To me, this seems to speak volumes about the viability of Uber's business model in the long run. If they can't compete because additional background checks and insurance are needed, is it really a $40B company?
Or, they are mixing an agenda (low to no regulation) with business, choosing to leave a market rather than operate in it's rules.
You see, big businesses actually love regulation. It raises the barrier to entry and prices smaller competitors out of the market.
The only companies who don't like regulation are a) small businesses who risk being priced out of the market and b) monopolists or near-monopolists, who have no competitors left to price out of the market.
For Uber to throw their hands up and walk out of a market over regulation means that either they think like a small player or they think like a monopolist. If it's the former... well, they're a $40B company, and they should start acting like one; it's a sign of terrible incompetence that a $40B company is acting like a "poor, oppressed mom-and-pop". If it's the latter, then they're just plain evil, and they should be stopped before they actually become a monopoly. They're also being stupid, too, because they're not a monopoly yet, and Lyft is now going to eat up the Kansas market.
Sure, the market isn't all that large, but the means, methods, process required to serve it are the same ones that will absolutely be needed to cope with all the different markets, rules, and authorities out there.
A billion dollar level company can and should be doing this.
As in you mean there is little additional cost to enter the market? Sure, I'm just saying if they miss out on serving a small market, it's not going to have a huge negative impact.
But, the systems needed are important. Simple, dry runs now can prototype them, buy good will, potentially have an impact on regulations to come.
Also, UBER. That's not ordinary, or dull, or tepid. It's UBER. Cherry picking, dodgy behavior to avoid compliance, and other sketchy things seem inappropriate for such a valuation.
A lot can happen in 5 years - I am not expecting self-driving cars to be a mass-market reality before then, if only due to the speed of legislation.
* owning the fleet with up-front capital requirements
* buying insurance
* owning the parking facilities for such fleet
* operating filling/charging stations for such fleet
* providing maintenance for the fleet on an ongoing basis
* operating car washes
What exactly is Uber's competence in such setup, and why are they in a dominant position to achieve this when compared to, let's say, Hertz, ZipCar, a local car dealership, or some mom-and-pop operation that bought two self-driving cars to rent them out on a busy intersection?
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-...