Uber’s Long Road into Las Vegas | Hacker News Reader

Uber’s Long Road into Las Vegas

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17 pointsqzervaas10 comments

A couple points:

* Uber won't be much cheaper than a taxi in Las Vegas. If you look through their published fare rates, you can see that a 17 minute trip from Mandalay Bay to Fremont Street costs ~$24 with Uber and ~$25 with a taxi [1]. Add in surge pricing and an Uber could cost much more than a taxi. You don't have to deal with the taxi cartel experience, which is a major difference. But you don't win on price like in other markets.

* I posted this yesterday, but earlier this week Uber secretly threw a massive party in Las Vegas for its employees [2]. I suspect Uber did this for political goodwill with the casinos, as a thank you letter for allowing Uber on the strip.

I heard a rumor that several Uber employees were fired for talking to the dailymail about the party.

[1] http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/traffic-transportation/ube...

[2] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3256259/Luxury-hotel...

Wasn't the consensus that cabs constantly try to rip off people in LV, so u need to factor at least an extra 50% "surcharge" on top of that posted price?

FWIW I'm in Vegas right now using exclusively Uber and every driver I've talked to has been ecstatic. One even told me about how his first ride this morning was a cab driver getting a haircut, who prefers uber to cabs.

If that story is true and the cab driver really preferred Uber to cabs, why didn't he become a Uber driver?.

Well I heard the story second hand so I don't really know, but given that the guy needed a ride to get a haircut, I suspect he doesn't own his own car (and therefore can't Uber).

As a foreigner who has to visit LV for tradeshows sometimes, if this news means that I won't have to endure a 45-minute wait in line just to get a cab, I'm all for it.

They should finish the monorail to the airport. I'm sure the reason that it hasn't been finished is all politics.

In less than 45 minutes you could take the monorail from the LVCC to a nearby hotel, like Harrah's, then use the cab line from there.

Do any of the guys at the top see flack from this? All I can wonder at this point.

At this point I want to edit and add that I love using Uber. It's a rare 100% happiness factor to get but with me I got lucky and they nailed it. I just have to know: can the bosses actually make these decisions and not earn lawsuits in each state or are they handling this in a way that makes them personally immune? It's truly fascinating to see this brazen...ness? Definitely ballsy.

It isn't explicitly discussed in the article, but Uber is also now operating in Reno/N. Nevada.

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