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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  1794 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Los Angeles may force Uber to use electric vehicles, mayor says

Unless they've gotten much better since I was looking into electric cars, it doesn't seem like driving for Uber with an electric car would be viable. You'd spend too much time charging your car and not getting paid. It might be viable for a more conventional taxi service, because you could have a more cars than drivers and let drivers swap cars when the one they were driving needs to charge.





kleinbl00  ·  1794 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    It might be viable for a more conventional taxi service, because you could have a more cars than drivers and let drivers swap cars when the one they were driving needs to charge.

Circle gets the square.

Los Angeles isn't the slightest bit interested in Uber's profitability. They just passed a law whereby rideshare drivers are employees who accrue vacation, sick leave and benefits. Forcing rideshare to abide by the economics of a taxi fleet is wholly intentional.

The entire market case for rideshare is that livery laws are inadequate for a modern app-driven platform so rape the livery economy before they catch up. But they're catching up. And Los Angeles is basically inviting Tesla to set up a taxi company.

veen  ·  1794 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Colleague of mine cofounded the now largest electric taxi company in the country. With a fast charging station placed in a central location, you can totally pull a business like that off. Range with EVs is a fuzzy concept, especially in cities where you can stretch it much further with aggressive regenerative braking.

The economics are mostly contingent on the ridesharer’s rates, so with VC-funded rides it probably will never work, but the idea of electric ride hailing is definitely viable.