<story><title>Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all</title><url>https://www.economist.com/business/uber-doordash-and-similar-firms-cant-defy-the-laws-of-capitalism-after-all/21806198</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>xyzzy21</author><text>Ultimately you can NOT &amp;quot;magically&amp;quot; negate &amp;quot;Last Mile Costs&amp;quot; in cities and towns where the Last Mile path distance is enormous.&lt;p&gt;Did my MBA thesis on this subject with the benefit of 20 years of engineering experience.  The numbers simply do not work unless you change how cities and residences are built, which would cost far more than you&amp;#x27;d ever gain from solving Last Mile costs - the breakeven time is of the order of 100-200 years!&lt;p&gt;The VERY WORST are US-style suburbs.  The best would be Asian-style urban - which NO US CITY is other than some parts of Manhattan.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>Would love to read your thesis if you’re willing to share.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber, DoorDash and similar firms can’t defy the laws of capitalism after all</title><url>https://www.economist.com/business/uber-doordash-and-similar-firms-cant-defy-the-laws-of-capitalism-after-all/21806198</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>xyzzy21</author><text>Ultimately you can NOT &amp;quot;magically&amp;quot; negate &amp;quot;Last Mile Costs&amp;quot; in cities and towns where the Last Mile path distance is enormous.&lt;p&gt;Did my MBA thesis on this subject with the benefit of 20 years of engineering experience.  The numbers simply do not work unless you change how cities and residences are built, which would cost far more than you&amp;#x27;d ever gain from solving Last Mile costs - the breakeven time is of the order of 100-200 years!&lt;p&gt;The VERY WORST are US-style suburbs.  The best would be Asian-style urban - which NO US CITY is other than some parts of Manhattan.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fumar</author><text>What do you think about last mile delivery robots? &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.kiwibot.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.kiwibot.com&lt;/a&gt; These little bots don&amp;#x27;t require the same level of human physical presence as Uber or DoorDash.</text></comment>