[eaenki]

no that's non sense. R&D is a huge fixed upfront cost while Uber's drivers are an ongoing cost that scales linearly. Just like Intel (huge upfront cost to design chips) VS Victoria's Secret , the former has unlimited upside, the latter doesn't and cost scales linearly.

[Barrin92]

in the car industry where R&D is largely incremental this doesn't really apply. the research costs in the automotive industry aren't fixed, it's billions after billions year after year to stay competitive, it's not like you build the car platform and then infinite cars start rolling off the conveyor belt. Which is why large car companies don't have the margins of facebook and why many of them are a hundred years old rather than ten like your average software company.