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Comment by laser | Hacker News Reader

I generally agree with your sentiment, but just to give another perspective I thought I should point out that there's a significant difference between those that can afford to travel to Europe and hail a ride from a "professionally licensed driver", and those that can afford to spend $3.41* to pool home from Boston to Cambridge at 2:30am on a Thursday night, with a guy returning home from work looking to make a few extra bucks, and three pickups along the way happy to get home affordably. Those of the latter type are far more numerous, and far more harmed by the increased prices due to regulation of ride sharing markets, than the typical financially well-off hackernewsian would generally be aware of.

* VC dollars still subsidize Uber, but even as an operational whole to < 20% of the true cost of rides. On the other hand, the equivalent taxi would cost at least $12-15.

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> with a guy returning home from work looking to make a few extra bucks, and three pickups along the way happy to get home affordably

Sounds nice, but I never had a single Uber driver that was doing it as a "casual" thing, or just to cover his fuel expenses and make some money on the side. It's a fulltime job for the vast majority of Uber drivers.

Casual Uber driver here who works full time in sysadmin/software engineering. Hello!

>It's a fulltime job for the vast majority of Uber drivers.

This statement is unsupported and contrary to every driver I know. It also runs contrary to Uber's own advertising.

I used to work at Uber and heard anecdotally that despite the advertising, something like 50% of Uber rides in the Bay Area are done by the top ten percent of drivers. And they do work a lot. So the vast majority might be part time but they don't do most of the work.

Most of the Uber drivers I've had, only do it part time. With a few saying it would be impossible to do full time because they wouldn't make enough money.

I notice a big difference based on where I am.

NYC, Bay Area: full-timers. Mid-west, PNW: "casual" part-timers

> regulation of ride sharing markets

You misspelled taxi markets.

> with a guy returning home from work looking to make a few extra bucks,

I don't know the local regulations, however isn't it still allowed to drive them at cost? Allowing the guy returning from work to cover the fuel cost by driving others? Sure its not the latest illegal getting rich quick scheme.

Well, there's nothing stopping you from doing this in Germany. You just need taxi insurance. It's pretty lame that Uber can't accommodate this.

Does UberPool really profitably work at 2:30am? Boston experimented with late night public transit and basically couldn't make the numbers work.

Routinely spent $40 on a taxi from Boston (Logan) Airport to Cambridge (Central Square) as a student. Couldn't really afford it but redeyes often leave one lacking for options. To your point of regulation and pricing, I'd happily accept less "professionalism" for a sensible discount—say $10-15 rides.

And yet, there's a way to get from Central Square to Logan for about $2.25 for those who are cost sensitive.

Bus, I'm guessing?

Subway to dedicated-lane bus line. (Red Line to Silver Line)

Additionally, in smaller American markets, Uber is simply where the drivers are. Lyft's are almost always 15 minutes away, and because of that, they will always have surge pricing where Uber might not.

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