As Uber continues its global expansion in both major metropolitan areas and smaller cities all over the world, the company is quickly becoming much more than just a ride sharing service. In fact, Uber sees itself as the next major mass transportation provider, a true replacement for private vehicles.
Uber’s vision for itself is huge. It is recognized as a somewhat expensive on-demand taxi app. But it has since morphed, slashing fares, starting delivery services, attempting to become a catch-all logistics company. One of its stated goals is to one day replace people’s private vehicles entirely. In order to do that it’s going to need to get much bigger. And that means it will need to fundamentally change the service it provides. Take this passage from Matt Buchanan at the Awl: “…in Uber’s vision, anytime that anybody wants to go anywhere, an app embedded somewhere on their body will signal Uber’s ubiquitous, perfectly optimized network of electric-powered self-driving conveyances that a piece of cargo is ready for transport, because it is so cheap and efficient that locomoting any other way would be unthinkable—requires enormous scale, even before it can replace human drivers.”