Uber Vows To Bury Lyft — With Money

Uber pledges to kill off Lyft's moves into other markets with free car rides.

In the Cold War of unregulated taxi cabs -- or in tech parlance, innovative transit alternatives -- Uber is channeling its inner Khrushchev.

Uber is working hard to make sure smaller Lyft doesn't get a share of emerging markets, according to PandoDaily.

The older car-booking service reacted to the pink-mustached competitor's move into St. Paul and Indianapolis by offering customers in those cities rides on UberX -- a lower-cost booking service -- for free.

Uber is able to do the competition-cutting move because of a recent $258 million windfall in raised capital, the tech website reported.

Uber and founder Travis Kalanick "are giving new meaning to the word" aggressive, wrote PandoDaily's Hamish McKenzie -- who identified a tinge of hypocrisy in Uber's business model: Uber likes to complain about how bad taxicabs are, but wants "similarly monopolistic powers" for itself.

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