Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: We have the Lyft CEO, David Risher, standing by with
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Technologies Ed Ludlow out in San Francisco.
Speaker 3: It was kind of astonishing, right is The stock as
Speaker 3: of yesterday's close was down four percent year to day
Speaker 3: and now we're up thirty percent in the session.
Speaker 1: How things change? David Richard, good morning, Good morning. Let's see.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm like. I don't want to get
Speaker 3: into numbers that have already been discussed on the call.
Speaker 3: You know, great outlook for the quarter, the full year,
Speaker 3: the future. What is different about Lyft now?
Speaker 4: Well, so I've been in the job about eighteen months
Speaker 4: and I've been I think, laser focused since day one.
Speaker 1: Customer obsession, customer obsession every time I come up, I mean, David,
Speaker 1: come on, yeah, so fair.
Speaker 4: It means we want to provide a level of service
Speaker 4: that is above and beyond anything you have any reason
Speaker 4: to expect. And right now we're picking riders up faster
Speaker 4: than we've ever before. We have more drivers on the
Speaker 4: platform we've ever had before. Drivers prefer us twelve points
Speaker 4: over the other guy, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the guy's name come, I'm.
Speaker 4: Not going to talk about those guys. I don't even
Speaker 4: know who you're talking about. Really, I got a little
Speaker 4: confused there. But anyway, the point being that the better
Speaker 4: you do for your riders, the better you for your drivers,
Speaker 4: the more people respond. And that's where we've got all
Speaker 4: the records that you're seeing.
Speaker 1: Just very quick.
Speaker 3: Detail matters when it comes to consumer behaviors psychology. My
Speaker 3: research and understanding is that LIFT is very much the
Speaker 3: commuter space right now. Urban area San Francisco is one
Speaker 3: example where we are. Tell me more about that.
Speaker 4: Sure, so about you're right Monday to Friday, about half
Speaker 4: our rides.
Speaker 1: Or commute rides, which is enormous.
Speaker 4: Just think of the time people are saving not having
Speaker 4: to drive themselves and so forth. We introduce something called
Speaker 4: price lock a while back, which allows people to lock
Speaker 4: in a price get rid of surge pricing, which you know,
Speaker 4: I'm no fan of, neither is anybody else.
Speaker 1: And that's had a.
Speaker 4: Great effect on commute because commute people take the same
Speaker 4: ride every day, but they don't like to see the
Speaker 4: price bounce around.
Speaker 1: So it's been a huge success.
Speaker 4: We've got about two hundred thousan people who've got a
Speaker 4: price lock pass right now keeps.
Speaker 1: Growing autonomous vehicles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I want to have a really honest conversation
Speaker 3: about this. As you know, it's something that I work
Speaker 3: on every single day. Our colleagues at Bloomberg Intelligence, our
Speaker 3: research arms say that you face disintermediation risk because you're small.
Speaker 3: You announce the partnership with Mobili, which is a maker
Speaker 3: of sensors and system under chap. Don't see it. I
Speaker 3: don't understand how that gets you to market with offering
Speaker 3: autonomous rides on your platform.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, love the question.
Speaker 4: So first, I think avis are going to be a
Speaker 4: huge accelerant. Actually say a tam expander address them or
Speaker 4: an expander for a lift, because I think.
Speaker 1: What it's going to do is it's going.
Speaker 4: To bring new product onto the platform. If people are
Speaker 4: going to like some people are going to like being
Speaker 4: driven by human, some people are going to think being
Speaker 4: driven by.
Speaker 1: Robot is pretty cool. Some use cases favor one or
Speaker 1: the other.
Speaker 4: So anyway, I think the hybrid future is what we're
Speaker 4: looking at over time. Now, Mobili, they make the sensors,
Speaker 4: they made the tech. You probably have them in your.
Speaker 1: Car right now.
Speaker 4: Laying assist smart cruise control, all that stuff that's level two.
Speaker 4: Level four is full self driving. So imagine a world
Speaker 4: where mobile ie tech, which might drow up in a
Speaker 4: Honda or a GM or a Ford or a Stilantis
Speaker 4: or a Volvo or whatever.
Speaker 1: Imagine that you could push a button saying, you.
Speaker 4: Know what, push this button, and your car is now
Speaker 4: available on the lift platform to pick people up and
Speaker 4: pick them up.
Speaker 1: Wherever they are whatever.
Speaker 4: So it's a way to sort of, you know, today,
Speaker 4: if you want to drive for a lift, that means
Speaker 4: you're using your time and your car.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow, maybe you just use your car. You're getting somewhere now.
Speaker 3: Because what you're describing is very similar to Elon Musk's
Speaker 3: vision for the.
Speaker 1: Tesla Proprietary Act.
Speaker 3: If you're a Tesla owner, you can submit your vehicle
Speaker 3: to the fleet and when you're not using it works
Speaker 3: more like Airbnb, that's right, than any other platform. But
Speaker 3: again it's very hard for people to see the jump there.
Speaker 3: I'll let you answer, But you know Uber and Weimo
Speaker 3: for example, it's very tangible. You can summon a waim
Speaker 3: in those future markets next year Austin in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: Yeah, where are we right?
Speaker 4: I gottah well, so look, so we're doing both, right,
Speaker 4: So we just signed an agreement with me Mobility, which
Speaker 4: is also does full self driving in it Atlanta and
Speaker 4: that'll be available next year.
Speaker 1: So that's fantastic.
Speaker 4: So that means if you want to have that EXPERI
Speaker 4: and by the way, we've given one hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: thousand rides in Las Vegas with a prior partner as well,
Speaker 4: so we've got some on the ground stuff going on,
Speaker 4: which is great and I think it's really important. But
Speaker 4: I also think the future where a lot of us individuals,
Speaker 4: people who drive today people anyway, anyone who has a car,
Speaker 4: if it's a self driving car, should also be able
Speaker 4: to be put on the lift platform. By the way,
Speaker 4: I would extend that to Tesla as well. I don't
Speaker 4: you use the word proprietor. I think that's right. There's
Speaker 4: no particular reason why as a Tesla owner you wouldn't
Speaker 4: want to necessarily participate on the lift platform too. So
Speaker 4: that's kind of the future we're trying to build towards.
Speaker 3: I mean, it looks to up twenty nine percent, and
Speaker 3: so I guess the market leaves this vision of the future. Yeah,
Speaker 3: any evidence that weimo in San Francisco is taking market
Speaker 3: share from yourselves and Uber.
Speaker 4: So we look at Waymou much more as a potential
Speaker 4: partner than a competitor. Look, if you're a Waymo, you
Speaker 4: want to be and it's it's not.
Speaker 1: Your partner that Uber's partner.
Speaker 4: Oh, but they'll be both over time. I'm not making
Speaker 4: a prediction exactly. I'm simply saying if you're in the
Speaker 4: business of creating very expensive assets like self driving cars,
Speaker 4: you want them utilized. You want them on the road,
Speaker 4: and the way you put them on the road.
Speaker 1: Is you don't just do it yourself.
Speaker 4: You end up partnering with a couple of other people
Speaker 4: who've got that demand built in, which we we do
Speaker 4: two million rides a day as it is. So I
Speaker 4: think if you're one of those companies, your whole job
Speaker 4: is get the tech, reliable, safe, inexpensive, and then commercialize
Speaker 4: it in a bunch of different ways. And we want
Speaker 4: to be one of the best partners for them we
Speaker 4: can be.
Speaker 1: David, I have a.
Speaker 2: Question about New York City since I'm here. I saw
Speaker 2: ad somewhere online yesterday that said Uber drivers make thirty
Speaker 2: five dollars an hour per online hour, which I thought
Speaker 2: was kind of cheap because I know that Uber and
Speaker 2: Lyft are locking drivers out of the platform for some
Speaker 2: part of the day that they can't possibly calculate or know,
Speaker 2: so they end up spending hours at their job in
Speaker 2: which they don't make money. How much longer are you
Speaker 2: going to be doing that to drivers and why?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So it's frustrating as hell. We do not want to
Speaker 4: do this. Drivers don't like it.
Speaker 1: We don't like it. What's going on?
Speaker 4: First, I don't know about that thirty five dollars an hour. Actually,
Speaker 4: I think the number that I know for New York
Speaker 4: is more like forty an hour engaged. But anyway, they've
Speaker 4: got their numbers, we've got ours.
Speaker 2: But the drivers we followed around are making more like
Speaker 2: fifteen dollars an hour, right, because they end up being
Speaker 2: in their car and locked out of the platform for
Speaker 2: a considerable portion of the day.
Speaker 1: Totally.
Speaker 4: Yeah, super super frustrating. It's not something that we want
Speaker 4: to do. It's something we feel like we're forced to
Speaker 4: do because of a particular regulatory framework that only exists
Speaker 4: in New York City, doesn't exist in New York State,
Speaker 4: doesn't exist in the rest of the country, and in
Speaker 4: the rest of the country, even in New York State.
Speaker 4: We've done all sorts of work to make sure that
Speaker 4: drivers never get locked out of the platform. But there's
Speaker 4: this peculiarity around New York and how the regulations are
Speaker 4: written that are putting, you know, both the other guys
Speaker 4: and us in this terrible position of having to sometimes
Speaker 4: turn drivers supply down just to meet what's called utilization requirement.
Speaker 4: So believe me, we're talking to the regulators. We don't
Speaker 4: like it, and I don't think it so it's good
Speaker 4: for anyone. I think it's an unintended consequence of a
Speaker 4: well intentioned idea of let's make drivers make more.
Speaker 1: And I think it's just having the opposite effect. Lift's
Speaker 1: doing more.
Speaker 3: I think about some of the partnerships we had the
Speaker 3: Doors CFO on the show this this past week.
Speaker 1: It's an example.
Speaker 3: But again, you and I have had this conversation, let's say,
Speaker 3: what a dozen times now, what's the next thing for LIFT?
Speaker 3: The new business lines, for example, Like some people find
Speaker 3: it really interesting whether you sell more of your data
Speaker 3: to the OEMs. It's a really interesting case study.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, let me talk about partnerships in general.
Speaker 4: So you know, we're Our focus is ride share, right,
Speaker 4: That's what we focus on. So when you focus, you
Speaker 4: can do great work, which means you can have more riders,
Speaker 4: more drivers, better experience, better service. But it also means
Speaker 4: if you want to really meet your customers where they are,
Speaker 4: you need to partner, right, So we just as a
Speaker 4: partnership with Door Dash. As you say, I think if
Speaker 4: it is two great tastes to go great together, I
Speaker 4: think it's an old resents peanut butter thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe it doesn't land.
Speaker 4: In the UK, but anyway, in the US we talk
Speaker 4: about been long enough. You be here long it o
Speaker 4: you kind of know you've you've drunk the col you've eaten,
Speaker 4: you've eaten the cup. But anyway, the point is you
Speaker 4: can save up both as a dash pass user. You
Speaker 4: can save on lift is Lyft, you can save on
Speaker 4: dash Pass. So that's a great you know, type of partnership.
Speaker 4: We've already announced and I encourage you to link your accounsel.
Speaker 4: So but anyway, we'll do more and more of that.
Speaker 4: So as we provide incredible transportation service, get you out
Speaker 4: to the world, connect with other people. We want to
Speaker 4: work with other partners who can make the experience even.
Speaker 3: Bigger David president electrom what's Lift's plan for the next
Speaker 3: administration and what the world looks like?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know exactly what the world looks like,
Speaker 4: but I can tell you this.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 4: We work at the federal level with you know, with
Speaker 4: all of the administrations over the last ten years, right,
Speaker 4: And our big focus at the federal level actually gets
Speaker 4: back to an asked question, how can we have sort
Speaker 4: of federal level legislation that actually helps us recognize that
Speaker 4: drivers are they're not full time employees. Frankly, it doesn't
Speaker 4: exactly feel like independent contractor either.
Speaker 1: Fully, it feels like a blend of both.
Speaker 4: And how can we find a national strategy that kind
Speaker 4: of gives them better fits and so forth. That's what
Speaker 4: we're focused on the national level. We also do a
Speaker 4: ton of work at the state level and the local level.
Speaker 4: Here in San Francisco. We met with the mayor a
Speaker 4: couple of months ago. We don't know if she'll be
Speaker 4: the mayor of the future or future person, but anyway
Speaker 4: about how can we bring more life to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Just really quick.
Speaker 3: HeLa Musk, on Tesla's last segning Schools, said that in
Speaker 3: the scenario of its Department of Government Efficiency. He'd use
Speaker 3: that platform to work towards federal level regulation of autonomous
Speaker 3: cause do you support that idea and what do you
Speaker 3: want to see happen?
Speaker 1: I absolutely support it.
Speaker 4: Of course, you know a lot of work has to
Speaker 4: be done to come up with smart regulation there.
Speaker 1: But the reason we support it is simple.
Speaker 4: It's not super fun to have fifty different states to
Speaker 4: work with with fifty different regulations.
Speaker 1: Nobody likes it. You've got to test the things and
Speaker 1: so forth. A certain point.
Speaker 4: Though, you need to take a stance, you know, at
Speaker 4: the country level.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Look, I think autonomous vehicles are going to be safer.
Speaker 4: They know the laws, they follow the laws that you know,
Speaker 4: they've got eight eyes to our two, so you know they're.
Speaker 1: Going to be safer.
Speaker 4: But it's going to be one of the things we're
Speaker 4: gonna have to step in its step by step so
Speaker 4: that you know, Frank, it works for all of humanity.
Speaker 1: Not just for the robots.
Speaker 3: David Richard LIPSI thank you very much for being here.