One thing about this article: their argument that it doesn't save time or money is taken from a very specific use case in which it doesn't save time or money: traveling from LAX to the author's house in Venice. As noted elsewhere in the thread, this is true because of specific usage and pricing restrictions at LAX, which are not true in most other cases.
Calling a cab to pick you up at your home and take you somewhere else in the city would be a more common use case to compare to, but likely would not support the author's claims, which is probably why they don't mention it.
The pollution claim may be more valid: I have no thoughts on that other than the speculation that, if rideshare vehicles are spending 40% of their time driving without passengers, I bet they're returning to places where they're expecting to get more lucrative calls. This seems like something Uber and Lyft could somewhat mitigate with their pricing or compensation structure, if they wanted to. So, a problem for sure, but not one that's inherent to ridesharing.
I also wonder why taxis wouldn't have the same problems. I recall reading that buses drive without passengers about 25% of the time, so it's not like this phenomenon is unique to rideshare. Based on common sense and observation, I would assume taxis are deadheading about as much as Lyft and Uber, but can find no citation for it.
Lastly, the fact that this article has links to supporting resources, but those links are disguised to look like unstyled body text, is really frustrating.
As noted elsewhere in the thread, it's actually true in general, and has been for years. Taxis adjusted their business to compete with ride-sharing, and ride-sharing adjusted their business to stop hemorrhaging money a LONG time ago.
Calling a cab to pick you up at your home and take you somewhere else in the city would be a more common use case to compare to, but likely would not support the author's claims, which is probably why they don't mention it.
The pollution claim may be more valid: I have no thoughts on that other than the speculation that, if rideshare vehicles are spending 40% of their time driving without passengers, I bet they're returning to places where they're expecting to get more lucrative calls. This seems like something Uber and Lyft could somewhat mitigate with their pricing or compensation structure, if they wanted to. So, a problem for sure, but not one that's inherent to ridesharing.
I also wonder why taxis wouldn't have the same problems. I recall reading that buses drive without passengers about 25% of the time, so it's not like this phenomenon is unique to rideshare. Based on common sense and observation, I would assume taxis are deadheading about as much as Lyft and Uber, but can find no citation for it.
Lastly, the fact that this article has links to supporting resources, but those links are disguised to look like unstyled body text, is really frustrating.