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Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

nytimes.com

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Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#211

Post by bigbugbag »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #53
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lyft - Uber might be a Facebook - MySpace story.

Actually, it's on a smaller scale but I was thinking a "Digg - Reddit" analogy was more appropriate. Reddit was much smaller than Digg for years: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2005-06-01%202... . Reddit was definitely "the little engine that could" for about 6 years, but it was really in 2010 when Digg imploded with the self-inflicted wounds of Digg v4 when Reddit really took off. In other words, MySp…

I remember differently, the release of digg v4 was the last nail in the digg coffing and the tipping point happened about a year before that with the famous ncomment 'Digg vs Reddit' webcomics. When this got to digg front page, well, let's say it was right on point.

Sorry, I know flickr sucks but it seems ncomment original website is now gone, the comics survived on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25036088@N06/sets/721576159246...

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#212

Post by MarkMc »

neosat wrote: post #117

This could be a longer term death blow for Lyft, ironically. If Google has the self driving tech, the car & car partnerships, the money, maps, access to end consumers, what exactly does it need Lyft for? Lyft will be a vehicle for Google to kickstart and test this out with a current ride sharing network before Lyft is cut off ...

I think you are confusing the long term and short term outlook.

In the short term Waymo will have a very strong bargaining position because their technology is so advanced - Lyft cannot buy self driving tech from anyone else.

But in 10 years Lyft will be able to choose from a half dozen companies offering self driving tech. 'Ride sharing' will be a cut-throat commodity business like airlines, but Lyft won't be at a particular disadvantage compared to other companies in the industry.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#213

Post by grkhetan »

williamsmj wrote: post #32
melling wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd just like to point out that we really don't want to Uber to die. The market will be healthier if Uber and lift are both successful.

Nah, we really do want them to die. Couldn't happen to a nicer company. If it's competition you're concerned about: they have a well documented record of sabotaging their competition, rather than winning on merits. They're not good for the market they are in, which is bad for all of us. There are also some other reasons we want them to die, relating to their being an abusive employer, which I'd like to think would ha…

I wouldnt want Uber to die. They were one who created the ride-sharing market and the industry fighting against all outdated regulations. They may have done "sabotaging" their competition once several years ago -- there's no record of them having done it in the last 2-3 years. Btw, Lyft also has done similar stuff.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#214

Post by Zarel »

chillydawg wrote: post #190
nodesocket wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there are only a handful of places in the US where Uber is banned. Contrary to popular belief (and intentionally propagated by smear campaigns), Uber wasn't banned in Austin TX... they pulled out of that market voluntarily.

That's like believing a politician is ACTUALLY resigning to spend more time with their family.

You are so wrong I don't know where to start.

You're talking about a situation where a politician resigns to avoid being impeached or otherwise deposed.

That has basically zero to do with Uber and Lyft leaving Austin. We know exactly what laws Austin has (laws are not secret). And it's not like it's remotely unclear what happened: Uber and Lyft left in protest of the law requiring background checks for them. You could speculate that they were trying to strong-arm Austin into repealing that law, but it didn't work.

But there's zero reason to believe that they were secretly forced out, unlike the case with the politician, where the incentives are obvious.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#215

Post by pg314 »

prostoalex wrote: post #99
BigJono wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be a factor, but not a major one. Say you expect to spend $30,000 on the car and $20,000 on repairs over a lifetime of 10 years (that's probably well on the high side, say you picked out a shitbox that always breaks down). At $15/h wage and $50/week in petrol, running the car 40 hours a week (probably on the low side, a lot of taxi drivers I know have 2-3 drivers to a car and would run it more like 120 hours), y…

The lifetime of a vehicle is better expressed in terms of miles, not years, and for most models probably ends up being close to 200,000 miles. While a generic vehicle owned by an average family will take 10 years to reach that, a for-hire vehicle gets quite a bit more mileage. One expense that people tend to leave out is the cleaning, both on the inside and outside. Someone has to take care of those car washes, and w…

> With the driverless model I see those expenses increasing, as without a chaperon passengers are more likely to eat, drink, puke, and in general misbehave (source: I've been inside some BART and LA Metro cars).

You're anonymous in a metro, you won't be in a driverless car. They can charge you for the clean-up.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#216

Post by Zarel »

bigbugbag wrote: post #185
Fricken wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last week Tesla began collecting short sections of video data from those with their new in-house Autopilot hardware. So really, Tesla's just getting started, and they're doing it with underpowered sensors and compute. https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/8/15581094/tesla-autopilot-u... Waymo was ahead of where Tesla is now back in 2012. In a demonstration capacity, Waymo's cars were working 5 years ago, but in the intermi…

It is a matter of point of view, how many waymo car have been sold to customers ? how many waymo cars are out of the waymo car factories every months ? There are several things to tackle and different approaches to things, the DARPA grand challenge is the practical one and waymo did not took part in any edition AFAIK.

From Waymo's wiki page: "Google's self driving car project was formerly led by Sebastian Thrun (...). Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense. The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges."

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#217

Post by nolok »

drcross wrote: post #155
remus wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The logs might be pretty big, so it might have a significant impact on people on metered internet connections.

Not if it's only greyscale camera data and some point cloud data which is heavily compressible.

But then you're back to square one : that data is much less detailed than what waymo gets.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#218

Post by CPLX »

quonn wrote: post #174
CPLX wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the finance fundamentals of Uber are truly horrible. Their only explanation for literally lighting billions of dollars in funds on fire to subsidize rides is supposedly to consolidate market share. If they don't have a defensible position and they lose money on every transaction what exactly do they have to show for it?

> literally lighting billions of dollars in funds on fire Figuratively. But even that's not true, since customers have saved real money and spent it elsewhere.

Literally.

Usage #2: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#219

Post by drKarl »

eloisant wrote: post #189

What would be the benefit for consumer if lyft/uber switch to driverless cars? Are we going to see a huge price drop or just a bump for these companies profits?

Probably enough price drop to beat competitors and attract most of the market share, and still have a higher profit, which would be a win-win except for competitors

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#220

Post by Tepix »

grkhetan wrote: post #204
enraged_camel wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Sure Uber is losing gobs of money, but that's not the most important metric at this stage for them. Look at Tesla, they lost 330 million in 2017 Q1. Apples and oranges. Tesla is losing money because they are investing massive amounts of capital to improve their supply chain and production capabilities. Uber is losing money because they subsidize rides to try to push competitors out of business. Tesla is actually pr…

"Uber is losing money because they subsidize rides to try to push competitors out of business." ?? I think thats the wrong way to phrase this. Uber is loosing money as Uber and its competitors are giving a lot of incentives to drivers to win business. All of them are loosing money.

I think the original statement was accurate. And it's not working. Uber will have a rough awakening.
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