"Investing" in Uber

I honestly can't believe Uber is legal in NYC. Medallions there would go for 5 figures. I think NOLA has fought it harder than NYC, and it's not like hailing a cab is hard there.

relevant: Bloomberg

fwiw, Lyft > Uber. Uber had 9 or 10x surge pricing last night in Baltimore for Halloween. F that

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And Uber is quite upfront about that. They even sent me an email with the time graph. Prices are obviously reflecting demand. If people weren't paying it, Uber would stop charging it.

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I think Uber is a good service, but they deliberately rip off drunk people on holiday weekends or special events. The only reason they get away with it is because people 1) are really drunk or 2) are unfamiliar with Lyft or other options. Yeah I already know the rebuttals (drunk people deserve it for being drunk, supply and demand, etc.), but I'd be embarrassed to run a car service that ever charged >$20/mile at any time of any day. That's exactly the sort of cannibalization mentality long practiced by the cab companies

Also, Lyft drivers make a point of being insanely friendly, like how Uber drivers were before Uber got so big. Not quantitative, but very noticeable to customers

These things seem to change fast though. We'll see if Sidecar gets bigger

I like the surge pricing. It keeps availability of cars in peak demand. I would rather pay a $59 cab fare and get it now that pay $20 and wait an hour. Some people don't value it that much. They can wait.

To answer the OP, I don't think that's a very good oroxy. That's just a play on deregulation.

The reason the surge pricing is so high is because there is huge demand. It's simple supply and demand. I don't know why you think that's bad business, it's actually ingenious business. I bet every business out there would love to be able to make price changes on the fly depending on supply and demand.

Ok enough. I understand economics perfectly well and I stated that I already understand the arguments FOR 9-10x surge pricing.

Simply put, I believe that level (or even 4-5x) of surge pricing is a short-sighted business strategy in markets where they're competing with services like Lyft, who caps their surge pricing at 2x. Lots of people here check Lyft before Uber now for exactly this reason. Sidecar will only add to this when it arrives

But yeah, if people are happy to pay 9-10x surge pricing even when a perfectly good alternative exists, well...you can't fix stupid

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I haven't seen surge pricing in ATL in awhile, including this past holiday weekend.

I do remember last NYE it was 4or5x pricing tho.

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drivers are wise to it, knowing they will get paid double. So for big holidays they show up to work, and then bitch about lack of surge pricing.

I saw it this weekend. Normally every saturday evening, you get surge pricing in denver from 11-1am. But people leaving our party all got in at regular pricing, and apparently one of their uber drivers bitched about it.