i wish that were true outside the US :( i really really want lyft here in AU so that i can ditch uber

as it stands, the options are taxis and not getting private transport, which is the option i've taken when it's not too inconvenient

FWIW, at least here in Sydney, the taxi people have significantly upped their game. The Silver Service app is close-to as good as the Uber one (at least from a rider's point of view, the drivers prefer the Uber app).

Another interesting thing I've noticed, my taxi trips for a few commonly used trips turn out to be occasionally cheaper, and rarely more than 5 or 10% more expensive than the Uber rides I used to use... (And that includes getting home at 1am on the nighttime surcharge rate here in Sydney...)

As a friend commented on Twitter recently: "it's pretty hard to make taxi owners look good - (not drivers, most drivers NOT owners) but Uber's making it happen"

Aside from other taxi booking apps, has anyone other than uber entered or tried to enter the 'ride sharing' business in Australia?

GoCatch has moved into ride sharing now - they're relatively big in Sydney and the drivers get a bigger cut so I'm happy using them.

>There's enough social awareness that people don't want to support a company run by jerks like Travis Kalanick.

I asked 7-8 of my non tech/internet obsessed friends what they thought of recent uber scandals and if they stopped using uber. I got blank stares.

all of my techy friends know about uber news but not one has deleted uber.

Very very few actually care about any of it, people have short memory and outrage fatigue is real.

And if you had asked your non-tech/internet obsessed friends what they thought of Uber a few years ago you would have gotten equally blank 'wtf is Uber?' stares. You may think that having the tech industry filled with antipathy towards Uber does not matter much, but those same techies are the ones who make decisions like 'what companies should we support via an API call in our app' or 'who should we partner with on our new service', and more importantly the 'whose recruiting offer should I consider' question. With Uber bleeding money from its unlicensed taxi business it needs to find any other opportunity it can, and having those doors just a little bit harder to open for the Uber bizdev & recruiting people will matter a lot more in the long-run than whether or not a non-techie decides to take an Uber home in middle America.

There is still the problem that without the competition that Uber provides, Lyft likely becomes a more typical company and begins increasing their margins in ways that customers and employees dislike.

Uber's rates are already unsustainably low. Competition is one thing but unhealthy, unsustainable competition is another thing entirely.

It's probably for the best that rates go up a bit.

Best for who? It's better for riders if rates stay unsustainably low and they can get discounted rides at the expense of VCs.

"better for riders if rates stay unsustainably low"

Rates that are unsustainably low cannot be sustained, by definition.

Not without outside pressure, which in this case exists. I've been using Uber for 5 years.

Exceptionally low rates means the cars that are picking people up are not the quality of cars people want to be riding in, nor the quality of drivers they want to be riding with.

You're conflating two things - the low rate paid by the riders and the rate paid to the drivers.

As long as the drivers are getting paid well, whether it be from fares paid by riders or by VC subsidies, it will attract "quality" cars and drivers.

A separate issue is the sustainability of subsidizing driver wages from VCs by keeping rider fares artificially low.

Best for people who want these new services to continue.

It doesn't really matter whether they continue as long as something else takes their place afterwards.

Uber is still the big dog in town, I doubt they'll disappear completely.

Also, if you listen to the Lyft founder talk about the company, he sounds like he actually wants to help the world. Not to say that they can't become a shitty corporation, but it seems less likely.

Lyft's valuation is still 1/10th of Uber's. I don't think we need to worry too much about Uber going under anytime in the near future. Uber still has another 10B in the bank. As a consumer, I am supporting Lyft so that they might live another day to keep the competition going

> Uber still has another 10B in the bank.

Seeing as how leaked financials have reported Uber losing billions each year, I don't think they have nearly that much money left.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/21/uber-losses-expected-to-hi...

That's been my experience too - drivers like Lyft better, and Lyft doesn't seem to be run by assholes. I never actually deleted my Uber account, but I didn't bother to install the app when I bought a new phone; I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.