Nope. They’re losing billions of dollars every single year (that’s billions plural). The amount they are spending on self-driving car development is trivial. The real source of losses for Uber is that the fare for an Uber ride is well below the actual cost to Uber of the ride, and that remains so even now after they significantly cut the amount they pay their drivers a few years ago.
Uber is all about destroying the competition with predatory pricing. The “realistic” long term plan is to raise fares much higher once all the competition is dead (but what’s to stop someone else from coming along and starting up a new taxi service?) The unrealistic long term plan is to pivot to using driverless vehicles (which are not a thing yet and which don’t look to become a reliable and safe alternative to human drivers for quite some time yet).
There is a long series of articles going into all the details on how Uber is heading for a fall from grace starting here (go up from the bottom):
Chain saws from the tool rental outlet: when someone has a job they don’t want to use their good tools for. Acquaintance had a customer who wanted a new window in his house, buddy rented chainsaw and cut right through stucco, framing, wallboard . Done right, right on time …if you’re just cutting firewood occasionally, consider a Swede saw; they’re fast and satisfying to use, and when you add in the fooling around with gas etc. maybe quicker than a chainsaw for small jobs.
Yup, I have one. It’s great for cutting up some firewood onsite when camping, and it’s pretty compact to throw in the car. For small diameter maple, fir, pine, etc. it’s a great tool.
The problem is when you’re cutting up very hard wood and very big chunks. I like burning oak limbs in the fire pit because they are dense, burn forever, and smell nice. But cutting one with a bow saw? Not going to happen. Some of the oak I have, you can’t even get a cut started with a bow saw.
That’s an interesting analogy to me since I have no use whatsoever for chainsaws. But I’d hope that I’d be tolerant of the service if a lot of people found it useful and it solved some major problem the city was having. But who am I kidding, I’d probably be complaining about them whenever I could.
Well it was before 9/11 so things were not quite as strict. It was downtown, so most people rode the bus rather than pay for 8 hours of parking. I’m sure the chainsaw was in some type of packaging and didn’t have any gas. But it still shows a lack of ability in thinking and planning.
The car is actually on a designated parking spot - you can see the line near the front wheel. Also, owner of the car either paid the parking fee, or lives nearby. Around here municipal police vigorously enforces parking laws. Having said that, the cars are frequently vandalized too.
…if you’re just cutting firewood occasionally, consider a Swede saw; they’re fast and satisfying to use, and when you add in the fooling around with gas etc. maybe quicker than a chainsaw for small jobs.
