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Waze Carpool

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Re: Waze Carpool

#161

Post by Tiktaalik »

darksaints wrote: post #148
Tiktaalik wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we hire a bunch of experts to figure out what the most common and efficient routes are for the most people and then hire people to run those routes regularly? Oops I just invented buses again, just the rest of these transportation startups eventually end up doing. The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's…

> The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept down by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would benefit everyone. I'd say the middle class are the real problem. You see, the primary reason why transit costs so much in taxes is because few people ride it. Few people ride it because drivi…

Going further than this it would be better to implement a form of comprehensive road pricing, since as cars become more efficient and electric cars become more popular, the revenue generation ability of the gas tax weakens.

Re: Waze Carpool

#162

Post by spike021 »

jobigoud wrote: post #123
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #99

The number of private tech companies that reinvent the BUS and think they're geniuses is staggering. But god forbid we just fund public transportation. We wouldn't want poor people using our service.

A few month ago I would have read your comment and thought that bus can't really compete for the fine grained point to point transportation. Then I went to Sydney in December. The public transportation system there is super impressive. You have a location-based app where you can tell you want to go from point A to point B (from an address, a click on the map, your favorites), it will instantly provide you with many o…

Eh, you can do the same as most of these features you mention with normal apps. At least where I live in SF, Google Maps can tell you all the different public transportation routes, times, and fares, as well as a notification for when to leave, etc.

The Transit app is also really useful for this.

It's just the public transit systems that need improvement, but the rider side isn't too bad.

Re: Waze Carpool

#163

Post by jimmaswell »

nevi-me wrote: post #106
kamaln7 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Just like "Kleenex" in some places, Waze has become the generic term for GPS Navigation here in Israel. Honestly, I have no idea why people still use it when Google Maps has an infinitely better interface and no ads.

For me in South Africa: - Waze is a bit more dynamic/aggressive in finding me alternatives when traffic patterns can change due to accidents - "speed trap reported ahead" - the "turn left" direction is better timed than Google, Google will tell you to turn while your turn's still a bit far off, sometimes you'd turn into the street before. - loyalty, Waze was great before Google bought it and used its reports and traf…

I wish Google gave directions like "take the third left" instead of "in 1500 feet..". I don't know what 1500 feet looks like, and the mile amounts I can only estimate when I'm going around 60mph and 1 mile=1 minute.

Re: Waze Carpool

#164

Post by Tiktaalik »

24gttghh wrote: post #152
Tiktaalik wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't we hire a bunch of experts to figure out what the most common and efficient routes are for the most people and then hire people to run those routes regularly? Oops I just invented buses again, just the rest of these transportation startups eventually end up doing. The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's…

And the bus is really slow (many stops, multiple bus changes to get to a final destination, infrequent runs) compared to driving, and you don't get to choose who your fellow riders are. These are not my qualms, but the ones I hear most often as the basic reason why people hate on riding the bus. Money is certainly a factor, but it's not the whole story here.

These are implementation details tied to low funding and car oriented infrastructure. For example a bus route becomes significantly faster when it has dedicated lanes and doesn't need to share the lane with cars.

Re: Waze Carpool

#165

Post by amelius »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #54
cornholio wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike Uber, they appear to talk about a real carsharing system, as opposed to a taxi service with a lower entry barrier. The prices will be much lower since we are talking about the marginal cost of adding another passenger to an already happening trip - and with full info on where people are going, Waze effectively has an endless supply of trips that are happening, it's just a matter of displaying a pop-up "Hey, Al…

You just described the pure software world solution. What happens when the commuter I pick up vomits in my car? Or steals something from my car? What happens if I get picked up by a person who changes their mind about where they're going? Or decide to take an unplanned detour to go to the store, or back home to grab the laptop they forgot, or to score some heroin? What happens when the driver gropes me? Or I grope th…

These are exceptions. If they happen, they are your problem. And if they eventually cost Google money, then that's no problem because they are exceptions anyway. So that's how Google gets away with it.

Re: Waze Carpool

#166

Post by ableal »

kristopolous wrote: post #138
mulletbum wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the bus was just built with a compartment for just you instead of everyone clumped together, I would pay a lot more.

Are you talking about the small rooms inside of trains you see in Black and White movies?

Probably not, those compartments were generally shared by strangers, unless they were sleeper cabins.

There were different price classes, though.

Re: Waze Carpool

#167

Post by Shivetya »

cornholio wrote: post #47
dawhizkid wrote: post #12

The reason why I would not consider Google to legitimately compete with Uber/Lyft at scale in this arena is because it's not part of their nature to staff customer support at the level required to run operationally-intensive businesses. The rate in which something goes wrong in the real world (esp where money in exchanged) is much higher than in a pure software world, and Google is going to try to take the FAQ/chatbo…

Unlike Uber, they appear to talk about a real carsharing system, as opposed to a taxi service with a lower entry barrier. The prices will be much lower since we are talking about the marginal cost of adding another passenger to an already happening trip - and with full info on where people are going, Waze effectively has an endless supply of trips that are happening, it's just a matter of displaying a pop-up "Hey, Al…

still going to run awry of the recent push by many jurisdictions to shut down or muzzle Uber. If anything many politicians will just see it as and end run / play of words.

Now the fun would come when participants are also in their local cities ride share program. We (Atlanta) have apps for Ride Share and Carpooling already. However the state did run car pooling / ride sharing incentives you could sign up for. I would assume other cities had similar, the key difference here is the driver was not charging. Also, be damn careful your insurance limits and restrictions if you ever do either method.

Re: Waze Carpool

#168

Post by flodevelennes »

ruairidhwm wrote: post #59

Looks just like BlaBlaCar. Nice.

BlaBlaCar is actually a long-distance carpooling app, whereas Waze, Lyft Line and Uber Pool are all targeting the shorter-distance, daily commuters.

BlaBlaCar does have a product in market for shorter trips, it's called BlaBlaLines: https://www.blablalines.com/ - although it's unclear what the adoption has been since they launched last year in 2017 in France.

The challenge with shorter-distance, shared commutes is finding people who are leaving and arriving at the same location. This is because people are not very flexible when it comes to heading and coming back from work: they need to get there on time, without any detours or delays.

This means that typically, you'd need to get people working at the same company or in the same building to create a successful carpooling program. Making it work outside of the scope of a regular schedule is very difficult.

This is why companies like Uber and Lyft pay drivers to show up on demand, as in this model, you have more control over the supply-side of the marketplace, providing a more predictable experience for passengers.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes, as Waze has a very strong community of drivers. It's a challenge though, as some mentioned in this post, in that there is decent overhead in managing drivers, passengers, conflicts and everything that comes with building an online marketplace with a community angle.

Disclaimer: I'm the CEO and Co-founder of https://www.poparide.com, a long-distance carpooling platform of 75,000 members based in Vancouver, BC (Canada) and our model is similar to BlaBlaCar's, we aim to fill empty seats in cars on intercity trips in Canada.

Re: Waze Carpool

#169

Post by nojvek »

dawhizkid wrote: post #12

The reason why I would not consider Google to legitimately compete with Uber/Lyft at scale in this arena is because it's not part of their nature to staff customer support at the level required to run operationally-intensive businesses. The rate in which something goes wrong in the real world (esp where money in exchanged) is much higher than in a pure software world, and Google is going to try to take the FAQ/chatbo…

What happens if the driver rapes somebody, or more so the passenger disappears in thin air.

Google doesn’t want to take any responsibility or have any support / background checks.

I’d stay a million miles away where a human is merely just an entry in their database.

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