“Autonomous driving is coming no matter what,” says Says SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. “That’s the destiny of where technology is going to drive us.” He adds: “When autonomous driving comes the cost of providing the service will dramatically get more efficient. It will also dramatically reduce the rate of accidents compared to human driving accidents. I think autonomous driving will be definitely coming very very soon.”
I Definitely Believe Uber is Going to Grow Exponentially
I would like SoftBank to remain invested in Uber as long as possible. Of course, it all depends on the share price (after their IPO). Sometimes the share price goes up too high too quickly and then we have to harvest a little bit. It all depends on the market conditions. But do I believe the company is going to grow exponentially? I definitely believe so.
I’m very respectful (of our) dialogue with the new management (led by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi). He’s very very smart and very well balanced. He can be very offensive (strategically) in increasing the business and he can also be very cost-efficient (and good with) employee morale and so on.
Travis Kalanick is a Pioneer
I respect that but at the same time, I also have to mention that I respect (Uber co-founder and former CEO) Travis (Kalanick) tremendously. He’s one of the best entrepreneurs. He is a pioneer. When you pioneer a new frontier you have to have the energy, the passion, and out-of-the-box thinking. His aggressive is one of the best. Potentially, I would love to support him in his new ventures. It all depends on the price. But I have tremendous respect for him.
Autonomous Driving is Coming No Matter What, Says SoftBank CEO
Autonomous is an enormous technology, says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Following the unfortunate accident that happened last year in Arizona, Uber took a retreat from autonomous vehicles. However, Uber has taken that time to rebuild how they are building that product.
“It will bring huge strides in safety, and huge strides in making transportation available to more people around the world,” says Khosrowshahi. “Anytime you have a technology that is as earth-shaking as autonomous, it doesn’t come easy.”
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, discusses their short-term retreat from autonomous vehicles and the growth and profitability of Uber going forward in an interview on CNBC at Davos 2019:
Autonomous is an Enormous Technology
We certainly took a retreat (from autonomous vehicles) based on the accident that happened that last year. We took that opportunity to really rebuild how we built product. But I do think that autonomous is an enormous technology. It will bring huge strides in safety, and huge strides in making transportation available to more people around the world. Anytime you have a technology that is as earth-shaking as autonomous, it doesn’t come easy.
If there’s one thing that Uber is about it’s about innovation risk. I don’t think it’s a have-to, it’s we want to be at the forefront. We want to be at the forefront of building out autonomous technology in a live network. We don’t need to build it for every single circumstance. We don’t need to build it for bad weather. We don’t need to build it for if they’re accidents, etc. We can build autonomous and launch it for simple situations one step at a time.
I think that the timeline (of launching autonomous) has proven to be more difficult than we thought. I think that regulation is going to play a big part in that introduction. I do think that because we run a live network the problem that we’re solving for us is going to be simpler than than anyone else. We are completely open to partnering with third-party autonomous because ultimately we believe in the technology. We want to be a part of it. It’s a great opportunity, but ultimately we think this will be good for society.
We Want to Build Sustainable Profitable Growth
What we want to build is sustainable growth that can be profitable. Sometimes near-term, for example, if you look at one of our largest and fastest growing businesses UberEats, home delivery of food. It delivers from over 200,000 restaurants in under 30 minutes. It’s a magical experience.
We have had cities in which the Eats product has become profitable. but essentially once we saw that program working we’re accelerating city launches and early cities early on are unprofitable. But we know that the model is sustainably profitable over a long period of time. So we think about near-term growth with long term profits.
Growth Now in Concert with City Regulators
I think that one area that we can control is making sure that our growth is now in concert with regulators the cities in which we operate. I think that in the past, and to some extent was a strength, but it’s not something that is sustainable, we grew just purely based on consumer demand.
We didn’t necessarily take the time to have a dialogue with society, with regulators, and with cities as to growth that serves all of the constituencies. We’re having that dialogue now. It sometimes causes complexity in our model and sometimes causes us to pause, but it creates a lasting model.
What’s special about Uber is we’re part of life in the cities. Were a huge labor force etc., so we have got to take that time and have that dialogue. In the majority of municipalities, their goal is to improve life for their citizens and life with Uber, life with UberEats, life with Jump Bikes is better. It’s really a question of how we can achieve our goals but be respectful of some of the limits that they put on us.
This Isn’t About Privacy, These Are People’s Lives
What was happening was that my teams and operating teams, the folks on the ground in Mexico, in Brazil, and in the US, they all came to me and said, “Listen with the numbers getting this big and with our platform getting as large we have to take responsibility for the platform.” I’ve got to give credit to my operators. This wasn’t like the moral CEO coming down.
This isn’t about privacy, these are people’s lives. We’ve got to invest in safety even if it causes short-term pain and growth. We came together as a team and we’re building technology, we’re making sure that the background checks, etc., all of that is being done. We have a 911 button just in case something happens. There’s a whole host of activity going into safety and it came from the team.
Based on a successful delivery trial in China via Alibaba and Uber Eats in Miami, Starbucks has announced that they are adding delivery nationwide. Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer says they are still looking at the total cost of delivery very “carefully” but they are emboldened by the higher average sale with delivery orders.
Starbucks Delivery via Uber Eats Expanding Nationwide
We’ve had a great trial in Miami and we chose Miami because we know what the temperatures are in Miami. We’ve seen great drink consistency. We’ve seen really good leverage on the ticket, so we’re seeing both food and beverages being ordered. We’re seeing a much larger ticket when we see a delivery from Starbucks.
We’re really pleased that we’re doing this partnership with Uber. We’re learning a lot about technology integration and that’s the real result here, just really making sure that the technology comes together and then we deliver the best product for the customer.
The question around is this a profitable opportunity for us is one of the things that we’re evaluating because it does cost more to deliver coffee. But we are seeing an expanded ticket and that average ticket is really what we need to see happen as we approach delivery. We’re encouraged right now but we’re actually monitoring that very carefully.
Learned From the Alibaba Partnership in China
We’re using a lot of the learnings from China in terms of things like packaging. Not only is it an automobile delivery, we’re seeing that it’s bicycle delivery as well. So we’re understanding that very well. We’re also understanding what is the offering? Should it be the full menu and what dreams do best when they have to be delivered?
State of the Starbucks Economy
What we’re seeing right now is that something like a Starbucks cup of coffee which some assume is an affordable luxury, we’re really comfortable right now. I will tell you one thing about our holiday season that we’re in right now. We learned a lot from what we did last year and we’re really encouraged by the reusable red cup that we entered this year.
We’re doing marketing campaigns and every time we see the Starbucks name mentioned in media we get a pop in our performance. So we’re really pleased with what we’re seeing and we’re a little bit less concerned with the turndown that everyone’s talking about.
When you look at what Starbucks is doing particularly in China and in the US is that we’re still opening new stores. In China, there is still a lot of addressable market for us to participate in. You’ll see us be pretty bullish on the work that we’re doing with new stores and we’re adding delivery which is all incremental business. At this time there’s opportunity for us to continue to grow but we’re watching carefully some other things that are happening globally.
Beverage Innovation is Our Biggest Driver of Growth
The biggest driver of growth for us going forward will be our beverage innovation. You saw us earlier this year introduce a new espresso. You’ll see us bring more of our learnings from our roasteries in terms of what can happen with our beverage innovation. You’ll see us talk more about our Cold Platform, things like our Nitro Cold Brew, and then some of our other beverages that are really doing well for us right now.
Lance Armstrong says that he was one of the original Uber investors staking them $100,000 at a valuation of just $3.7 million. There are reports that Uber’s projected IPO will value the company at $120 billion. Armstrong wouldn’t say what percent of Uber he still owns but it is conceivable that his stake could be worth $1 billion or more today. Armstrong has battled many lawsuits after his doping admission on Oprah and the Uber investment was key for his family. “It’s worth a lot. It’s saved our family,” he says.
Lance Armstrong discussed his massive Uber success story in an interview on CNBC:
Lance Armstrong an Uber Billionaire?
When I met Chris Sacca he was at either Google or Twitter and Sacca’s personality is larger than life, we were having fun and we kept in touch and then some years later, probably around 2008 or 2009, he left to start his own venture capital fund called Lowercase Capital. He called me said looking for investors, would you invest. I’m thinking to myself this guy has a huge personality but he’s also very smart, very well-connected. Why not?
Invested $100,000 in Uber at a Valuation of $3.7 Million
So I invested in Chris Sacca. I didn’t even know that he did Uber. I thought he was buying up a bunch of Twitter shares from employees or former employees and the biggest investment in the Lowercase Fund One was Uber. It had a valuation of $3.7 million. I gave them a hundred thousand bucks. It’s worth a lot. It’s saved our family. I follow Uber very closely.
I’m Actually Worried About Travis (Kalanick)
I do know Travis Kalanick a little bit. Chris Sacca brought him to one of the tours. In hindsight, I think Dara has done a great job and with what they’re poised to do it is pretty impressive. I can’t like that (Kalanick’s firing) right, I mean I was that guy. Travis is Uber and Lance is LIVESTRONG. Is there not some hybrid solution here? You’re out of control, time-out? But again, in hindsight, they haven’t missed a beat.
I’m actually worried about Travis. I’ll email him sometimes because he’ll say things and I’m like dude, I’ve seen this movie and it’s got a real shitty ending. Of course, his ending has a lot of zeros on it. But you can’t question their decision now. I get it man. I get that this is your baby and you want to fight for it and you want to protect it and you will do anything, say anything, do anything, go anywhere, confront anybody, but in this day and age, 2018, you can’t.
Salesforce is booming and the reason is that virtually every company in the world is going through a huge digital transformation, according to Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff. “The reason why is every company that we’re dealing with is going through a huge digital transformation and every digital transformation begins and ends with the customer,” says Benioff.
Marc Benioff, co-Founder, Chairman, and co-CEO of Salesforce, recently discussed the companies latest financial results and explained how the digital transformation is powering their continued massive growth in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:
Fastest Growing Enterprise Software Company of All Time
We see hitting our big goal which is $22 to $23 billion in revenue within two fiscal years. By fiscal year 2022. Now here we are we’re giving fiscal year 2020 guidance for the first time at $16 billion. Salesforce remains the fastest growing enterprise software company of all time and that’s incredible. I don’t think the company has ever been stronger or been in a better position.
These revenue numbers are incredible and way beyond our expectations for the quarter It’s awesome. We had a great quarter, the third quarter was phenomenal. We’re giving phenomenal guidance for the fourth quarter and certainly, we’re all praying and hoping to improve on that by the way and now we can see a strong fiscal year ahead in fiscal year 2020 as well.
Every Digital Transformation Begins and Ends with the Customer
I don’t think the company has ever been stronger or been in a better position. The reason why is every company that we’re dealing with is going through a huge digital transformation and every digital transformation begins and ends with the customer.
Just look at one of the largest deals we did this quarter, it’s a nine-figure deal with one of the largest banks in the world and they’re just rebuilding how they deal with their customers. That’s an amazing story for us just to see everybody go through this transformation. It’s everything that is customer facing for one of the top five financial institutions in the world.
Another one that I can give you the actual name for that is doing something just as exciting is Citibank. Michael Corbat has done a fantastic job as CEO of Citibank. We’ve been working on the retail transformation there and this quarter they opened the door for us and now we’re doing the wealth transformation as well. We couldn’t be more excited about everything that Citibank is doing.
Every Company is Transforming Their Customer Relationship
Every company is transforming their relationship with their customer. We’re going from a world where if you don’t have a digital one-on-one relationship with your customer you’re just not going to be that successful. You can look at some of the huge successes that we’ve had in the quarter. One of the stories that I love is Uber. Uber has a tremendous need to have a relationship not only with you the consumer but also with the driver and their own internal operations. As we’ve been able to improve our relationship with Dara Khosrowshahi and other executives in the company, we’ve seen them really transform their relationships with their customers.
Apple has been a great opportunity for us, we’ve worked on that for so long. Of course, we all use our Apple products all the time at Salesforce. Now we have a strategic alliance with Apple and we’re encouraging our customers to do what we do which is take their information on the road. All of our products work natively now on iOS. We have the ability to automate every enterprise around that incredible platform and we see customers doing that.
ServiceMaster Building a 360-Degree View of the Customer
Another great story during the quarter was ServiceMaster. This is a company that has a lot of brands such as Terminix and many others. This is a huge field service operation but it’s also the integration of their call center, their contact center. They’re trying to build a 360-degree view of the customer, so of course, you’re working with their technicians in the field and they need to have a strong institutional memory of you back in headquarters. That’s a digital transformation that is so exciting for so many companies where they protect their homes.
Who’s Not Going Through a Customer Transformation?
We’re the largest and most important CRM company in the world. We’re number one in CRM by market share and revenue and by revenue growth. It’s a big industry and all the players are doing well because every company is going through this customer transformation. Who’s not going through a customer transformation? Everywhere I go in the world this is happening and it’s been going on and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.
It’s about sales, it’s about service, it’s about marketing, it’s about commerce, it’s about analytics, it’s about applications, it’s about good building community, or in the case of one of the great customers that we have, DuPont, it’s about integration. We had this fantastic acquisition this year, MuleSoft, the ability to integrate everything together. This is so important for us and so many of our customers.
Uber is preparing to launch a new on-demand staffing business ahead of its first initial public offering. Called Uber Works, the new business could show prospective investors that the company can be a strong and lucrative platform for on-demand services.
Uber is banking on the fact that their “on-demand” transportation model was a huge success. The company is also betting that its massive database of contractors can be utilized toserve as temporary staff, like security personnel, waiters, or cooks, for corporate functions and various events.
While Uber Works is targeting people who are not Uber drivers, there’s no denying that the program could also help the company retain its drivers, or “partners,” by providing them with an alternative means of making money.
Some of the ride-hailing company’s drivers are already moonlighting at Uber Eats, the company’s food delivery platform. Aside from the additional income, opting for a staffing job can also break the monotony of driving the whole day.
Sources have reported that the Uber Works project had an initial trial run in Los Angeles before being developed further in Chicago.
There’s no word yet on when Uber Works would be formally launched. However, the company is said to have alreadystarted its recruitment drive. Job ads stating that a Chicago-based special projects team is looking for applicants that have a “strong interest in the on-demand labor space” have already been posted.
Uber Works will reportedly operate in the same vein as Freight and Uber Eats. The former connects shippers with the appropriate truckers. The latest “internal start-up” will fall under the office of Rachel Holt, the present head of Uber’s “new modalities” department. Holt’s division is in charge of the company’s multi-modal transportation drive. Aside from ride-sharing, the department is also expanding into scooters and bike sharing.
On-demand staffing is said to be among the numerous initiatives Holt’s division is studying. However, there’s no guarantee that Uber Works or any of these other projects will become the main business line.
The battle between Waymo’s Alphabet and Uber is far from over, despite the former dropping three out of their four patent claims. In their defense, Waymo is saying that they are dropping the claims because it has been agreed upon that Uber will be abandoning the use of LiDAR, the autonomous driving technology in question.
In a statement, Uber has clarified that they are no longer using the technology and have no plans of using it in the near future, Waymo, however, is reserving their right to refile any of the dropped claims if necessary.
The lawsuit between Waymo and Uber over the alleged theft of trade secrets by Anthony Levandowski took a turn https://t.co/dik5RZwvVf
Waymo, Google’s self-driving project that now runs under its own business patent Alphabet, stands by their decision of dropping three out of the four patent infringements in order to streamline their defense and strengthen their case.
The heated court battle stems from the alleged theft of over 14,000 files by then Uber employee Anthony Levandowski shortly after leaving Waymo. Levandowski supposedly used the information he obtained to build his own autonomous trucking company, Otto, which was later purchased by Uber for $680,000,000 in stock.
Uber is firm in saying that they had no prior knowledge that the data on which Otto was based was stolen from the Waymo server. Levandowski may face criminal charges for the alleged theft of data but hasrefused to testify, invoking his right against self-incrimination.
so uber is kinda concerned that the fact that anthony levandowski is pleading the 5th will be taken negatively pic.twitter.com/FN0OWMwMN7
Without Levandowski’s testimony, it may seem like Uber is at a loss for defense, but the company remains confident that the cases filed against them lacks evidence and that the claims are not rooted in facts.
Waymo insists that the focus of the lawsuit does not solely rely on the patent infringement but rather the trade secrets which then Waymo engineer Levandowski stole from their server.
Despite recommendations by Judge William Alsup to drop the entire case, Waymo is persistent in pursuing the claims they made against Uber. The trial date is scheduled in October of this year.
Michael Beckerman, President & CEO at Internet Association which represents big internet focused tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Twitter, Lyft, PayPal, Salesforce, Rackspace and many more, sent a congratulations letter to the Trump transition team today. In it they sought to inform Trump how important the internet is to the economy and gave their take on issues dear to them.
One very interesting area the group focused on is the sharing economy, which has been under severeattack by progressives and liberal Democrats around the country. Perhaps Trump isn’t Silicon Valley’s worst nightmare after all, considering he is likely to agree with them on these planks:
ON DEMAND OR SHARING ECONOMY
By harnessing the power of the internet and internet-based commercial cloud technology, sharing economy platforms allow individuals to use their free time and resources to earn significant supplementary income under a flexible working arrangement that allows people to earn money how, when, and where they want. Although still in its nascent stage, the sharing economy is projected to account for $335 billion in global revenue in 2025, up from $15 billion in 2013.
Offer Consistent, Smart Regulatory Approaches: The rapid rise of this new sector of the economy, however, has been met by piecemeal regulatory approaches at the local and state levels that often feature misguided or overly burdensome rules driving up costs for consumers and workers. By steering clear of burdensome regulations, policymakers at every level can ensure this rapidly growing sector of the economy sees its full potential.
Protect the Flexibility and Economic Opportunities of the Sharing Economy: On demand and sharing economy companies are driving new economic growth and opportunities by providing individuals with unprecedented flexibility and control over the decision of when, and how, they earn income. By attempting to apply the same static workplace regulations of the 20th century to this new economic model, policymakers could threaten the very entrepreneurial spirit that drives these 21st century earning opportunities.
One of their other key concerns is safeguarding platforms like Facebook from lawsuits because of things their users post which means not weakening current intermediary liability laws:
“Weakening intermediary liability laws would not only chill innovation and free expression online, but would also threaten investment in the next generation of ideas fueling our digital economy. If digital content intermediaries were responsible for the content uploaded by users, over 80 percent of investors would be less likely to fund startups. In addition, 85 percent of investors are uncomfortable investing in digital content intermediaries open to unpredictable legal action.”
Another major concern is copyright law safe harbors, such as fair use, exemptions, compulsory licenses and first sale doctrine:
“Threats to the flexible framework, such as weakening limitations or exceptions to safe harbors, would create barriers to entry for internet startups and creators, which would deny users the ability to access content
online.”
They also want policies that promote pro data innovation rules:
“However, new regulatory proposals on how data is used and collected threaten to reduce this value. U.S. policy must ensure businesses in every U.S. industry can keep a competitive edge by innovating with data. To do so, policies should champion data innovation by acknowledging the crucial role of data in the modern economy and promote pro-innovation rules. This includes taking a harms-based approach to consumer privacy, instead of a collection-based approach, and stopping data minimization efforts or other proposals that would inhibit innovation.”
Grab, a Singapore based Uber type service, is so popular that if their IT infrastructure didn’t remain stable during peak usage transportation would literally ground to a halt. Grab is the leading ride sharing service in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
“Grab is the leading ride sharing service in Southeast Asia,” says Ditesh Kumar, Director of Engineering at Grab. “We do 1.5 million bookings (a day). If we are not running basically transportation comes to a standstill.”
Kumar says that Grab has the biggest land fleet in Southeast Asia and that they are very concerned about uptime both for their passengers and their drivers, who he says depend on them for their livelihoods.
“With this comes two challenges, because of the tremendous amount of demand we need to scale, but because so many people depend on us, we need to stay stable.”
Scale and Stability are Two Opposing Forces
Kumar notes the difficulties of keeping your IT infrastructure stable while simultaneously scaling platform usage. “You can scale easily if you don’t have to be stable, and you can be very stable if you don’t have to scale.”
He says that the answer to this huge problem, after a lot of reflection, is addressing their infrastructure fundamentals.
“If we can make sure that our infrastructure is built not just for the needs of today, but also meets the needs of the future, it completely changes the types of conversations we have,” says Kumar.
That’s why Grab decided on the AWS infrastructure from the start. All of the AWS components he says are built to allow infinite scaling and are also extremely reliable.
Grab started out using a basic AWS setup but as they expanded they added the full gamut of AWS services in order to support their scaling needs. “We needed to start thinking about caching layers so we started using Amazon ElastiCache,” said Kumar.
They also started using Amazon Redshift, which is s petabyte-scale data warehouse service based in the cloud.
“It’s huge, it’s massive,” exclaimed Kumar. “Everybody in the company uses it. It’s not just the engineers, the product guys, the marketing team and the ATM team all use it.”
Real-Time Computation Requires Real-Time Data Streams
“In addition to that, we are doing real-time computation, and in order to do real-time demand and supply matching we need to have real-time data streams,” says Kumar.
“The end result is that our drivers will be told the demand is at this place right now, because with this high demand the drivers will be paid more.”
Building Predictive Models
Moving forward the company wants to build predictive models to make their service even more efficient for both passengers and drivers.
“In two hours time this area will have high demand and if you want to take advantage of that move to this area,” explains Kumar. “The way we can do that is by taking into account multiple factors, building data models around it and using the infrastructure to compute those models and come up with an actionable item.”
Why Grab is on AWS
Their are many benefits to being on the cloud,” says Kumar. “Such as not having to deal with physical issues, going down to a data center at 3am to the change a failed hard disk or deal with a server that is overheating because a fan has stopped rotating.”
He noted how companies of his size in the past had to have dedicated operational teams to deal with these sorts of issues. He sees little value in that for the organization and is not a great use for an engineering team. Grab gives every engineer an AWS account to run “full-blown experiments in their sub account” to look for potential problems.
“They would find things that might be a problem 3 months from now or six months from now, and giving engineers that ability is unparalleled,” he says. “I estimate that we have saved 30-40% of our resourcing and manpower that then went to serving our core focus, and our core focus is about serving our customers.”
He says this allowed our team to move significantly faster. “In the startup environment that is make-or-break!”
Uber reached the 2 billion ride milestone on June 18, just 6 months after hitting 1 billion according to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. “It took five years to reach our billionth trip, six months to reach the next billion … and we’ll hopefully reach our third even more quickly,” Kalanick said in a Facebook post. “Thanks to all the drivers out there for making every trip possible.” This equates to a pace of roughly 5.5 million completed trips per day.
Kalanick said that “in that single second a month ago, 147 Uber rides started—tying for our two billionth trip.” He emphasized the worldwide reach of Uber today. “These trips happened in 16 countries on five continents, from Costa Rica to Russia and from China to Australia. The longest of the bunch lasted more than an hour as the rider and driver worked their way across Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. The shortest, a POOL trip in Changsha, China, lasted just three minutes.”
Uber is now in 450 cities around the world. So what’s the reward for the lucky 147 drivers and riders? “We’re giving $450 to each,” said Kalanick.
With Uber’s continued growth, the company is likely to increase its current pace of 2 billion rides a year. Its emphasis on China should only accelerate growth, where it is in desperate competition with China’s ridesharing leader Didi Chuxing. China is now Uber’s biggest market in the world when measured by number of rides and amazingly accounts for a third of its business worldwide. “We are number two in China, which means that we still have a ways to go,” Kalanick told FT earlier this year. “But we are putting everything on the field.”
Last year Didi Chuxing arranged 1.4 billion rides in China, more than Uber has done worldwide in its history up until its recent 2 billion ride announcement.
Uber announced today that they are in the process of rolling out a change to their surge pricing concept, going to a fixed upfront price instead. It doesn’t actually change the price to the rider, but it doesn’t require a mathematical calculation either. It’s clearly targeting people who hate surge pricing. Uber even mocked its own surge pricing policy in a blog post, “Imagine buying an airline ticket without knowing the full fare until the end of your trip. Or booking a hotel room online and being told that the real price would be 1.3X. Yes, that sounds odd—but it’s what happens with many Uber trips today.”
Uber has been using upfront pricing with its uberPOOL service since it launched two years and has had good reactions from riders. uberPool now accounts for over 20 percent of all rides globally, according to Uber.
The company is clearly trying to release pressure that’s been building against surge pricing with some customers and with certain governments. Since the price is still surging, Uber apparently hopes that by taking the math work out of the equation people won’t hate it as much.
Personally, I love surge pricing because it allows me to get an Uber when otherwise none would be available. For instance, on New Years Eve at 1 am no cabs are available in many cities, surge pricing from Uber and Lyft means I won’t have to sleep on the curb. Why people are against this is evidence of how horrible schools have become in teaching economics. People have this nonsensical idea that Uber is trying to cash in with surge pricing when in actuality it’s the only way to encourage more drivers to voluntarily start taking rides at times when there is high demand. I would rather pay more and get a ride than have a fixed price and have no Uber cars available.
One of the changes to how riders use Uber is the need to input a destination. It’s optional now but will be required in order to calculate a fixed fare. Another variable that Uber must have considered is traffic, since the time it takes to get to a destination is crucial to pricing.
Here are some reactions to this change and surge pricing in general:
Lyft and uber are handy but are thieves. Surge pricing? Na man miss me. Download the arrow app. Yellow taxis clap back, no surge it's lit.
Thought this was funny, but this guy clearly doesn’t agree with me, he thinks Uber and Lyft are thieves. I wonder what he will think if surge pricing is eliminated and he can’t get a ride after leaving a club at 3 in the morning?
Removal of surge pricing in @Uber_BLR means no incentive for drivers during monsoon rains; people stuck. Gov't meddling at its best.
Exactly, surge pricing allows rides to be available even during high demand. In parts of India surge pricing was suspended in an agreement with Uber and government. Dumb.
@Dev_Fadnavis Please stop surge pricing in Uber n Ola. They are looting and govt is just watching the loot happen.
How many times do I have to say it? Uber isn’t using surge pricing to increase its revenue, it’s doing it to entice more drivers to take rides when there are more ride requests than there are drivers! No surge pricing means no rides during busy times, which is anti-consumer, not pro-consumer. Sheesh!
The CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, told The Financial Times that Uber is profitable except for its investments in China and other new markets. Uber is in a fierce battle for market share as the number two ride sharing service in China behind Chinese company Didi Chuxing. China is now Uber’s biggest market in the world when measured by number of rides and amazingly accounts for a third of its business worldwide.
“We have hundreds of cities that are profitable globally,” Kalanick said. “That allows us to invest in new places, and to sustainably invest in a very expensive place like China.” Uber had first-mover advantage in China but was quickly followed by Chinese company Didi Chuxing which was flush with investment capital and has now moved into over 400 cities, while Uber has only launched in 60 plus cities, but that is changing fast. Uber lost over $1 billion last year in China and may lose even more this year in order to launch in new cities and gain market share.
China has 16 cities with metropolitan populations of over 10 million making market launches challenging and expensive. By comparison, the largest city in the United States, New York City, has a population of (only) 8.2 million. “We are number two in China, which means that we still have a ways to go,” Kalanick said. “But we are putting everything on the field.” According to FT, Uber’s CEO spent nearly one in five days in China. “Travis was personally invested in the success of Uber in China to a much greater degree than any other country,” noted Allen Penn, head of Asia operations at Uber.
China was always thought of as a huge challenge for Uber, but with potentially huge rewards. “We like to go after the thing that seems impossible,” Kalanick told San Francisco based FT writer Leslie Hook. “It was pretty far-flung for us to try at that time – but that was also what made it exciting.”
In order to combat difficult Chinese regulations targeting foreign owned businesses the company launched in China different than other Silicon Valley heavyweights like Google and Facebook, they created a separate company called Uber China and brought in Chinese investors. This has allowed Uber to do business in China without being hampered by unfair Chinese regulations that favor Chinese based businesses.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that Uber competitor Didi Chuxing is dominating the market and out-competing Uber and has launched in many more markets. Last year it arranged 1.4 billion rides in China, more than Uber has done worldwide in its history.
Where are the Libertarians when you need them? Austin voters failed to approve Proposition 1, a proposal supported by Uber and Lyft which would have let the companies self-regulate their contract drivers. Instead, voters let stand an ordinance passed by the Austin City Council requiring third party fingerprint background checks and additional restrictions on the services.
Uber and Lyft pushed Proposition 1 and threatened to leave Austin if it wasn’t approved and both have now said they are suspending service in Austin as of Monday morning. At issue for the companies is not just more difficulty in getting part-time drivers which is the life blood of the services, but that in requiring drivers to get vigerous fingerprint background checks may move their IRS independent contractor classification closer to becoming an employee. This would substantially raise their costs and could eventually lead to dreaded unionization, which of course would kill both Uber and Lyft, making them more expensive than taxis.
I suspect that if only people who use Uber and Lyft in Austin voted, Proposition 1 would have passed, because users can clearly see that those services are cleaner, more convenient and safer than taxis ever have been.
Uber announced via TechCrunch that its app users will soon be presented with an Uber Offers option that will give users a rebate of $5 to $20 off their next ride if they make purchases via their Visa card on file with Uber at a local Shake Shack, Dunkin’ Donuts, or Whole Foods brick-and-mortar locations. They simply have to accept the offer in the app and then buy something at the retail location of the deal being offered within a few days.
In an earlier test Uber Offers were promoted with interstitial screens when users opened the app in selected cities including Boston, New York, Dallas, Miami and San Francisco. Apparently merchants saw good returns with this new form of app advertising.
Google announced that it’s adding a ride services tab to Google Maps on mobile. This swill exist alongside car, transit, walking, and biking options that were already there.
The feature includes Uber services U.S. as well as those from 99Taxis in Brazil, Ola Cabs in India, Hailo in the UK and Spain, mytaxi in Germany and Spain, and Gett in the U.K.
“If you have a provider’s app installed and tap on the ride service tab, you’ll be able to see fare estimates and pick up times if a car is available near you,” says software engineer Holger Flier. “Select a service, and we’ll take you directly to their app for you to book your ride with one tap. When it makes sense, we’ll also show ride service availability when viewing the map in walking and transit directions, and multiple ride services options for each provider—where they exist. For example, if you’re using Uber, starting today, we’ll now show uberX, uberXL and UberBLACK for an easy and quick comparison.”
The new tab will roll out on Android over the coming days, and then to iOS in the near future.
As Amazon prepares to put its Echo device in front of America’s collective face, it appears to be getting some more bells and whistles that will make it appealing to more people.
Amazon has already teased a Super Bowl ad for the device, which features Dan Marino and Baldwin with the hashtag #BaldwinBowl.
This week, we learned that Echo is gaining new Spotify support, which instantly make is more useful to a lot of music fans as a smart speaker. Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S. can now listen to music on the device, operating it by voice command.
Now, The Verge is reporting that you can also use the device to order an Uber. Andrew J. Hawkins reports:
Uber is announcing Friday that its application program interface, or API, has been integrated with Amazon’s smart home hub. The update may be the purest manifestation of Uber’s mission to make getting you from point A to point B completely seamless. After all, what’s easier than speaking the words “call me an Uber” into thin air, and having the car show up minutes later? This could be the provenance of germaphobes everywhere. (Of course, you’ll still have to touch the Uber’s door handle.)
Users will be able to tell Alexa “request me a ride,” “call me a ride, “get me an Uber,” and other similar things, according to the report.
“To get started, download the latest version of Messenger,” explains product manager Seth Rosenberg. “Then, from within a conversation, tap the more menu and choose Transportation. You can also search directly for Uber – our first partner – and tap the car icon to request a ride. From there, you’ll receive updates on your driver’s status and notify your friends that you’ve called a ride. With the ability to request, track and pay for a ride in Messenger, we’re making transportation as simple as sending a message.”
For now, users can get a ride for free the first time they use the feature (up to $20 value).
“All you have to do to claim your free ride is link your existing Uber account or set up a new account within Messenger and request a ride,” says Rosenberg. “Driver status updates and payment receipts will get delivered to a private conversation between you and Uber. With everything in one place, you can seamlessly keep track of your ride and payment history.”
Over the past year, Facebook has been adding a lot of functionality to Messenger to make it more useful for a variety of situations – way beyond simple messaging. Facebook may have closed down some of its standalone apps recently, but this one is definitely a keeper.
Edward Caban, who uploaded the video on October 30th, has filed a civil suit against 32-year-old Benjamin Golden
In a video, which has now been seen nearly two million times, an Uber driver repeatedly asks a passenger to give him directions, and the passenger can be heard slurring, burping, and generally being unable to give directions. At about two minutes into the video, the driver flips his dashcam around.
At about 2:30, the driver pulls into a parking lot and says “sorry man, I gotta kick you out.”
“You’re too drunk to give me directions,” he says.
The passenger argues with the driver for about a minute, but the driver says he’s already ended the trip and tells the passenger to get out of the car, or he’ll call the police.
At about 3:20, the passenger starts hitting the driver in the face. About 10 seconds into the attack, the driver is able to turn around and spray the passenger with pepper spray.
Check it out:
Shortly after the video picked up steam, the attacker was identified as a Taco Bell executive, a head of “mobile commerce and innovation initiatives”.
Taco Bell quickly distanced itself from Golden, terminating his position.
“Given the behavior of the individual, it is clear he can no longer work for us. We have also offered and encouraged him to seek professional help,” the fast food chain said in a statement.
After initially being charged with misdemeanor assault and public intoxication, Golden has since been hit with more charges – assault on public transportation property, battery on a public transit employee with injury, assault and battery. He could spend up to a year in jail and be forced to pay a $10,000 fine for his actions.
An Indian Uber Driver, who was convicted of rape while endangering the life of a woman, kidnapping, and criminal intimidation last month, has been given a sentence of life in prison.
Shiv Kumar Yadav was found guilty in Delhi on October 20th. His victim, 26, said she fell asleep in the back of his car and when she woke up she found herself in a “secluded location” with Yadav on her in the backseat.
The BBC reports that Yadav’s life sentence is the maximum penalty he could’ve received.
The Delhi Uber rape case was one of the most-publicized in recent memory – not just in India but also in the US. In January, the victim sued Uber in US federal court. Her lawsuit was scathing, calling Uber the “modern day equivalent of electronic hitchhiking.” She demanded damages and called for Uber to institute some passenger safeguards in India, including mandatory in-car video cameras.
Uber was quick to express its disgust when reports of the crime emerged.
“This is an abhorrent crime. Our thoughts remain with the victim who has shown tremendous courage under the circumstances,” said Uber’s Saad Ahmed at the time. “Safety is our #1 priority and in India.”
Uber was then suspended in New Delhi.
“We are sorry and deeply saddened by what happened over the weekend in New Delhi. Our hearts go out to the victim of this horrible crime. We have been and will continue to do everything in our power to assist the authorities to help bring the perpetrator to justice,” said Uber. “The events of this week have made us reflect on our operations in India and we are immediately undertaking a number of important actions. During this review, we will suspend operations in New Delhi.”
Uber was later reinstated after applying for the required taxi licenses.
A few months later, Uber improved its “SOS” button for Indian passengers. When in a dangerous situation, tapping the SOS button on the app will automatically connect you with the police – and the update allowed it to also automatically send GPS info.
We’ve reported on plenty of instances of Uber drivers attacking, kidnapping, and raping passengers. Here’s some shocking video from the other side – a drunk passenger brutally attacking a driver.
In a video uploaded on October 30th, an Uber driver repeatedly asks a passenger to give him directions, and the passenger can be heard slurring, burping, and generally being unable to give directions. At about two minutes into the video, the driver flips his dashcam around.
At about 2:30, the driver pulls into a parking lot and says “sorry man, I gotta kick you out.”
“You’re too drunk to give me directions,” he says.
The passenger argues with the driver for about a minute, but the driver says he’s already ended the trip and tells the passenger to get out of the car, or he’ll call the police.
At about 3:20, the passenger starts hitting the driver in the face. About 10 seconds into the attack, the driver is able to turn around and spray the passenger with pepper spray.
You can check out the video below:
The driver, Edward Caban, tells the story like this:
It all started when i got a ping while in Newport Beach to pick up a passenger near baja sharkies on the peninsula in Newport, the passenger was incredibly intoxicated and when i pulled up, he came up to the window and asked if I was an uber driver, he appeared to be on the phone with another driver, asking him about what car he was driving. I said yes, and he immediately got in. I confirmed destination, my gps said the black night at the triangle in Costa Mesa, I asked if this was correct, he said yeah, im close to there ill tell you where to go, I asked again if he could just give me his address because I have been down this road before. He refused and insisted on telling me where to trun. We start driving, he begins fading in and out of consciousness while become belligerent and aggressive, and refusing to put his seat belt on, swearing at me, telling me to “fucking turn this piece of shit around” I didn’t feel comfortable when I picked him up and I no longer wanted him in the car at this point. I grabbed the pepper spray from my center console and put it under my right thigh and flipped my camera around and, as i always do when my spidey senses start tingling, made a u-turn, then pulled into a nearby well lit shopping center, and asked him to get out of the car. He insisted on continuing, even though I had already ended the ride. We went back and fourth a bit before I told him if he didnt get out i would call the police. At which point he opened his door and began beating me over the head. I fumbled with the safety on the pepper spray while trying to protect my face with my other arm, I broke free from him grabbing me by the hair on the back of my head, and sprayed his face until he got out of the car, at which point i left the vehicle. Uber drivers don’t get paid enough to deal with this shit.
Being an Uber driver and dealing with drunks surely sucks, and this is about as bad as it can get.
6abc reports that the passenger has been identified, and is facing assault charges.
If you’re sick of carting people around as an Uber driver, Amazon is now offering to pay you to deliver packages.
Amazon Flex, a mysterious service that was first spotted in the Seattle area last month, is now going live. Amazon says it’s currently available in Seattle, and will soon expand to Manhattan, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Portland.
So, what is Flex? It’s the Uber for Amazon. Or the Amazon for Uber. Or something like that. Amazon says you can make $18 to $25 an hour delivering packages.
“Be you own boss, deliver when you want, as much as you want,” says Amazon.
If you sign up to be a Flex driver, you’ll need to pass a background check. You’ll also need to own an Android device, as that’s where the Flex delivery software will be housed. You also need to be at least 21 years old and have a valid driver’s license, of course.
“You can choose any available 2, 4, and 8 hour blocks of time to work the same day, or set availability for up to 12 hours per day for the future. You can work as much or as little as you want,” says Amazon. “You can pick up deliveries at a location near you. You’ll receive items to deliver in a local radius, based on length of the delivery block you signed up for.”
For now, Flex drivers will only be delivering Amazon Prime Now packages – the company’s hour-delivery service. Amazon says that “in the future, you may deliver other types of Amazon packages as well.”
This is Amazon’s first big step into this fast-growing element of the economy. The company must know that there’s a good chance it will face some of the same issues companies like UBer face, as questions of whether drivers are employees or contractors will inevitably arise.
And with this new service, don’t be shocked when your Uber driver asks you to get in the backseat. His front seat might be filled with Amazon packages.
