[Heisenburger]

DAVOS, Switzerland—Uber Technologies Inc. is working with auto makers to design lower-cost electric vehicles tailored for its ride-hailing and delivery businesses, part of its effort to electrify its fleet. Speaking Thursday at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal, Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the company is working with manufacturers on vehicles optimized for city use, ferrying passengers and deliveries. For ride-sharing, that includes cars with lower top speeds and with seating areas where passengers can face each other...

Uber Working With Auto Makers to Design EVs Customized for Ride-Sharing, Delivery

 

[25rides7daysaweek]

Uber Working With Auto Makers to Design EVs Customized for Ride-Sharing, Delivery

I think they should give out those bonuses again
Hopefully 30k rides will be enough for one of these things

 

[Yotadriver]

So why is this even an issue if we’re all going to be replaced by autonomous vehicles. What BS is this CEO feeding shareholders now.

 

[Rudyhawaii]

Tesla trying to go autonomous for almost 2 decades .. they still don’t know why their car stops abruptly.. autonomous is beyond reach for machines which lack critical thinking.. lot of them are still breaking bank on it! The easy money days are gone.. now rideshare has to turn profit or perish!

 

[painfreepc]

So why is this even an issue if we’re all going to be replaced by autonomous vehicles. What BS is this CEO feeding shareholders now.

interesting they say we're supposed to be replaced by self driving rideshare cars, and now we read this, is the technology ready or is it not ready, I drove the Tesla model 3 for 2 months I saw all kind of issues, phantom breaking, not seeing road degree on the road, just to name a few.

 

[bobby747]

So why is this even an issue if we’re all going to be replaced by autonomous vehicles. What BS is this CEO feeding shareholders now.

It's all bullshit. The CEO. Is lucky to still be employed. I heard his body guards are more than Elon musk.

 

[painfreepc]

I'm going to assume these cars will probably be offered to drivers similar to I think it was called The Uber exchange program like when I had my Uber lease to own Ford fusion hybrid.

 

[Heisenburger]

From a related article:

Mercedes-Benz has pitched it; Zoox’s whole business is based around it. If you’re making cars or selling car technology, at some point you imagine people facing each other in a bubble-shaped minivan. There’s a reason buses make sense as a public transit option, packing bodies into a slow-moving vehicle is an efficient way of getting people around.

There’s nothing to suggest Uber is the company to make this happen, but the fact it still pictures drivers as a part of this equation — even as it’s starting to explore self-driving (again) and delivery robots — does make it seem more possible. And with the company’s issues with labor and the new costs changing work requirements abroad could incur, anything that makes running a ride-hailing business possibly less expensive in the long term is probably worth considering.

Source

 

[Heisenburger]

There's at least one key problem here for Dara and the gang:

Depreciation

These vehicles are exactly like every other product: they depreciate. And depreciation is one of the largest expenses per mile in a car's first several years. How are they going to convince many to invest in brand new cars? Average age of a rideshare car is already 8 years old. It's not an issue of affordability but of steep depreciation expense in the first five years.

https://news.yahoo.com/uber-wants-cheaper-evs-made-180000552.html

 

[painfreepc]

There's at least one key problem here for Dara and the gang:

Depreciation

These vehicles are exactly like every other product: they depreciate. And depreciation is one of the largest expenses per mile in a car's first several years. How are they going to convince many to invest in brand new cars? Average age of a rideshare car is already 8 years old. It's not an issue of affordability but of steep depreciation expense in the first five years.

https://news.yahoo.com/uber-wants-cheaper-evs-made-180000552.html

Yes I understand depreciation of a new car, but if these cars are going to be truly driverless and they use them in a busy market they're going to make a million plus off of each car probably way more than that, and I don't have to tell you I'm sure you already realized they're getting the full fare they are not sharing that fare with a driver.

 

[Heisenburger]

if these cars are going to be truly driverless

Make no mistake: Driverless will become the norm... Circa 2040. That's over a decade away and this article speaks to a shorter time horizon.

Who's gonna buy these brand new cars that will almost certainly depreciate just as fast in their first five years as cars made a decade ago? Is Uber going to capex a fleet and pay people hourly - like bus drivers - to operate them?

A big key to everyman's rideshare (not luxury, not select, not black) is keeping down the CPM. Best method is buying older.

 

[Rudyhawaii]

What do u think they are doing with upfront pricing they trying to make profit on every single ride .. if their stocks double or triples in 2 more quarters then they can say they are true profitable business.. if not they are still paying for the rides!

 

[painfreepc]

Make no mistake: Driverless will become the norm... Circa 2040. That's over a decade away and this article speaks to a shorter time horizon.

Who's gonna buy these brand new cars that will almost certainly depreciate just as fast in their first five years as cars made a decade ago? Is Uber going to capex a fleet and pay people hourly - like bus drivers - to operate them?

A big key to everyman's rideshare (not luxury, not select, not black) is keeping down the CPM. Best method is buying older.

Yes I thought about that aspect also, get all these cars out here now and then when the technology becomes perfected goodbye drivers, human drivers I should say, one of the reasons why I only drove the Tesla model 3 for 2 months because it certainly dawned on me that I'm basically driving my replacement, and allowing Uber to collect rideshare driver data, wasn't comfortable doing that anymore, to be honest I really didn't like the car, lots of little glitches and mommy and daddy issues I didn't like about that car,
A passenger can't even get out of the damn back seat if there's a power failure there's no manual release in the back seat of the model 3.

 

[Heisenburger]

they trying to make profit on every single ride

Unlike this one:

 

[painfreepc]

What do u think they are doing with upfront pricing they trying to make profit on every single ride .. if their stocks double or triples in 2 more quarters then they can say they are true profitable business.. if not they are still paying for the rides!

I speculate one of the reasons why the fares are getting so cheap that they offer us, is because they're trying to push out the gas car drivers, the ones that are driving the electric car they like to rave about how they're saving so much because they're not using gas some of these fares don't look that unattractive to them, if my speculation is correct I guess they're not realizing they still can only do so many fares per hour, but then again they can chase dollars per hour,. But if they're a full-time driver they're going to put a shitload of miles on their car, I do sometimes Chase dollars per hour but I don't drive full time every week.

 

[Heisenburger]

they're trying to push out the gas car drivers

It's all about their bottom line. The gig app companies are energy agnostic. They don't give a shit about what powers the vehicle. It's all about their bottom line.

 

[Rudyhawaii]

I speculate one of the reasons why the fares are getting so cheap that they offer us, is because they're trying to push out the gas car drivers, the ones that are driving the electric car they like to rave about how they're saving so much because they're not using gas some of these fares don't look that unattractive to them, if my speculation is correct I guess they're not realizing they still can only do so many fares per hour, but then again they can chase dollars per hour,. But if they're a full-time driver they're going to put a shitload of miles on their car, I do sometimes Chase dollars per hour but I don't drive full time every week.

That is what we need to see if they can build a per hour workforce like Tesla or not.. if they do build employees like that competition will definitely step in!

 

[Heisenburger]

Here's another version of the story. And this is the best part:

The business model created by Uber a decade ago is a thing of beauty. It puts all the expenses of buying, maintaining, insuring, and fueling the vehicles used to transport its customers on its drivers. In exchange, it operates the software, collects the money, and distributes the appropriate share of each fare to the drivers. It’s pure genius.

Source