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Comment by capsulecorp | Hacker News Reader

Progress won. It is infinitely easier, more affordable, transparent, convenient, and the overall experience of riding uber is hands down better than any Taxi experience I've ever had by a an extremely long shot, anyone I've spoken to agrees. Sure there are still improvements, but all in all, as a frequent user, I have to say getting a ride is hands down better with uber than before it.

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Well it's easy to produce "progress" when you're willing to operate with massive losses fueled by other people's money. Take any customer experience that sucks and inject billions of dollars into it and lo and behold the experience improves mightly.

It's a little like saying the theater-going experience has been improved thanks to MoviePass.

This is an incredibly shortsighted view of Uber if you're being serious. MoviePass doesn't alter the end experience of watching a movie at all, but Uber significantly changes the experience of getting a ride. I'm sure most people would agree that even if they had to pay the same price as a cab, they would prefer the Uber experience over the old model.

MoviePass makes going to the movies far more bearable, for expensive ticket prices have long made theaters not worth going for a long time.

If Flywheel and similar taxi apps were priced the same as ride-sharing apps there would be greater competition with Uber and Lyft.

I can't speak to that, I didn't invest in UBER or follow its financials. I just enjoy the huge convenience and overall greatly improved experience they have provided me over using taxis, so that is the answer I provided.

Absolutely! Even in cities like Bangalore, far away from SV but still big, Uber (and Ola) created a new market altogether. In Bangalore for instance, hiring a taxi was an amazingly painful experience; in terms of lack or convenience as well as exorbitant price. Until Uber/Ola came along I had hired a taxi maybe 5 times in 9 years. Since then I've almost stopped using my cars. Uber/Ola has become my daily commute as well as for any errand etc.

Another aspect that's not discussed much is the drastic reduction of cognitive load. Earlier moving around in a city would require lot of planning - route planning, parking etc,. All of that is now a thing of history. And don't get me started on how ridiculously inefficient is car ownership and how mentally and physically taxing commute driving is!

>Progress won

That's a unnecessarily simple reading of this situation, don't you think?

No. I think I’m practical terms this is the major impact on the world, the rest of this thread is window dressing.

I found perhaps a dozen other taxi / ride hailing apps when I was making my own proof of concept.

Lyft's innovation was "regulatory arbitrage".

Uber's innovation was burning investor money.

There are times when I've pondered, "Gee, what could have happened if I had finished that POC?" But I don't think I would have ever thought to break the law, burn investors, or exploit drivers.

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