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Lyft Self-Driving

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Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#151

Post by sandworm101 »

losteric wrote: post #105
sandworm101 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And anyone with more than a handbag to carry. Many workers travel with tools. Im going to training next month and have to bring about 80lbs of various stuff with me. Hauling that in and out of busses, not to mention finding places to secure it while i sleep/eat, wouldnt be much fun. But it all fits in my car nicely. And no, i cannot send it by courier.

What kind of tools? Is there a functional reason for lugging your tools back and forth, or is that just how it's done? Could you leave those tools at work/training if they had secure storage? Alternatively, could the training facility offer a set of training tools while you keep your personal set at home for training?

Im in the military. Its a pile of cloathing, tent and other junk for survival training. A few days at a base in the woods learning to start fires. But it is 0430 now. My alarm just woke me up. I need to be at my office in an hour, where ill take over responsabilities from someone who started thier day before midnight. It's before dawn on december 26th. It's cold. The busses arent running. The uber drivers are all asleep. Some of us still have to get to work.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#152

Post by smt88 »

petre wrote: post #119
smt88 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking and mass transit suck for people who are: traveling with kids, obese, disabled, short on time, carrying groceries, elderly, and/or in a place with bad weather. That's not even mentioning people who can't afford to live in dense, central urban environments. Self-driving, solar cars solve all problems of mass transit and are far cheaper, since they use existing roads.

These are all examples of European mass transit users. We even have places designated fir disabled, injured and elderly people on every bus, tram and metro.

I never said these trips don't happen or aren't possible. I said individual, point-to-point options are better for a variety of riders.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#153

Post by smt88 »

kelnos wrote: post #133
sandworm101 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And anyone with more than a handbag to carry. Many workers travel with tools. Im going to training next month and have to bring about 80lbs of various stuff with me. Hauling that in and out of busses, not to mention finding places to secure it while i sleep/eat, wouldnt be much fun. But it all fits in my car nicely. And no, i cannot send it by courier.

No one is suggesting that there aren't special cases where using a car is the right move. But the vast majority of cases where people take cars, replacing that experience with better public transit is entirely reasonable. Hell, improving public transit would improve your use-case as well; you'd have less traffic to compete with while driving.

We need to distinguish between mass and public transit.

I agree that public transit should be improved. Transit should be free to the poorest people. It should also be accessible.

My point is just that existing mass transit is unpleasant or not viable for many people. Public transit in the form of solar SDCs has the advantages without the disadvantages.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#154

Post by smt88 »

so33 wrote: post #92
smt88 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking and mass transit suck for people who are: traveling with kids, obese, disabled, short on time, carrying groceries, elderly, and/or in a place with bad weather. That's not even mentioning people who can't afford to live in dense, central urban environments. Self-driving, solar cars solve all problems of mass transit and are far cheaper, since they use existing roads.

The NYC subway accounts for 5 million trips each day, taking millions of cars off the road because they don’t need to exist in the first place. Traveling with kids? Something people do with public transit and walking every day. Promoting walking encourages healthy lifestyles; promoting driving (or just sitting in a car and not doing anything) encourages the opposite. Elderly or disabled people take public transit all…

I agree both can exist. The original article argues against SDC investment in favor of mass transit.

I agree public transit is unequivocally great and important. I don't agree that most of our investment dollars should go to mass public transit over SDC public fleets.

NYC is an exception and can't be replicated in most places, and the lack of transit options are still a burden on the groups I mentioned.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#155

Post by jsjohnst »

twelve40 wrote: post #137
jsjohnst wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to prove otherwise: https://instagram.com/p/BdJvxwmn2ri/ Side by side as of a few minutes ago.

Prove what?? And where did I claim it does not currently use Google Maps? There is an Uber team of hundreds of developers and operators that is building out their own maps service. When and in what form it becomes available in your location, I have no idea.

Really?

> Uber owns their maps.

That seems rather definitive compared to:

> And where did I claim it does not currently use Google Maps?

Don’t say things in matter of fact form and then push the blame on the questioner when evidence is shown that your “fact” seems anything but.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#156

Post by QAPereo »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #112
QAPereo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that most people won’t accept that, right? Worse, when the algorithm does kill someone, who is responsible? Edit: Instead of just downvoting and moving on, why not actually formulate a response? Is there anything more empty than disagreement without the capacity to argue your case?

> You do realize that most people won’t accept that, right? That's why we have courts (and insurance). Conventional vehicles kill people all the time , sometimes through provable manufacturer negligence. But we still have them.

It’s funny, you failed to mention the group with the real power there... politicians, specifically, Congress.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#157

Post by fragmede »

pwaai wrote: post #97
xandar11 wrote: post #29

I'm skeptical about all this. Hubert Horan [1] has done a great job exposing Uber's failed business model in 11 part series on NakedCapitalism ("Can Uber Ever Deliver?"). Same goes for Lyft. When it comes to self driving cars, why should Uber or Lyft have any massive advantage over other players and what makes us think it won't turn into something like an airline industry which has been unprofitable for most of their…

This makes me think and I'm pretty excited about it... How far off/difficult would it be for Tesla to create their own ride sharing app? I mean both Lyft and Ubers "moat" seems to be their app which is not defensible against a market leader in autonomous cars that can simply switch on a new marketplace for its userbase and whole lot of other folks that can't afforda tesla but wants to be picked up and dropped off by…

> How far off/difficult would it be for Tesla to create their own ride sharing app?

Tesla's suburban HQ in the hills may be less appropriate (due to lack of density), or possibly more (easier to drive in suburbia vs the city), but at least one other manufacturer - Cruise, now owned by GM, is running internal trials, with hopes of opening it up soon.

https://readwrite.com/2017/08/10/cruise-self-driving-app/

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#158

Post by fragmede »

melvinmt wrote: post #17
ukulele wrote: post #3

This really is the endgame for both Uber and Lyft. IIRC, Uber did $16B last year in revenue and paid something like $13B to drivers. Self driving vehicles will turn their current breakeven/loser business models into massive cash cows.

> This really is the endgame for both Uber and Lyft. I believe so too, but from a slightly different angle: I believe self-driving vehicles will literally mean the end for both Uber & Lyft (and they only accelerate their fate by investing into it). To understand why: their inherent value is their ability to match human drivers with customers. They both do such a good job at it, that the switching costs between the 2…

> A fancy app with a button

Yes but that app is branded Uber/Lyft, and while building an app with a button is easy, when was the last time you tried searching Bing or DuckDuckGo because Google Search was returning nonsense?

There's also question of mindshare; getting people to install an app and create an account is difficult enough, never mind B2B business contracts, such as uberpool being a recognized WageWorks commuter benefit, that are business-y to replicate.

There have been many solid competitors (both hardware and software) to the iPhone, but there's still only one Apple.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#159

Post by pacala »

kelnos wrote: post #130
intopieces wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America doesn’t want this. We vote against these designs time and time again. Nothing short of China style totalitarian urban restructuring will make US cities walking utopias.

I live in a US city, and I still don't understand why this is the case. It completely baffles me why people would prefer to sit behind the wheel in stop-and-go city traffic, deal with pedestrians, cyclists, traffic lights, one-way streets, and parking, instead of designing and developing the city so everything they need is a short walk or at worst a quick transit ride away. It just seems like madness, like people are…

Because sleep deprivation is a major ailment. Nothing says good life like the neighbor above having a late night party, the heavy traffic starting about five am or the shrieks of the late night ambulances.

Re: Lyft Self-Driving

#160

Post by nojvek »

pacala wrote: post #159
kelnos wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a US city, and I still don't understand why this is the case. It completely baffles me why people would prefer to sit behind the wheel in stop-and-go city traffic, deal with pedestrians, cyclists, traffic lights, one-way streets, and parking, instead of designing and developing the city so everything they need is a short walk or at worst a quick transit ride away. It just seems like madness, like people are…

Because sleep deprivation is a major ailment. Nothing says good life like the neighbor above having a late night party, the heavy traffic starting about five am or the shrieks of the late night ambulances.

Cramped living. Been there done that, hated it. I love the silence at night. Having a big living room and a little garden. Being able to actually look up the sky and see stars.

I do like trains, but they can't get everywhere. I take a bus to work everyday but they don't operate 24h a day and not frequently enough.

I'm the most excited about self driving buses. Even in predefined routes on special self driving lanes. Then its just a train carriage on a road :)

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