Lyft CEO Says, ‘We’re the Best Uber’

Three years ago, Lyft was moving. The constant rush to Uber was in danger of being run off the road entirely. The founders were in control, and in March 2023, they hired former Microsoft and Amazon David Risher to turn things around. The new CEO has expanded his work in other countries, he was involved That’s it and Nvidia, lowered the limit, and paid more drivers. This week only, Lyft he announced that customers in New York also consider taxis among their options. The company is now reporting a profit – but it’s still in second place ride-shareand his stock is down this year. I recently spoke with Risher about Lyft’s expectations, his view of Uber, and his thoughts on managing the fleet. autonomous vehicles with technology companies or private individuals.

STEVEN LEVY: Where are you in your transition process?

DAVID RISHER: When I came in, we were losing share—Lyft was 26 or 27 percent compared to the other guy. We were losing money, $300 million a year. Things were not good. I went to the Jeff Bezos school, so when I came in, my whole focus was customer satisfaction. We spent quarter by quarter to adjust our price accordingly, to reduce prices. We raised the prices of the drivers, because if the drivers are not paid enough, they are very frustrated and they do not provide good service, and they get off the platform. We also started to innovate. So today, we are profitable. We have the highest interest rates we’ve ever had, and our riders are coming back. And our share has now reached about 31 points.

However, your stock is down.

Our analysts and investors like that we are growing quarter after quarter, but they also see uncertainty in the industry.

Thirty-one percent is still a distant moment. I saw a headline the other day, “Is OpenAI On Its Way To Be Lyft?” This story was not about sharing the bus!

It can be a false foundation. We climb a billion a year in North America. The other guys probably do two. (Uber doesn’t break out numbers by location but says it has 14 billion rides a year worldwide.) That’s 3 billion rides between the two of us. But people drive 160 billion miles in their private cars every year. So there is a huge market that you can grow.

The reason we’ve been sharing over the last few years is that our service is better. On average we will pick you up faster than the guys can. We have reduced the ban on drivers. The next step is what we call “Save Money, Check Lyft,” which is based on the fundamental principle that if you’re a rider and you’re checking for someone else, you’re leaving money on the table. If people looked at it every time, we would have a greater share than 50 percent. I promise you.

Yesterday, my son was on the train, and he had to go to the station a few places away. Uber was $70 and Lyft was $130.

We try to beat them more than we lose, but we have different algorithms, different data. We religiously check to make sure this is true.

I often hear from drivers – Uber and Lyft – that the companies charge too much. Is that complaint valid?

The short answer is no. Of course in the early days of the industry, there was a lot of support for drivers, and there are drivers who remember this or have friends who remember those days. We will never, ever, ever, ever take more than 30 percent of insurance coverage.