I suppose the argument goes: if anyone can approach that optimality, it's a company with a large fleet of repurposable drivers.
Being able to dispatch to a driver in motion depends on having a suitable driver available.
I'm still doubtful it can ever work, for the reasons people mentioned above. But the realistic game is that Uber becomes the new Yelp and strongarms restaurants for a share of their profit, in return for customer access / promotion. (Which I have pretty strong feelings about as an ethical business model, but that's just my opinion...)
Uber and the like already take a share of the profit, last time I chatted to a restaurant owner while waiting to pick up some food I'd ordered even Just Eat, who don't even provide delivery services, take a 15% cut of the order value. Uber/Delivery I believe are taking 20-30% of the order value, which given the margins on takeout food feels like its leaving basically nothing on the table for the actual restaurant.
Other way I see it working out is Uber gets so optimized that they can have a driver double dip with a delivery and passengers going on the same route.
Being able to dispatch to a driver in motion depends on having a suitable driver available.
I'm still doubtful it can ever work, for the reasons people mentioned above. But the realistic game is that Uber becomes the new Yelp and strongarms restaurants for a share of their profit, in return for customer access / promotion. (Which I have pretty strong feelings about as an ethical business model, but that's just my opinion...)