Jeff Holden is Uber’s Chief Product Officer (since early 2014), where he focuses on future disruption threats and
relevant paradigm shifts. Jeff founded the Advanced Technology Group that developed Uber’s self-driving technology and is currently building Uber’s AI Lab.
Prior to Uber, he was the Senior Vice President of Product Management at Groupon (2011-2014), and before Groupon, Jeff was the co-founder and CEO of Pelago (2006-2011), whose flagship product, Whrrl, was designed to help people escape their social rut and discover new things in their cities. Previous to this, Jeff was at Amazon.com (1997-2006). For the latter half of his tenure there, he was SVP of Consumer Applications, Worldwide. He was responsible for the worldwide consumer website experience, including personalization, ordering, community, search, automated merchandising and online traffic (Associates, SEM/SEO). One of his proudest accomplishments during this period was leading the development of Amazon Prime. Earlier at Amazon, Jeff led the development of Amazon’s supply chain technology, evolving it from a script and a modem to the architecture still largely in place today.
Prior to Amazon, he worked at D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. in New York from 1992 to 1997, where he joined fresh out of school as a software engineer working with Jeff Bezos to develop Shaw’s third-market strategy. Jeff attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1986-1991, where he earned a BS and MS in Computer Science.
Almost two months ago – I wrote a blog post about how the car service with the pink mustaches is launching in Pittsburgh. It looks like Pittsburgh has embraced this transportation alternative.
I was actually in the middle of writing a post about how Lyft is another transportation option to get from the city to the airport. Until today the Lyft drivers would only pick up in the city coverage area. But, that just changed with the announcement that Lyft has expanded their coverage area in Pittsburgh.
Lyft Coverage Area Now Includes the Pittsburgh Airport
Lyft has expanded the pick up area in Pittsburgh to include the Pittsburgh airport. So a Lyft driver can now pick up a passenger anywhere in the city and west to the Airport. Lyft drivers are authorized to drive passengers upto 60 miles from the pick up spot (Lyft Driver FAQ).
I used Lyft twice last month to get to the Pittsburgh airport. A ride from the east end cost about $50. Drivers will drop you right at the airport.
Pittsburgh Lyft – Available 24 Hours a Day
Additionally – Lyft now operates 24 hours a day in the city of Pittsburgh. The hours in February we only 7am to 1am and 7am to 3am on Friday and Saturdays.
Have you used Lyft or Uber in Pittsburgh yet? What do you think?
I have only used Lyft thus far, and I know several people who drive for Uber. Yes, there are some risks in this model of peer-to-peer ride sharing. Overall, I think that having alternatives to drinking and driving in Pittsburgh is an important step for safety of all residents of Pittsburgh. It would be great to have more taxi cabs on the street and accessible.
Have you used these services yet? What are your thoughts?
(Thanks to Lyft driver and Muffin Maker Get Mo Muffins for the heads up on the expanded coverage area)
If you are interested in learning more about Lyft – here are some blog posts you might like…
I think that one of the things that keeps Pittsburgh from being competitive with other cities is transit. Both transit to and from the city and transit within the city limits.
Can New Apps/Services Address the Cab Problem in Pittsburgh?
If you go to most major US cities – you can hail a cab. It is no secret that, unless you are standing at a downtown hotel, it is near impossible to get a cab in this city.
The lack of access to cabs causes all kinds of problems and puts more cars on the streets, more cars mean we need more parking. More parking means we need more parking garages. The lack of access to cabs also leads to more drinking and driving.
There are three startup companies that have been working on the cab situation in other cities – Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. We’ve heard rumors that Uber has been looking at Pittsburgh for a while and we know they have just hired a Pittsburgh representative. (There is also a local startup CabbyGo but I haven’t learned much about them).
Lyft is launching in Pittsburgh tomorrow (Friday, February 7) – and I think this is a big deal for this town. Lyft is a community ride service and the Lyft cars are identified by pink mustaches.
Image via CrunchBase
What is Lyft?
From the Lyft website:
Lyft is like having a friend with a car whenever you need one. Simply download the app, request a Lyft and you’ll be on your way in minutes with a friendly, background-checked community driver. It’s more fun and costs less than a cab.
Lyft is more than just an alternative to a cab, they seem to be building an extensive community of riders and drivers. Check out the intro to Lyft video here for more details on the service and the community aspect.
So, your excited about riding in cars with strangers? Is that safe?
I will be the first to admit that I was very skeptical of the idea of riding in a strangers car or driving other people in my car. But I think the Lyft service is worth a look and from everything I’ve read – I think it is pretty safe. All of the drivers have passed a background check and are interviewed by the Lyft staff.
I’ve heard great thing about Lyft and I wanted to learn more. I downloaded the app and applied to be a driver. Watching the driver education videos really changed my opinion of the service. Even if you don’t want to become a driver, I would recommend that you download the app and start the application. The first step of applying is to watch three videos about the service. I’ve tried to find those videos online but apparently they are only available in the driver application.
Help Lyft Launch in Pittsburgh – Get Free Rides for Two Weeks
To help kick off Lyft’s service in Pittsburgh – you can become a Lyft Pioneer and your rides for the next two weeks are free. You can get the details on becoming a Lyft Pioneer in Pittsburgh on this post I wrote for the c-leveled blog.
You can follow Lyft on Twitter @Lyft and use the #LyftOffPittsburgh to share your Lyft experiences.
Here are some more articles about Lyft, Uber and SideCar
