How can owning a car be more expensive than having someone else own a car and paying them for it, while also paying them to drive it, while also the app gets a share? Is the base cost of owning a car so high? Do the apps subsidize so much?
Well, if you own a car just for commute, it's sitting idle for 23 hours out of 24. Whereas the Uber/Lyft driver is using it for 8-12 hours a day, and the overall ownership/maintenance cost is not linear with usage. On top of that, add UberPool, and the cost for ride hailing goes even lower. So essentially, ride hailing can be thought of as a form of public transport.