Friday Rideshare Roundup: Is The Future of Ridesharing Here?

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Editor’s Note: Today I’d like to welcome a new contributor, Jack Ross. Jack has been involved in the rideshare industry from the get-go and he is a freelance writer and friend who will be providing commentary from time to time. So have a look at some of the biggest rideshare stories of the past week and let us know what you think in the comments.

Meet Gett—Every Ride in NYC is $10 for 2014

New Taxi Service is Like Uber—but for Women Only

FlightCar Is Getting Into the Rideshare Raising Game

The market be getting saturated, y’all!!!

Seriously: one week, three separate companies I had never heard of getting off the ground and making news in three distinctly different ways: 1) an interesting business model (SheTaxis – all women drivers, only women pax); 2) an incredibly sneaky smart buzzworthy gimmicky pricing model (Gett – $10 for all rides, all distances in NYC) or 3) the ol’ fashioned way, with a whole lot of dough (FlightCar – ridesharing app for cars dropped at the airport that just raised a cool $13.5 million).

What does this mean for drivers? Great question. At first blush, at least, more potential companies worth driving for and a whole heckuva a lot of proof that ridesharing is here to stay. And in the long term, hopefully more momentum for a fair working wage to drive! #ibelieve

Uber, Lyft Cars Arrive Faster Than Taxi, Study Says

Wow. This has to be the greatest “news” headline I’ve seen in some time.

Forbes headline circa 1920 declares: “Cars, Trucks Arrive Faster Than Horse, Buggy, Says Everyone”

Stating the obvious aside, the third bullet point within the piece is an extremely interesting and important piece of information for drivers, dissecting how Lyft and Uber are only starting to scratch the surface of untapped markets (and not merely at war). Yet another good reminder to stay positive and remember we are only in the infancy of the world of ridesharing.

Is Uber Safe? 2 startup CEOs Dig Deeper on the UberDrive app leak

“This is [Uber’s] network, their entire site … their business model has been compromised.”

…So says the head of a Boston startup, one of two app/security CEOs who are sounding alarms about the security of the app, and integrity of the company (get in line on the latter), after the UberDriver app leaked.

Big deal or much ado about nothing? Check it out for yourself and be the judge; either way, it’s a good reminder about the fragile security challenges for mobile technology.

When Is Uber-ing Full-time Cheaper than Owning a Car?

In sum: for an average American who drives less than 10,000 miles in a year, Uber is a cheaper option than owning a car. Seriously! AAA stats cited and used and everything.

Does this mean that parents will start buying their kids Uber credits instead of their first car? Probably not. But for every 10 unhappy drivers, I bet there is 1 american selling their car and using Uber/Lyft full time, so reason for optimism drivers out there! (AAA stats not used for my estimate) #change

LAX Police Continue Flip-Flop, Decide They Might as Well Arrest Rideshare Drivers Again

The only certainties in life: death, taxes and airport-rideshare agreements that literally change everyday. Seriously, someone make up their minds. Thanks for nothing, NBC4.

But for real, if you are braving the airport rides (I most certainly camped out at the In n Out outside of LAX), this is more food for thought about the dangers here: ride(share) at your own risk. Driver beware. And cross your fingers that we can get a definitive verdict on this front ASAP (down to start a rideshare line at the LAX Holiday Inn Express anyone?)

TechCrunch’s Take on Uber CEO comments at Disrupt

Important overview from Uber CEO Travis Kalanick at DisruptSF2014 (full video in the article) talking shop, Uber’s biggest challenges and the future. One of his most interesting point was when he tried to distance himself from the Monopoly man: “We’re not doing M&A … We’re not in acquisition mode.” Hmmm. Makes me wonder what the market for drivers would look like if Uber suddenly was.

Here are the rest of the articles I read during the week.

So what do you guys think about all the top stories from the week that was in rideshare?

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-Jack @ The Rideshare Guy