> The idea that taxi dispatchers could be more efficient, or as efficient, is ludicrous.
This really doesn't follow from your position.
Taxi operators are significantly more efficient because they are able to pool their leases together and are able to insure themselves as a group. Relying on individuals to do both leaves economies of scale on the table.
There's no reason that taxi dispatchers can't use better scheduling systems - however, the fundamental premise of Lyft and Uber is that they cannot ever recognize the efficiencies of scale in the underlying business. The cost basis of a Lyft or Uber ride is fundamentally higher than that of a taxi.
What has changed recently though is the markets and investors have stopped pouring money into rider subsidies and the price of Lyft and Uber rides is starting to approach the actual cost. That cost is often significantly higher than incumbents. The prices you saw over the last few years weren't operational efficiencies, just subsidies that taxis couldn't match because they have to actually recover their costs at the farebox instead of on Sand Hill Road.
> After all, the very first sentence on Wikipedia makes it clear all the things it's trying to do at once, of which ride-hailing is one of many [1]:
They're all terrible businesses. Food delivery couldn't even make money during COVID lockdowns when nobody went outside to eat and spent like a year and a half just ordering off Doordash.
Now they're trying to get into the grocery business and offering 50% off that. I paid $30 for groceries, delivered in hand, and the receipt showed the Uber Eats driver paid $50 for them.
I'd really recommend Naked Capitalism's 'can Uber ever deliver' series that's as true now as it was when they started writing it in 2016. [1]
Why does it take the author of the linked piece thirty-six paragraphs to make what was already a widely known point, that Uber isn’t profitable? It’s not like the piece is particularly rich in elaboration or explanation, it just seems… verbose. Like a high school senior desperately trying to stretch a preconceived conclusion to the required word count.
Yeah it's not well-organized. The reason I linked to it isn't a restatement of their financials but an analysis of the industry, the cost basis delta and why fundamentally their businesses are not positioned with a path to profitability.
This really doesn't follow from your position.
Taxi operators are significantly more efficient because they are able to pool their leases together and are able to insure themselves as a group. Relying on individuals to do both leaves economies of scale on the table.
There's no reason that taxi dispatchers can't use better scheduling systems - however, the fundamental premise of Lyft and Uber is that they cannot ever recognize the efficiencies of scale in the underlying business. The cost basis of a Lyft or Uber ride is fundamentally higher than that of a taxi.
What has changed recently though is the markets and investors have stopped pouring money into rider subsidies and the price of Lyft and Uber rides is starting to approach the actual cost. That cost is often significantly higher than incumbents. The prices you saw over the last few years weren't operational efficiencies, just subsidies that taxis couldn't match because they have to actually recover their costs at the farebox instead of on Sand Hill Road.
> After all, the very first sentence on Wikipedia makes it clear all the things it's trying to do at once, of which ride-hailing is one of many [1]:
They're all terrible businesses. Food delivery couldn't even make money during COVID lockdowns when nobody went outside to eat and spent like a year and a half just ordering off Doordash.
Now they're trying to get into the grocery business and offering 50% off that. I paid $30 for groceries, delivered in hand, and the receipt showed the Uber Eats driver paid $50 for them.
I'd really recommend Naked Capitalism's 'can Uber ever deliver' series that's as true now as it was when they started writing it in 2016. [1]
[1] https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/11/can-uber-ever-delive...