[noobermin]

Here are my last few uber rides

  $18.94
  $13.87
  $ 7.68
  $13.99
  $11.22
  $40.05
  $12.71

Some were far, some not, obviously. They are spread over a few months, obviously, given the price of a typical uber, I am not prone to using it often. It does still beat a taxi, though.

Just balancing out what seems to be a biased sample.

[akhilcacharya]

I think I can beat you here.

14.60

15.52

17.23

0.00

49.52

36.62

The last two were from SFO to Palo Alto. In all honesty $50 for a 50 minute drive isn't that bad, but I didn't pay for it either.

[wamatt]

You might want to check out Lyft. Been using their 'Line Ride' product as it's currently 50% off (at least in Bay Area).

If their growth team wants to throw VC money our way to keep me on board, why not? Recently commuting from Palo Alto to Mountain View pretty regularly and paying around $7/$8. PS Not affiliated, just a happy user.

[nihonde]

Not to mention that competition between Uber and Lyft will benefit all passengers.

[DrScump]

When you have just two companies competing in a space, that's not true competition; that's a cartel.

[jacalata]

"cartel (n): an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition."

Having two competitors doesn't necessarily create a cartel. Are you trying to argue that Uber and Lyft are working together to maintain prices at a higher level?

[DrScump]

I'm saying that only two participants in a space does not typically yield the benefits of true competition.

The stronger may use competitive pricing in the short term to weaken the other, driving it to withdraw from the market or be acquired, but this hardly provides long-term benefits to the consumer like true competition would.

For example, note the Office Depot / Officemax / Staples relationship. Though competitors, they never really did compete on price on everyday products (and in fact often charged the exact same price for common items -- a price much higher than, say, mail- and internet-order sources such as Amazon), hence the ability to advertise local price-matching without genuine risk to profit.

The result? Three became two, and two are becoming one, resulting in no competition between them at all. The Uber / Sidecar / Lyft relationship is tracking very similarly.

Can you name any retail space with only two players of significance that has not ended up having the same effect on consumers as a cartel? I honestly can't think of one.

The Cellular One (now AT&T) / GTE Mobilnet (now Verizon) relationship is another example of this behavior. Prices of entry and of usage stayed high until additional, independent competing networks (e.g. T-Mobile, Sprint/WiMax) entered the space.

[imtringued]

The word you are looking for is oligopoly

[akhilcacharya]

I didn't want to be stuck with the tab at the end of my trip, so I just followed the company guidelines for reimbursement - they had an expense account for the other 2 rides I took from HQ to hotel.

[nedwin]

I've had a couple of zeros or very cheap fares in last couple of days as well. What was this zero in your case?

[nommm-nommm]

Not the GP but Uber has its Android Pay promo going right now, that was my last freebie.

[akhilcacharya]

I gave a referral code to my parents and used up the bonus.

[microcolonel]

I can tell you that downtown rides are about this cheap on Uber here in Toronto.

Scale is a big factor as well, maybe you're in a place with fewer drivers, or posher folks?

[noobermin]

Can you clarify? You mean cheap as sillysaurus3's prices or mine?

We are a "smaller city", large population but a little sparse.