. EDIT: Thinking about this a bit more what is the value of having nominal control over a fleet of vehicles of various capabilities sitting around a metropolitan area? Someone wants to go from point A to point B? Dispatch a nearby passenger capable vehicle to pick them up and drop them off. Package needs to go from here to there? Send a vehicle and driver over to get this package and take it over. Imagine the economics of consolidating courier service, taxi cabs, emergency transport, into a single 'app' will all 'contract' labor.

bl4ckm0r3 11y ago

The legal implications of this approach (compared to uber's) are way easier to deal with. They are not trying to fix taxis, they are trying to fix car-pooling.