Assertion Supported
Zimmer: App-based drivers support California's Prop 22 by four to one
“Four to one driver support Prop. 22 versus the alternative.”
Disclosure
Zimmer proposes $500 monthly Lyft subscriptions to replace personal car ownership
“We want to offer you transportation as a service. Instead of spending 9000 dollars a year to own and operate your vehicle, we want to sell you, maybe it's a 500 dollars a month subscription plan. Similar to how you buy minutes, you'll buy a thousand miles. And…”
Prediction Open · timeframe Nov 2038
Zimmer: People will not drive cars in major cities in 20 years
“In major urban environments, I do not think so. I think maybe we'll go to amusement parks to do that.”
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Zimmer predicted in 2017 that AVs would soon handle half of rides
“What's real is that over the next couple years, it'll be able to do A few percent of our trips, 10% of our trips, 50% of our trips.”
Assertion Contradicted
Zimmer: 3 percent of the US workforce had earned income on Lyft
“Yeah, there were, I think it was when I was leaving, like, three percent of the U.S. Workforce had, had earned on Lyft”
Opinion
Zimmer: Lyft's pandemic cuts were healthy for the business in hindsight
“Some of which I think actually In hindsight, we're very healthy for the business, but very difficult to make, especially for people that are all in this tough time where, where, where the job market is difficult.”
Assertion Supported
Zimmer: 86% of California Lyft drivers work under 20 hours a week
“The majority, something like 80% of our drivers Maybe in California it's 86% of drivers drive less than 20 hours a week.”
Disclosure
Zimmer: Lyft avoids mandatory rider photos because it would reduce ride volume
“We don't want it to be a blocker in the sense that we don't want to get less rides, which would be less income earning opportunities for you and the company. But we have increased the percent of riders that are posting a photo and we're working on more feature…”
Assertion Supported
Zimmer: Lyft had $100M and months of runway when Uber raised $3B
“We woke up one day, it was about four or five years ago, and Uber has raised three billion dollars, and we had a hundred million dollars left in the bank, which is a lot of money, but only a few more months left, and now you have this Crazy competitor who want…”
Opinion
John Zimmer: Congestion Pricing Is the Best Solution to Traffic Congestion
“Congestion pricing is the best solution. Getting more investment in public transportation is another solution, and those two things can be directly tied together.”
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Zimmer predicted autonomous cars would gradually handle a growing percentage of rides
“An autonomous car is not going to drop out of the sky and be able to do a hundred percent of our trips. That's not real. What's real is that over the next couple years, it'll be able to do A few percent of our trips, 10% of our trips, 50% of our trips.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zimmer: Lyft rides among essential workers increased during the pandemic
“We've seen a lot of essential workers using this way more because there are other options, potentially public transportation are things that they're more concerned about from a health safety perspective. And so we've seen those rides increase.”
Disclosure
Zimmer: Lyft refuses to build a consumer food delivery app
“So we have no intention to be another kind of food delivery consumer app. We will not do that, but there's a lot of small and local businesses That are having to pay 30%, 20% of their revenue to be on those platforms.”
Assertion Supported
Zimmer: Americans spend $9,000 annually on cars used 4% of the time
“Americans spend 9000 dollars every year owning and operating a car that they use four percent of the time. They spend more money on their car than they do on food than they do on health care. The only thing they spend more money on than their car is their hous…”
Opinion
Zimmer: Micromobility can become the fastest urban transit option
“In urban cores, micro mobility or bikes and scooters as those vehicles get better and better and safer and safer, and as the street infrastructure adapts to make the environment safer, absolutely, it can be the best way, the fastest way, the cleanest way, and …”
Insight
Zimmer: Autonomous vehicle adoption remains limited by technology and cost
“It's still a technology limitation and a cost limitation at this point. And so those haven't changed materially during this time.”
What-if
Zimmer: If founding Lyft today, I would start with a subscription service
“I think if we were starting over today, I might start with Pink, which we talked about as the subscription, as a way to get people to interact with Lyft. To say, hey, there's a membership service, it's gonna be more affordable than owning a car, and we're gonn…”
Assertion Supported
Zimmer: Lyft Introduced Driver Tipping and Weekly Rental Programs
“You know, we started tipping for drivers. We started rental cars that are completely flexible on a weekly basis for drivers.”
Disclosure
Zimmer: Lyft instructed employees not to gloat during Uber's crisis
“We told our team, this is not a time to gloat, and we mean that, and we meant that.”
Disclosure
Zimmer: Lyft prioritized US coverage over food delivery and global expansion
“We've chosen to be careful about international launches. We've chosen not to go into food delivery, but we did think having coverage in the United States for every American is a critical factor.”
Assertion Supported
Zimmer: US bus fares only cover about 30% of transit operating costs
“Across the country, when you pay to get on the bus, you're really only covering about 30% of the operating cost. So what that means is a three dollar bus fare actually costs the government 10.”
Assertion Supported
Lyft bypassed early taxi regulations by making passenger payments optional donations
“And so one of the ways that we saw around that was to say to make it optional for payment in the early days until we had forged through the right regulatory structure.”
Assertion Supported
Zimmer: California does not require background checks for limousine drivers
“We've gone above and beyond on the background checks, which actually still to this day for, ah, limos in, in California are not required.”
Prediction Held up
Zimmer: Lyft will likely offer monthly subscription miles plans for all transportation
“In fact, what you'll be able to do is buy, you know, likely a miles plan from us, a monthly subscription to handle all your transportation needs.”
John Zimmer