Dave Lee, Columnist

Uber Really Needs Lyft to Stay in the Rideshare Race

San Francisco’s fiercest startup rivalry is over. But Uber can’t win without its main competitor.

It’s hard being No. 1.

Photographer: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images Europe

The long-held assumption about Uber Technologies Inc. has been that it would only make real money via one of two routes.

The first is self-driving cars become a reality and there’s no more need to pay human drivers. Well, forget that, ain’t gonna happen — at least not for many years.