Hacker News Reader

cm2012

I live out in a relatively remote area of Queens in NYC and never, ever took taxis before (I would have had to call an unreliable, surly car service). Now I spend $100+ a month on Uber, which is never more than 5 minutes away.

View on HN

OT, the "5 minutes" I believe is an estimation and one reason why we feel that the response is fast. As a thought experiment, if they say your car is "10 minutes" away, it would perhaps be a different experience.

This is very important, because I time my rides to the minute, and almost every time, the driver that accepts my ride is sitting in his living room (or at his office) and takes five minutes alone just to get to his car and start driving to my location. Drivers aren't just sitting there idling like taxis at a taxi stand.

It's been 10 and 11 minutes just outside Canberra, Australia. There are less drivers here.

Interestingly 2 of the local cab companies now have Uber-like apps, which are quite nice to use.

Exactly. There is a market for people who want cabs and cant get them. Uber serves that market very well in some places AND steals market share from people who would normally take a cab.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com