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GM Dumps $500 Million Into Lyft (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: General Motors has invested $500 million in ride-sharing service Lyft, and also committed resources to develop an on-demand network of autonomous cars. "GM will also work with Lyft to set up a series of short-term car rental hubs across the United States, places where people who do not own cars can pick up a vehicle and drive for Lyft to earn money." Lyft thinks the future of self-driving cars is in a network of vehicles people share, rather than individual ownership. GM, which produces millions of automobiles every year, seems to agree. The money will help Lyft compete with competitor Uber, which has raised over $10 billion in investments already. "The alliance with GM is surprising because automakers could consider ride-hailing companies like Lyft as long-term threats to auto sales. In an interview, [GM president Daniel Ammann] said that GM wanted to be part of the changing business models in transportation."
I don't think GM really believes it's 'the future' or anything as blue-sky as that, they're just hedging their bets against the possibility of this combination being viable.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
"GM will also work with Lyft to set up a series of short-term car rental hubs across the United States, places where people who do not own cars can pick up a vehicle and drive for Lyft to earn money."
So....taxis?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Going through tax paperwork over the weekend I noticed that my auto policy now prohibits claims made if I ever tried to use my car in an Uber, Lyft, or even another "ridesharing" program.
I wonder if that will have an effect on everyone trying to make extra money on the side; it's not like they can really claim that they weren't providing a paid ride during a period in which an accident happens since the dispatch app will have all the records server-side.
Lyft thinks the future of self-driving cars is in a network of vehicles people share, rather than individual ownership.
Like public, mass-transit: buses, trains and planes?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Okay, let me see if I remember things properly, and in the right order.
GM was headed into bankruptcy, but the US government bailed them out because they were too big to fail.
Over the next couple of years, the government lost 11 billion dollars on the deal, money that all the rest of us taxpayers have to make up.
During that same time, GM made 22.6 billion dollars..
Also during that time, GM made vehicles with faulty ignition switches which killed over a hundred people, vigorously denied doing so, quietly fixed the problem, and back-edited the documentation to show that it was fixed all along.
Today, GM has enough spare cash to invest in other companies.
Oh, and also today we have an article on the front page about improving school performance by fighting poverty, and the comments are all responses to people who want to eliminate handouts to the poor.
This is the news and state of the world presented to us on the first working day of the new year.
When you rent a car. some unethical companies will bill you after returning the car for "dings" and "dents" that you are responsible for unless you have paid for their "insurance" up front.
"GM chief Mary Barra: 'pattern of incompetence' caused fatal recall delay"
GM was completely incompetent, which is why it went out of business. GM was renamed to Motors Liquidation Company and split into trusts to deal with the long term effects of GM's incompetence. The incompetent, decrepit organization was of course transferred to a new corporation, so that it can fail again in a few years.
The new GM made sure it wouldn't be responsible for the legal consequences of the poor quality vehicles it released prior to 2009, so it can't claim the history of the company that manufactured them either. New GM is a brand new company, with the same failed engineering organization.
Who knows, maybe GM will be the Yahoo! of cars, with its ownership stake in various companies worth more than the core business. In any case, Lyft will hopefully do something more productive with GM's money than GM would have done with it.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.