
Huge Vote Of Confidence: Uber Raises $11 million From Benchmark Capital - jkopelman
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/huge-vote-of-confidence-uber-raises-11-million-from-benchmark-capital/
======
henrikschroder
Meanwhile, the local taxi company I use the most in Stockholm has their own
iPhone app which is basically a button for "I want a taxi at my current
location now".

I don't understand, how can you make money for this as an external service?
Aren't there local taxi companies in the SF or NYC that could do the same in
an instant?

~~~
pchristensen
But who wants an app from every company? I'd rather just have the fastest
taxi, regardless of who is driving it.

~~~
henrikschroder
But Uber doesn't seem to provide that? You can't get _any_ taxi with them, you
get a car from their fleet. So they operate exactly like my preferred taxi
company?

Or have I misunderstood their service?

~~~
pchristensen
Good point. I think the appeal is that they can expand their fleet by signing
more companies to use Uber than any given taxi company could expand its fleet.

~~~
henrikschroder
Well, my local taxi company has had a phone-based booking system forever,
they've had web-based booking for 5-10 years, and from that position, making
an iPhone app is very cheap, it looks like they just got an iPhone consultancy
agency to make it, and I'm pretty sure they didn't pay 10 million for it. :-)

I don't know exactly how taxi companies work in various US cities, but for any
company that already has web-booking, getting an iPhone app is trivially
cheap, and I don't see how Uber is going to be able to counter that, funding
or no funding?

------
slevcom
I still have that recurring dream that I've entirely forgotten about some
college class, panicking, certain to fail and not graduate. Then I wake up to
realize, "I'm not in school. Awesome!"

In the same vein, rich people are collectively waking up from this recession
to realize, "Ha Ha! I'm still so loaded even my kids will never figure out how
to spend it all. Awesome!"

Those people have to put their money somewhere. Wall Street is a decidedly
less interesting choice these days.

------
Vivtek
Aw, _sweet_ \- I'd never heard of this service, but the idea is fricking
_brilliant_.

------
pitdesi
I don't get it... Uber makes a lot of sense in SF, where it is nearly
impossible to get a cab, but not so much in other places where there are
enough cabs going around (New York, Chicago). It might make sense for smaller
cities, but I just don't see it working at a 50% price premium to regular
taxis.

And then there's the problem with the taxi unions, who will fight tooth and
nail to disallow this (they will say that using an iphone app is the same as
flagging one down)

~~~
gergles
I don't really think it makes sense in SF, either. Taxi Magic, run app, push
button, a taxi arrives. You pay half the price and don't have to worry about
the driver flaking out on you, because dispatch will send another one
automatically.

I've never waited more than 5 minutes for a taxi in the central part of the
city or more than 15 way the hell out in the middle of nowhere, and I can't
imagine Uber can beat these times. They were advertising heavily in other
apps, so I gave their website a try then a hearty laugh when I saw the prices,
which are ridiculous ($1.30 a minute for waiting time? Are you people high?)

~~~
pjhyett
Consider yourself lucky. I've had Taxi Magic and Cabulous leave me stranded a
number of times. My favorite was the night Taxi Magic dispatched five
different drivers over the course of 45 minutes and I never got picked up.

Forget calling the cab companies directly, I've waited over an hour multiple
times for a pick up in Potrero. Halloween night I couldn't even get the
Yellow/Luxor/Veteran numbers to connect they were so overloaded. UberCab
showed up in 15 minutes and took us all home that night.

