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The Uber thing worked because it was cheaper and, initially, it was more pleasant than the typical taxi. So that’s why it worked. But people don’t have loyalty to Uber, not even the drivers . “Instead of just focusing on being a good taxi company for the digital age… it’s blowing all sots of money [on] self driving-cars and China and now India. The company just so much reflects the megalomania of Travis Kalanick and whatever he thinks he’s doing.” One of the biggest issues that has left Uber’s business model hanging in the balance is its resistance to classifying its drivers—there are reportedly 600,000 in the U.S.—as employees, not contractors. If Uber is a house of cards, this is a key part of the foundation that, once removed, would demolish the structure. "It’s Bad At The Company Too It’s not just Uber drivers who feel downtrodden. A widely-circulated essay published last week by a former engineer described a series of incidents that painted the company’s headquarters as a space that fostered repeated, systemic sexual harassment." At the rate it’s going, Uber could crash and burn through its stockpile of cash by the end of the decade. Maybe Kalanick knows something we all don’t. Maybe Uber has a secret team of genius scientists who’ll surpass all expectations of driverless cars and, somehow, have a fully-automated fleet of vehicles for the company to use everywhere within a few years. Maybe billionaire investors are actually fine with propping up a money-losing venture into perpetuity. But until Uber can prove it has found a sustainable model—or, perhaps, stop the investor leaks of its financials—there’s little to suggest it has the bandwidth to survive. Whether it’s sold, drastically shrinks its market footprint, or just outright shutters, it’s untenable for Uber to exist long term as the tech juggernaut it is today. http://jalopnik.com/uber-is-doomed-1792634203