Uber lays off 435 people

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by Zenst on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @03:32PM (#20932557)

I wonder about Uber, they have spent lots of money branding and getting everything in place, that they overshot the whole making money aspect and now playing catchup. Problem is, will they reach that balance before they bleed beyond the point that they become vulture targets for another large company to step in, cherry pick what they want and discard the rest.

With all that said, I wonder if maybe Amazon or some self driving car startup steps in and buys them up for a lot less than it would to build that penetration. Can imagine your Amazon owned Uber driver bus picking you up, with half a dozen stops on the way, some people, some packages, doing the rounds. Things change, how will Uber adapt and more so, all those drivers on zero hour contracts, are just as easily laid off and much cheaper as well. Self driving cars are a case of when, not if as so much being done in the field, progress has become a hot competition and slowly getting there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by jdsully on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @03:40PM (#20932687)

Uber was very profitable when they just had Uber Black. The problem is they were disrupted themselves by Lyft and had to launch UberX (give Travis credit for launching this before Lyft even though it was their idea).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by Petrova on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @04:17PM (#20933191)

Are you sure? In the recent book about Uber written by Mike Isaac,the author stated that Lyft was the first to launch a low cost ride service with non professional drivers and Uber rushed to copy them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by m-ee on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @06:00PM (#20934287)

Sidecar was the first service I remember that explicitly used the current UberX/Lyft business model when all these companies kicked off in SF. Back then your payment to your Lyft driver was still called a “donation” because it was originally intended as a carpooling app like what WaZe has now.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by jdsully on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @04:38PM (#20933431)

I read the book last weekend and am going with my memory (I’ve since lent it out). In the book Travis found out about Lyft’s planned rideshare service and raced to launch UberX first.

Alas google has become useless for finding useful information so I hope somebody who still has the book can confirm.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by sparuchuri on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @06:24PM (#20934498)

That was referring to Pool / Lyft Line.

As others said, Sidecar was technically the first to the "ridesharing" model

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by jdsully on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @08:58PM (#20935568)

Thanks for the correction!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by deepakhj on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @11:00PM (#20936188)

Sidecar launched the driver brings their car model.

Zimride (lyft) started the first rideshare site. Unless you count craigslist ads.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by kerng on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @08:52PM (#20935530)

Nah, that is about Uber Pool, not UberX.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Uber lays off 435 people by shagie on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @09:22PM (#20935686)

> Self driving cars are a case of when, not if as so much being done in the field, progress has become a hot competition and slowly getting there.

My skepticism of self driving vehicles in general is in desert climates. I really want to see a self driving taxi the day after a blizzard in Chicago (or elsewhere in the upper midwest... or even NYC when there's a good storm) where on some streets two lanes in each direction become one, and intersections can become "well, I'm not stoping because the car isn't stoping, thankfully the other drivers understand this and aren't asserting right of way when things are slippery". Some roads are closed and the smart drivers are happily driving 20 under the speed limit on the highway behind a snow plow.

Until then, self driving really strikes me as more of a California or summer time thing.

They say they're working on it ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-23/alphabet-... )

> Snowy conditions are a serious challenge for the laser-based Lidar and other sensors that self-driving cars use to see objects in their path. Waymo said it’ll start working to overcome weather issues in Detroit’s notoriously tough winter months.

but I'll believe it when I see it.

[ Parent | on HN ]