[dnautics]

Agreed, although Uber has been able to skirt by regulation because the quality of driver is generally high (and driver performance in terms of road and passenger safety relative to taxis is probably better), as they expand aggressively within individual markets they will exhaust their supply of "competent driver". In the case of Lyft, which in several markets arguably has a culturally-set (i.e. informal) higher standard than Uber, this has already happened.

It's also somewhat rosy to think that Uber will eat the entire market. I'm not sure an 18B valuation makes sense. Maybe a few billion, but not 18.

(I say this as someone who drives for Uber - and Lyft)

[opendais]

Yes, but almost every regulator now has both of them on their radar and they are going to end up eating regulatory costs roughly equal to a taxi company. It is going to happen sooner or later because the cities need the revenue and "regulatory equality between taxi companies and Uber" is not likely to result in the voters getting pissed off. Otherwise, they'd have to raise sales taxes or something which would piss them off.

I think its worth around 10 billion [which is where the original article said VC's started dropping out of the auction en masse].