Travis Kalanick, founder and CEO of Uber, built his cab-hailing startup with one ambitious goal: to stop people from buying cars. And while his ultimate goal could well be achieved globally, India would remain an exception. New research by Swiss investment bank UBS says that ride-on-demand (RoD) apps won’t stop Indians from buying their own…
via The simple reason why Uber and Ola can’t deter Indians from owning cars — Quartz
The investment bank UBS research might be saying that Indians still want a car, however, I still prefer taking an Uber ride over driving. Here’s why –
- I can sit and read while the car is happily en route to my destination. Taking calls and thinking through things is a breeze.
- Labor as well as Time & Material are saved
- Dependency on cash is more or less removed. After demonetization, I have reduced my cash dependency completely, and I am loving it.
- Whereas, its great to have a car and a driver handy to do on random jaunts like drop the kids to school, go for shopping, et al … however, an on the spot Uber is almost as good
Indians would treat the car as a status symbol, perhaps in the interiors they still do – however, with parking space coming at a premium (last I checked, a parking space in Nariman point as expensive as a 15 Lakh INR) taking an Uber is just more convenient.