The taxi hailing app war is heating up in India. Late last week, news of Ola’s latest $310 million funding round surfaced, then just a few hours later, Uber introduced its first service that allows for cash payments in the country. Continue reading… “Uber’s new auto rickshaw service in India, allowing cash payments for first time”
The foundations of the business-travel ecosystem are under more strain than ever before, even with U.S. companies projecting to spend $310 billion on business travel in 2015 (up 6.2 percent from last year). How they spend that money has become a source of tension and uncertainty. Continue reading… “The sharing economy to disrupt business travel”
In the same way that it has torn apart newspapers, radio and the postal service, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney worries that technology will disrupt the banking and financial services industry. His biggest concern is governments will fail regulate it until it’s too late – “an Uber-type situation,” as he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Continue reading… “Will the sharing economy disrupt the banking industry?”
SurfAir
SurfAir is a new airline hoping to deliver some overdue disruption to the not-so-friendly skies.The fast growing year old company is a subscription-based model for private planes, but it’s at a price point that could actually be accessible for frequent fliers.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chairman, wants to play nice with the European Union, but he isn’t about to give in to calls for regulation. “Europe needs to accept and embrace disruption. The old ways of doing things need to face competition that forces them to innovate,” he wrote in an op-ed for Digital Minds for a New Europe, the European Commission’s new tech series. “Uber, for example, is shaking up the taxi market — for the good. It offers riders convenience and cheaper fares. Understandably, the incumbent taxi industry is unhappy.”
The big benefit from new IT-mediated car services will come if they make it possible for lots of people.
There has been a lot of discussion lately about Uber, Lyft, and all that. The big benefit from new IT-mediated car services will come if they make it possible for lots of people, not just people in Manhattan, to live without owning their own cars. And if you think about it, you can see how that might work.
Continue reading… “Imagine life without cars”
Lazy people are the best customers.
The ultimate customers are lazy, anti-social people. To be assured of success today, create a service that appeals to people just active enough to push a button but too lazy to check their bank statements.
Continue reading… “Uber has taught us that the best customers are lazy people”
Lyft drivers sport “carstaches” on their vehicles while on duty.
San Francisco is where Uber and Lyft got their starts and resistance to these services seems futile. One third of taxi cab drivers in San Francisco have ditched their registered cabs and are now working for Uber, Lyft, or Sidecar, according to Fortune.
The expansion means hundreds of thousands more cars must come onto the Uber system.
To overcome its growing pains, Uber has come up with a brilliant new strategy. Uber is launching a pilot program to finance new cars. The company is partnering with GM, Toyota, and financial institutions to offer 100,000 driversreduced monthly car payments, in an effort get more Uber drivers on the road.
Uber has committed to invest up to $375 million for a fleet of Google’s GX3200 vehicles.
News from the Future – July 25, 2023: The local transportation and delivery giant, Uber, has announced as part of its second quarter earnings, saying it would buy 2,500 driverless cars from Google. The two companies have agreed to a deal in which Uber will share data from its local transportation services with Google, which will use it to further improve its own autonomous car-routing algorithms.
Continue reading… “Uber to purchase 2,500 driverless cars from Google”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.