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Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

wsj.com

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Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#231

Post by rjbwork »

ianamartin wrote: post #206

Am I the only one who laughs when I see, "Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., . . . ."? Umm, who reading this article doesn't know who Google is? That construction is almost always there to let you know who some no-name subsidiary or division of a much more well-known company is. In this case it functions in the reverse if at all--reminding people that Alphabet is a thing, in case you didn't know. Anyway, I just think t…

WSJ's primary audience is folks in business or finance. From my understanding, they have automated aggregators and algorithms that consume those articles, and look for constructs like that for tagging/categorization.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#232

Post by oldmanjay »

doomtop wrote: post #120
TheOneTrueKyle wrote: post #94

When I was younger and financially unstable, I had a decision to make. Take a crappy restaurant job or live out of my car. I chose to live out of my car. Every time I hear the argument that people in the restaurant industry are getting unfair pay, I ask myself, "I wonder who made that decision to work there in the first place" Stop this bullshit tipping. These people made a choice and then chose to complain about it.…

Your privilege is showing. Not everyone who "chose" the job they have really has a choice. It's just not that simple. BOH employee pay rates are generally not based on the assumption of tips the way they are for FOH employees. And don't forget, BOH employees don't have to deal with the way some people treat service workers.

It's very bizarre to me that the younger generations are learning to throw shame at people for not being in bad circumstances, particularly given the mixed-at-best results shaming produces.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#233

Post by imaginenore »

LordHumungous wrote: post #163

I was actually just thinking about this the other day- why doesn't a large tech company with lots of cash create a ride service which basically lets the driver keep everything? Uber can't possibly compete. Google can destroy them before they can become a threat in other tech spaces.

Network effect + first mover advantage. It takes a lot of time and money to develop the community if there already are major players.

In this particular case Google would have so spend a shit ton of money on advertising, and it's not guaranteed to work. They failed with Google+.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#234

Post by Gustomaximus »

euyyn wrote: post #183
ChuckMcM wrote: post #144

Ok, not unexpected given that Drummond stepped back from being a board member, of course they got that seat by buying nearly 7% of the company[1]. Which if they had sold it to the other investors who came in on $62.5B round[2] they could have taken about $900M out which they could use to start their own ride sharing service. Sort of like drinking the Unicorn's blood to create a spell that will kill the Unicorn. The i…

You're saying all that as if, right before Drummond stepping back, Uber hadn't announced that they'd start doing self-driving cars, pretty much forcing him to step down out of conflict of interest.

Uber are also developing their own maps. So clearly steering their own path from Google by taking these 2 steps.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#235

Post by morgante »

mmanfrin wrote: post #3

Honestly I wish they wouldn't try to compete on price. Maybe I'm alone with this, but I'd rather not feel obligated to tip a driver because the ride is so cheap. Pay them a living wage, let me pay the exact fee, and let me not have to carry goddamn cash like I used to in the era of Taxis. e: Addressing common replies: "This is for people commuting already" -- okay, point taken; my point about Uber/Lyft still stands.…

> "Tipping isn't obligatory"

In what way is it obligatory? The vast majority of Uber riders don't tip, and have no intention of doing so.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#236

Post by HappyTypist »

dragonwriter wrote: post #136
mintplant wrote: post #132

I've noticed Google Maps will sometimes give me Uber ads when I'm looking up directions ("this route only $N on Uber" or such). Idle speculation but I wonder if this was a mistake for Uber -- perhaps Google has seen a high rate of click-through on these and will now try to get in on that action themselves.

In some places (all, IIRC, outside of the US), the Google Maps ride service feature already supports non-Uber ridesharing services. In the US, I think it only has Uber, but its basically a feature that lets GMaps be a platform for commoditizing ride services.

Nah. In many cities Uber is the only service.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#237

Post by maxerickson »

icebraining wrote: post #157
ghurtado wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is a bit of a chicken and egg problem, isn't it? You could just as easily argue that the wages are so low because tipping is pretty much a given.

It's actually enshrined into law - restaurants are allowed to pay less than minimum wage because of tipping. It's a perversion of the whole norm, since it effectively turns tipping into a subsidy to the restaurant owner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_Stat...

As your link says, they are not allowed to pay less than minimum wage. They are allowed to set hourly wages for tipped employees lower than minimum wage, but they have to ensure that the total compensation of the employee averages out to minimum wage.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#238

Post by hackernews2000 »

morgante wrote: post #235
mmanfrin wrote: post #3

Honestly I wish they wouldn't try to compete on price. Maybe I'm alone with this, but I'd rather not feel obligated to tip a driver because the ride is so cheap. Pay them a living wage, let me pay the exact fee, and let me not have to carry goddamn cash like I used to in the era of Taxis. e: Addressing common replies: "This is for people commuting already" -- okay, point taken; my point about Uber/Lyft still stands.…

> "Tipping isn't obligatory" In what way is it obligatory? The vast majority of Uber riders don't tip, and have no intention of doing so.

They must have meant "culturally obligatory". Americans (at least New Yorkers) have a tradition of giving generous tips to all workers they perceive as not making a living wage.

In other countries, tipping isn't as common and can be even be seen as rude (in Japan, for example).

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#239

Post by morgante »

hackernews2000 wrote: post #238
morgante wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Tipping isn't obligatory" In what way is it obligatory? The vast majority of Uber riders don't tip, and have no intention of doing so.

They must have meant "culturally obligatory". Americans (at least New Yorkers) have a tradition of giving generous tips to all workers they perceive as not making a living wage. In other countries, tipping isn't as common and can be even be seen as rude (in Japan, for example).

I'm American and live in New York.

You don't tip Uber drivers. I'm sure some small percentage of people do, but it's definitely not the expectation.

(Taxi drivers, on the other hand, do expect tips.)

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#240

Post by TheOneTrueKyle »

oldmanjay wrote: post #232
doomtop wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your privilege is showing. Not everyone who "chose" the job they have really has a choice. It's just not that simple. BOH employee pay rates are generally not based on the assumption of tips the way they are for FOH employees. And don't forget, BOH employees don't have to deal with the way some people treat service workers.

It's very bizarre to me that the younger generations are learning to throw shame at people for not being in bad circumstances, particularly given the mixed-at-best results shaming produces.

It honestly blows my mind especially since I was describing a somewhat bad circumstance I was once in.

Granted my initial response was somewhat hostile. Nonetheless, I don't understand my own generation sometimes.

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