Lyft Is Said to Seek a Buyer, Without Success

Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek a Buyer, Without Success by Tarrosion on Friday August 19, 2016 @05:11PM (#12323489)

Interesting, my intuition is the exact opposite. With human driven vehicles, you have a chicken and egg problem. Drivers only come if there are riders, and riders only come if there are drivers. Having the biggest user base is a big plus.

With driverless vehicles, a company can solve the supply side of the market making problem by buying a few cars in one market.

If I'm in city A, I just want an app that summons a driverless car to me. Do I care if the company behind that app is also in 200 other cities? Is there any cost to me to having multiple apps on my phone?

My intuition would have been that uber is way overvalued because once driverless cars are mainstream, it's easy for a competitor (possibly local government!) to break into any given market.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Lyft Is Said to Seek a Buyer, Without Success by Normal_gaussian on Friday August 19, 2016 @05:24PM (#12323579)

This is beyond a doubt the biggest problem with these valuations.

However, it is obvious that in the short and medium term the largest company wins. It is also noteworthy that the battles they win against each cities taxi mafia will be one less battle for autonomous cabs. We could see a surprisingly smooth roll out whebever it happens

[ Parent | on HN ]