Category Archives: Auto industry

Uber’s Woes Mount: California Strips Driverless Cars’ Registration, Losses Rise, VAT Charges Loom

Uber has a bad week.

Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Five: Addressing Reader Comments and Questions

Hubert Horan answers questions about his series on Uber.

Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Four: Understanding That Unregulated Monopoly Was Always Uber’s Central Objective

Why Uber’s goal is replacing urban car service with a higher cost, less efficient operation that would extract wealth from the public.

Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Three: Understanding False Claims About Uber’s Innovation and Competitive Advantages

Why Uber does not have any significant competitive advantages save very deep pockets that allow it to engage in sustained predatory pricing.

Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Two: Understanding Uber’s Uncompetitive Costs

Why Uber is the taxi industry’s high cost producer and cannot grow into profitability.

Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part One – Understanding Uber’s Bleak Operating Economics

Uber’s financials statements and economics shows a complete lack of progress towards profit and no reason to expect significant improvement.

Oil Industry Worries About Peak Oil, as in Peak Demand

Some forward-thinking oil producers are worried about peak demand. Are their concerns warranted?

Will the Cost of a “Self-Driving Taxi” Really Be Sixty-Seven Cents ($0.67) a Mile? McKinsey’s Mysterious Footnote 17

A close reading of McKinsey’s report on self-driving cars.

Self-Driving Cars: How Badly Is the Technology Hyped?

Fully autonomous self-driving cars are many years away (“not in our lifetimes”). This has implications for how companies hyping them should be valued.

John Helmer: Did Hillary Clinton Take Money From Russia Oligarch Oleg Deripaska for a Favor in the General Motors-Opel Deal?

The curious tale of a Russian’s oligarch’s donation to the Clinton Foundation and his failed attempt to make an acquisition from General Motors.

Japan Throws Spanner into Brexit Negotiations

Multinationals just weighted in on the Brexit talks, in the form of a letter from Japan’s government.

Milwaukee Riots Round-up of “Systemic Causes”

Milwaukee riots and disinvestment, segregated housing, and law enforcement for profit

Another Nail in the Brexit Fantasy Coffin: Germany’s Car Makers Are Not Cowed

More evidence that the idea that the UK would have a negotiating advantage in Brexit talks is not well founded.

Is Gasoline Demand the Biggest Red Herring In Oil Markets?

Gasoline demand distracts from the more important subject that there is no fundamental reason for the current oil-price rally.

Uber Spends $100 Million to Save its Business Model, But It May Have Just Doomed It

I’ve written before at this august site about how Uber’s business model is to arbitrage state and federal law and replace a monopoly with a different monopoly. They obviously placed a high value on the arbitrage. How high? About $100 million.