I used to be a computer engineer, and I can make really good code, and we can make systems that work really well, and we can make the application a great experience, but when you have to translate bits to atoms, you need folks who are used to working with city governments, with state governments, and so I like to say we're in a political campaign.
There will be a huge, huge positive impact for society when driverless cars become a thing.
Surge pricing only kicks in in order to maximize the number of trips that happen and therefore reduce the number of people that are stranded.
The regulatory systems in place disincentive innovation. It's intense to fight the red tape.
A regulator is supposed to create and enforce a standard.
If Uber is lower-priced, then more people will want it. And if more people want it and can afford it, then you have more cars on the road. And if you have more cars on the road, then your pickup times are lower, your reliability is better. The lower-cost product ends up being more luxurious than the high-end one.
Uber riders are the most affluent, influential people in their cities.
Safety is number one at Uber... so we make sure the system is in place so riders get the safest ride possible.
When you start to automate, you start to do the self-driving thing, you make it much more efficient. When these cars go into self-driving, you start to become a robotics company.
We did a year of Uber in San Francisco before we went to a second city. You get those processes down, then you really get started.
Think of a world where there is no ride-sharing; people are driving themselves to work. You now have 30 people being served by 30 cars. Those 30 cars are only served 4% of the day; 96% of the day, they're stored somewhere. Around 20% to 30% of our land is taken up just storing these hunks of metal that we drive around in for 4% of the day.
After Scour, I started a company called Red Swoosh. The idea was to take those litigants who sued us for a huge amount of money and turn them into customers with the same technology. I wanted to get them to pay me. It was a revenge business.
Uber exists because of mobile telephones.
Some city-council people are really awesome, but most are uninspired.
I call it dark energy. If you are unreliable, customers just disappear.
There's been so much corruption and so much cronyism in the taxi industry and so much regulatory capture, that if you ask for permission upfront for something that's already legal, you'll never get it.
In some way, L.A. respects the young guy that's out there just trying to make it happen, but in some ways, they disrespect that, too.
