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Comment by posix_compliant | Hacker News Reader

I disagree. Uber facilitates the process of becoming a driver, therefore there will be a larger supply of drivers. I believe the price of a fare will decrease due to the increased competition.

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Also facilitates becoming a rider through ease of use/payment. And more riders, more revenue even with the same margins.

The app is much smoother than the 2011-era cab experience — call a phone dispatcher, hope a cab shows up eventually. (Of course, Lyft provides exactly the same experience for consumers and even taxi companies are attempting to provide an app nowadays.)

Has Uber stopped operating at a massive loss, subsidizing every ride with VC cash? Fares are already artificially and unsustainably depressed, and without Lvl 5 automation (clearly not incoming soon) the fares eventually have to rise. Those fares will rise even more as driver backlash against how little they’re paid increases with time.

Amortization over say 20 fairs per day * 20 days a month * 12 months a year, reducing the cost by 1 cent per ride per ~50$ dollars in cost savings. Suggests it's just not a meaningful savings.

Where are you getting the 1 cent reduction quantity? My only point was that a greater supply of drivers could yield a lower price, but I never asserted to what degree the price would decrease.

Increasing costs to add a driver does not prevent company's from adding new drivers it just makes that more expensive. Thus, you need to consider it as another form of cost savings not a difference in the number of drivers.

A company that pays 50$ less to get an employee can reduce fairs on the order of 1 cent or make an extra 1 cent per ride. It's possible Uber might add a few cents per ride this way, but it's not particularly significant even assuming the average driver does not last that long.

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