Lyft’s CEO Says, ‘We’re the Good Uber’

Lyft 首席执行官称：“我们是‘好人版’ Uber”

Three Years AGO, Lyft was floundering. The perpetual also-ran to Uber was in danger of being run off the road entirely. The founders were in charge, and in March 2023, they hired former Microsoft and Amazon executive David Risher to turn things around. The new CEO has expanded its service in other countries, made deals with Waymo and Nvidia, lowered ride cancellations, and paid drivers more. Just this week, Lyft announced that customers in New York would also see taxis among their options. The company now reports a profit—but it’s still deep in second place in ride-sharing, and its stock has been down this year. I recently spoke to Risher on Lyft’s prospects, his jaundiced view of Uber, and his plans to manage fleets of autonomous cars owned by tech companies or civilians.

三年前，Lyft 还处于挣扎之中。作为 Uber 永远的“老二”，它一度面临被彻底挤出市场的危险。当时公司由创始人掌舵，直到 2023 年 3 月，他们聘请了前微软和亚马逊高管 David Risher 来扭转局面。这位新任首席执行官扩大了公司在其他国家的业务，与 Waymo 和英伟达达成了合作，降低了行程取消率，并提高了司机的收入。就在本周，Lyft 宣布纽约的客户现在也可以在应用中选择出租车服务。公司目前已实现盈利，但在网约车市场仍处于明显的第二名位置，且今年股价表现低迷。我最近采访了 Risher，探讨了 Lyft 的前景、他对 Uber 的偏见，以及他管理由科技公司或个人拥有的自动驾驶车队的计划。

STEVEN LEVY: Where are you on your turnaround mission? STEVEN LEVY：你的扭亏为盈任务进展如何？

DAVID RISHIER: 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 looking good. I went to the Jeff Bezos school, so when I came in, my whole focus was customer obsession. We spent quarter after quarter getting our cost position right, so that we could lower prices. We raised driver rates, because if drivers aren’t getting paid enough, they tend to be very frustrated and don’t provide great service, and drop off the platform. We started to innovate again. So today, we’re profitable. We have some of the highest driver satisfaction rates we’ve ever had, and our riders are coming back. And our share is now up to about 31 points.

DAVID RISHER： 我刚来的时候，市场份额在流失——Lyft 只有 26% 或 27%，而对手则占据大头。我们每年亏损 3 亿美元，情况很不乐观。我师从杰夫·贝索斯（Jeff Bezos），所以我上任后的核心重点就是“客户至上”。我们花了一个又一个季度来优化成本结构，以便能够降低价格。我们提高了司机的报酬，因为如果司机收入不足，他们往往会感到沮丧，无法提供优质服务，最终离开平台。我们重新开始创新。所以今天，我们盈利了。我们拥有了有史以来最高的司机满意度，乘客也在回归。我们的市场份额现在已经上升到了约 31%。

Yet your stock is down. 但你的股价却在下跌。

Our analysts and investors love the fact we’re growing quarter by quarter, but they also see uncertainty in the industry. 我们的分析师和投资者很高兴看到我们每个季度都在增长，但他们也看到了行业的不确定性。

Thirty-one percent is still a distant second. I saw a headline the other day, “Is OpenAI On Its Way to Becoming Lyft?” The story wasn’t even about ride-sharing! What will it take to never see that headline again? 31% 仍然是遥远的第二名。前几天我看到一个标题：“OpenAI 会成为下一个 Lyft 吗？”那篇文章甚至根本不是在谈论网约车！要怎样做才能不再看到这样的标题？

That might be a false premise. We do a billion rides a year in North America. The other guys maybe do two. [Uber doesn’t break out numbers geographically but reports around 14 billion rides a year globally.] That’s 3 billion rides between the two of us. But people take 160 billion rides in their private cars every year. So there’s a gigantic market which you can grow into.

这可能是一个错误的假设。我们在北美每年完成 10 亿次行程，对手可能完成 20 亿次。[Uber 没有按地区细分数据，但报告全球每年约有 140 亿次行程。] 我们两家加起来是 30 亿次。但人们每年乘坐私家车出行的次数高达 1600 亿次。所以，这是一个可以持续增长的巨大市场。

The reason we have been gaining share over the last couple years is our service is just better. On average we will pick you up faster than those guys will. We have reduced driver cancellations. The next phase is what we call “Save Money, Check Lyft,” which is based on a very basic premise that if you’re a rider and you’re only checking the other guy, you’re leaving money on the table. If people checked every single time, we would have a greater than 50 percent share. I promise you.

过去几年我们市场份额不断增长的原因是我们的服务更好。平均而言，我们接载你的速度比他们更快。我们减少了司机的取消率。下一阶段我们称之为“省钱，查 Lyft”，其基础是一个非常简单的逻辑：如果你作为乘客只查看对手的价格，那你就是在白白浪费钱。如果人们每次都对比一下，我们的市场份额绝对会超过 50%。我向你保证。

Yesterday my son was on a stuck train, and he needed a ride to the station a few stops down. Uber was $70 and Lyft was $130. 昨天我儿子坐的火车停运了，他需要打车去几站外的车站。Uber 要 70 美元，而 Lyft 要 130 美元。

We try to beat them more than we lose, but we have different algorithms, different data. We religiously, obsessively check to make sure that is true. 我们努力争取在更多时候比他们便宜，但我们有不同的算法和数据。我们非常虔诚且执着地进行核查，以确保这一点。

I often hear from drivers—for both Uber and Lyft—that the companies take too big of a cut. Is that complaint valid? 我经常从 Uber 和 Lyft 的司机那里听到，公司抽成太高了。这种抱怨有道理吗？

The short answer is no. Certainly in the early days of this industry, there were massive effective driver subsidies, and there are still drivers who remember that or have friends who remember those days. We will never, ever, ever, ever take more than 30 percent after insurance is taken out. 简短的回答是：没有。当然，在这个行业的早期，确实存在大量的司机补贴，现在仍有一些司机记得那个时期，或者有朋友记得那些日子。但在扣除保险费用后，我们绝不会、绝不会、绝不会、绝不会抽取超过 30% 的佣金。

Who bears the burden for the fuel price increases? 谁来承担燃油价格上涨的负担？

Drivers are responsible for fueling up, so ultimately, of course, they’re paying the bill. But we’re trying our best to help. 司机负责加油，所以最终当然是他们买单。但我们正在尽最大努力提供帮助。

There’s a way to not have to worry about pleasing drivers–replacing them with autonomous vehicles. You have a deal with Waymo in Nashville where you service their cars. 有一种方法不必担心如何取悦司机——那就是用自动驾驶汽车取代他们。你在纳什维尔与 Waymo 有一项协议，负责维护他们的车辆。

We’re partnering with multiple companies, but our Waymo partnership is perhaps the most significant. No matter how a Waymo is ordered, we will do the fleet management. So our job is to make sure that cars are available as close to 24/7 as possible. Cars sitting there stranded, not charged, not clean, whatever, aren’t making money. That’s bad. It’s one way where we’re going to help the partner, in this case Waymo, make money on its assets. The second piece is supply sharing—a fleet of autonomous vehicles will be available both to the Waymo app and the Lyft app later this year.

我们正在与多家公司合作，但与 Waymo 的合作可能是最重要的。无论 Waymo 是如何被下单的，我们都将负责车队管理。所以我们的工作是确保车辆尽可能接近 24/7 全天候可用。如果车辆闲置、没电、不干净，那它们就无法赚钱。这很糟糕。这是我们帮助合作伙伴（在本例中是 Waymo）从其资产中获利的一种方式。第二部分是供应共享——今年晚些时候，一支自动驾驶车队将同时在 Waymo 应用和 Lyft 应用上提供服务。

So essentially Waymo is acting like a Lyft driver? 所以本质上 Waymo 就像一个 Lyft 司机？

Yes, they’re a supplier, just like a driver would be exactly. In a decade, buying a car without self-driving technology will be like buying a car with manual transmission—you could do it, but you probably won’t. Today, if you want to drive on the Lyft platform, you have to do two things: you’ve got to put your car to use, and you’ve got to put your time to use. Ten years from now, in a world where a lot of people have cars that can drive themselves, you just have to put your car to use, and when it comes back, you’re going to want it cleaned and maintained. That’s where fleet management comes in.

是的，他们是一个供应商，就像司机一样。十年后，购买一辆没有自动驾驶技术的汽车，就像现在买一辆手动挡汽车一样——你可以买，但你可能不会买。今天，如果你想在 Lyft 平台上开车，你必须做两件事：投入你的车，并投入你的时间。十年后，在一个许多人拥有自动驾驶汽车的世界里，你只需要投入你的车，当它回来时，你会希望它被清洁和维护好。这就是车队管理发挥作用的地方。

I’m guessing that your dream is that Lyft will be the number one of the two companies. 我猜你的梦想是让 Lyft 成为两家公司中的第一名。

Sure, because our service is better. I also think—and you can quote me on this, although it’s a little bit of an obnoxious thing for me to say—I think we’re the good Uber. 当然，因为我们的服务更好。我也认为——你可以引用我的话，尽管这听起来有点自大——我认为我们是“好人版”的 Uber。

You’re saying Uber is still evil? 你是说 Uber 仍然是邪恶的吗？

Yeah. [Pauses.] No, that’s too strong. Both companies have obviously done quite well in very different ways. When I talk to people at the other company, they do admire that we are walking the walk; we are customer obsessed. That’s the big change that’s turned our economics around, and we’re not going to back off of that. Those advantages will compound over time.

是的。[停顿。] 不，这话说得太重了。两家公司显然都以非常不同的方式做得很好。当我与对方公司的人交谈时，他们确实钦佩我们言行一致；我们是“客户至上”的。这是扭转我们经济状况的重大变革，我们不会退缩。这些优势会随着时间的推移而叠加。