Two things about this news: 1.) Lyft is more attractive than Uber as a career destination right now, which must change for Uber’s evolution to succeed, and; 2.) Lyft’s participatory approach to designing a post-driving world is preferable to Uber’s historically domineering approach to city government.
Then, there is this quote from van Ryzin: “To me, it’s about how all these modes of transportation integrate… how do you smash all that stuff together seamlessly.” It is not simply a combination of transportation services that must mesh into a new consumer tool. Logistics and personal services integration are essential to reconfiguring local customer experience.
Garrett van Ryzin, a professor at Columbia Business School and Cornell Tech, will lead Lyft’s new Marketplace Labs, where he’ll oversee a team of applied scientists and technologists working on enhancing the current ride-sharing experience and better integrating Lyft with public transportation systems. He will report directly to Lyft’s new VP of engineering, Luc Vincent, who has been tasked with leading the company’s quest to develop its own self-driving car technology.
Source: Lyft hires Uber’s pricing expert to help figure out its impact on the city of the future – The Verge