It may be the case they are losing money on rides - it may not be - you said it yourself 'I dont have all the data'. I dont think people should be so quick to say they are losing money unless you see the real numbers - which none of us will ever see until they do an IPO.
In my experience, the drivers are usually very happy to talk about Uber - including how much they're making. They will often tell you what they're getting paid for the same ride, which you can compare to how much you're paying. I have never seen them get paid less than what I was paying, and am often surprised how much more they're making (it can be 3x depending on the promotions).
Yes, this data is limited. But all signs point towards Uber hemorrhaging money with no easy way of becoming profitable. And we know that competition can easily swoop in by looking at Austin, where Uber and Lyft left. It's a race to the bottom until self-driving cars are a reality.
The maths in that article is terrible, all venture backed startups will have expenditure > revenue (because you're investing today for future revenue), you have to look at unit economics to understand if this is a problem or not (i.e. do customers cost more to service than revenue they generate).
