28 Feb Why Uber and Lyft Drivers Should Worry
“Never get into a car with strangers and do not talk to strangers on the internet.” – Parents everywhere for the past 15 years.
Well now we literally use the internet to get into cars with strangers. Funny how things change. Not only that, some people have decided that might actual be a good job. I’m here to tell you why it’s going to drop you on your ass in about 5 years. Technology disruption.
Okay…before I go on. This post isn’t really about Uber and Lyft though I’ll be using them to make my points. This is really about technology disruption and your skillsets. I just wanted to be sure that I made that clear so you can see what I’m getting at. Okay, moving on.
So as I was saying, technology disruption. We are entering the third industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution was centered around textiles, steam power, and iron. The second industrial revolution involved steel, railroads, petroleum, chemicals and electricity.
Now the third industrial revolution is here and its going to have massive, sweeping changes. Imagine a world where all currency is digital, cars and semi-trucks drive themselves, 30% of all food is delivered to people’s houses by automated machines and 15% of people in the world work from home.
10 years ago, that probably would’ve sounded like the premise to a science fiction novel. And now? Well it’s just conservative projections of what will happen in the next 10 years.
What Is The Third Industrial Revolution?
The third industrial revolution will be centered around the digital economy and the displacement of jobs due to Artifical Intelligence. And I’m not just talking about Uber.
Lawyers and other white collar jobs are in trouble as AI continues to search through legal precedings faster and more accurately than people can. It won’t get rid of lawyers unfortunately (just kidding), but it will change their role and how many of them we need. And there are more “office jobs” that will feel the winds of change there soon.
Top 5 Reasons Driving For RideShare Full-Time Is Bad For You
Right now, Uber has about 2 million drivers. Lyft has about 700,000 drivers, but some of those people drive for both Uber and Lyft, so we’ll assume there’s about 2M people driving for these companies as of now and that number is growing. I know a few. You probably do too. Some of my friends or Uber drivers I’ve gotten to know have driving as their primary source of income and others just do it to make a little cheese on the side.
For now, ride-sharing is a great side gig if you plan it right and carefully track your expenses. But it’s a terrible career choice. Why? For a few reasons:
- You won’t have a job in 5-10 years (more on that below)
- It is a menial task so there is little to no opportunity for advancement
- No healthcare benefits
- Terrible for your health (the science of sitting for 8 hours straight is horrifying)
- You aren’t building a skill to make you valuable on the job market
There are some other reasons I could get into, but if those top 5 aren’t enough for you, then I don’t know what else I can say to change your mind.
But let’s breakdown the first reason I mentioned on that Top 5 List. “You won’t have a job in 5-10 years.” That’s a good reason not to do ride-sharing! In fact, now that I think about it, that’s a lie. Ride-sharing will actually be MORE common in 10 years and more profitable! Why? Follow this example:
You wake up 6:30, brush your teeth, do some pushups, get dressed and head off to work by 7:15. As your car drives you to your office, you are staring head down into your foldable phone that is as big as an iPad mini at full size. Your car abruptly stops in front of your office and you realize that it’s time to get out. Then, a friendly female voice asks you a question.
“Will you be needing me today or should I refuel and enter RideShare mode for Uber?”
You look at your calendar and realize you have a packed day at the office because you have to leave a little early today for a friend’s moving party. “No, I’m fine for now. Enter RideShare mode until 2pm today. Then come back and park here because I need to leave at 3pm.”
Your car recognizes the event because its connected to your phone. “Of course. We have to drive to Andy’s moving away party at the Blue Skillet Resturaunt down on 57th Street. I will pick you up then.” (End scene).
It’s About To Get Crazy
I hope you don’t think this is a stretch of what things will look like in 10 years. All of this technology exists and is working RIGHT NOW. Cars can self-drive (better than humans in many respects). AI can already talk and understand us in full sentences (Google Home, SIRI, Alexa, etc). These things are still being refined, but they’re fully functional and more applications for them are growing by the day.
The only difference is that in 10 years, all of these technological ecosystems are going to be more connected, smarter and faster. Your car will literally go pick people up and drive them wherever they want to go, make you and the company it’s rideshare platform is on lots of money, and then pick you up when its done.
So back to my original point, driving for Uber right now is a waste of your time if it’s a full-time job. You need to be developing skills that will be in demand in 5-10 years. There are so many industries that are so new, universities haven’t even had time to develop classes for them and that’s good because college is time consuming and expensive! Also, experts are so rare, they can’t afford them because they’re making huge money working for companies.
Again, this is not an assessment of the true ROI of driving for rideshare companies. It’s a plea to get everyone to see how technology has disrupted our day to day lives and a call to tell everyone to think about learning new skills and investing in yourself to make sure you are prepared for the changes to come.