I’m not a huge fan of Uber’s corporate policies in general, but help me understand what’s wrong with this. Isn’t this what any company would do: maximize revenue from customers while minimizing expenses to their suppliers? Most businesses don’t tells us how they do this.
My grocer sells me a can of beans at some price. I have no idea how they arrived at that price, how much they paid their wholesaler, or that they may have a sale on beans next week. I buy or don’t buy beans based on whether I feel they’re worth the cost. And whether I feel like beans.
A suggestion: Install both Lyft and Uber (or whatever the second biggest ride app is in your area).
I get regular notifications along the lines of "$20 off your next ride with Lyft/Uber" when i do this. I do not get these otherwise. It's pretty clear that to use a ride app you need to have at least 2 on your phone, otherwise there's no reason not to charge you exorbitantly since you've trapped yourself.
Slightly off topic, but Lyft has really creeped me out recently. The last three times I’ve landed at SFO, I’ve gotten a push notification on my iPhone from Lyft saying “welcome to SFO, get a Lyft.” It’s always come as we were taxiing to the gate.
After the first notification, I turned off location services for Lyft and only do one time authorizations, and then close the app when I’m done, but I still get the push notification. How is Lyft figuring out that I just landed at SFO? FWIW it has not happened at any other airport.
Does Uber have a patent moat or is their moat the brand?
For as much hate as they receive, I'm not sure why a driver-owned cooperative app has not emerged that takes no profit. Is there something like this we should all start using instead?
There isn't much technological innovation in ride-sharing that the FOSS community couldn't solve. I'd love to work in this area.
I've noticed that a trip I've taken for years has increased significantly in price over the last 6 to 8 months. I used to pay around $17 to $20, but now the same trip costs approximately $25 or more. I spoke with the driver, and he mentioned that he still receives the same amount—$11.00—so it seems the extra cost is going to the platform, not the driver.
It's now more than I use to pay to take a cab and all the cabs are gone.....
> Uber chief tells French lobbying inquiry company’s culture has been transformed
May 2023[1]
This is even more funny, especially after they had to change the hole leader-ship team, the leaks and corruption investigations. And now the opaque algorithm. Just don't use uber.
[1] https://www.icij.org/investigations/uber-files/uber-chief-te...
The author of the study has written a blog post with lots of data, analysis, and visualizations:
https://len-sherman.medium.com/how-uber-became-a-cash-genera...
I found the author's blog post more informative than the newspaper article.
I’m confused about how drivers are able to accept or not accept a ride based on price
Feels like the new algorithm now is almost a flat dollar a minute plus surge. How I long for the days I could get most anywhere from $4-$7. The uber there and back from the airport can be more than the flight now (once surged to $120 one way for a 35 min trip).
Uber/lyft pricing models are extremely unfair. They "purchase" marginal rides and marginal driver hours using bonuses and meaning those bonuses go towards riders and drivers who are the most price sensitive, like a mom who only drives if the money is good. But for the driver who drives 10hrs rain or sun, they rarely get bonuses because their hours are static.
The playbook is similar to other platforms (e.g. AdWords). Third party analysis are great but don't reach the final chain.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5321874 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322268 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322272 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314
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https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322268 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322272 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322300 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322314 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322753 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322916 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323000 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323240 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323301 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323593 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322423 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322443 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322486 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322516 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322630 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322684 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5322966 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5323105
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Sadly, cab drivers did the same thing. Countless times I was given overpriced rates in times of need, like late night closing time.
Almost 10 years ago, Uber was hailed for creating consumer surplus [0] in similar studies:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2837639
Discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12478847
Who would have thought that they'd turn that research into algorithms that skim off surplus (from consumers and drivers)?
[0] Consumer surplus: roughly, the benefit of all those consumers who got a lower price than what they would have been willing to pay. Especially prevalent when there's one price for all. So the natural enemy of consumer surplus is price discrimination, where suppliers try to extract close to the maximum amount they're willing to pay from each consumer.