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"The average person has a vehicle that might possibly be shared via Uber."

Wait, is that true? My experience with Uber drivers is they all bought a new car to be Uber drivers, sometimes with a loan Uber helps them get.

Uber being some kind of "sharing" economy company seems a little dubious. They are really quite different than AirBnB, which really is based on a surplus of housing.

Uber is mostly just a taxi company, and their fleet is all pristine, new cards, which they make drivers get and maintain. And the drivers are only "not employees" according to a very fine line.

It's more like the "1099" economy than the "sharing" economy. Uber isn't leveraging a car surplus - they are capitalizing on a worker surplus. There are no beat up old jalopeys getting "shared" via Uber. There is no natural, organic market, among people with/without cars.



I think it depends on your market. Where I am, there are a lot of people just using their personal car. I heard the minimum is a 2000 year car in good condition, which is about 15 years old now.


Yes, I thought about addressing this in the comment. Most Uber drivers are much more like 1099 contractors, but I think for this purpose a general notion of what a "sharing economy" entails is sufficient for the purposes of comparison with this idea. Either way it just doesn't hold up.


Yes, the average person has a vehicle.




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