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Waze Carpool

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Re: Waze Carpool

#201

Post by lotsofpulp »

freehunter wrote: post #87
dmix wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why anyone would need to feel guilty or worry about that fact though. People do that everywhere. Toronto is famous for it's diversity and multiculturalism but the entire city is finely divided into various ethnic, cultural, and work enclaves (little korea, little ethiopia, 2x little italys, etc). And it works great for the most part, there's little ethnic or political tension, at least within the city pr…

>I'm not sure why anyone would need to worry about that fact SV is famous for solving problems that impact SV or cities like SV. Whenever I hear the question from startup/techie folks "are we in a bubble", I always think the answer is "yes, but not how you think". We're not in a bubble of too many high valuation startups, we're in a bubble where we don't understand the rest of the world around us. Because we're livin…

Assuming you want to make as much money as possible, focusing on the problems of the portion of the population that makes the most money seems most efficient, i.e. educated professionals in urban areas.

Re: Waze Carpool

#202

Post by debaserab2 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #190
debaserab2 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weak legal arguments aside, if Google allows criminals or even just bad drivers/passengers to use the app then people are going to lose their trust in it and stop using it.

Criminals, bad drivers, and bad passengers probably all use casual carpooling opportunities, yet those continue to operate in many urban areas. With even minimal attention to the problem, any app-based solution will have better opportunity to identify and filter out those problems, so while it's a potential issue, I think it's unlikely to be particularly problematic.

If the app is aiming to making carpooling more accessible, you will see an increase in occurrence of these issues.

The point I'm driving at is that it's still a marketplace and it comes with all the same standard hazards that apply to any marketplace. There are disputes and exceptions that have to be managed. Machines are not good at that yet.

Re: Waze Carpool

#203

Post by nerdponx »

dwightgunning wrote: post #85
nerdponx wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly how Uber turned into a taxi service. They tried ridesharing, it turns out that people in cars do sketchy things and piss each other off, or worse. I would rather see local grassroots organizations take on this project.

Any references to stories/articles about their ride sharing efforts? Was it prior to their incorporation as UberCab or an experiment from further along?

It seems (from the pitch deck posted in another comment) that I had conflated "ride sharing" with "unregulated use of your car and free time to work for a cab service". It seems I was biased by all the "sharing economy" BS and jumped to a conclusion I shouldn't have jumped to.

Re: Waze Carpool

#205

Post by lotsofpulp »

freehunter wrote: post #115
JKCalhoun wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't that the entire reason people move there? By people do you mean corporations? Because "people" move there for the jobs. No one I know said, "Hey, I want to live in the Bay Area for homogenous techie-elitism." I moved to the Bay Area from the midwest and was frankly shocked at the lack of Black people in the area. That said, my trips back to my roots have left me wondering where all the Asians are.... :/

Yep you're right, it's just as much the fault of the corporations that are there. Startups are a big part of it, moving to SV just to form a startup locks a ton of qualified people out and unnecessarily jacks up your burn rate. You'd be far better off moving to Madison and hiring from University of Wisconsin where you still have Whole Foods and Trader Joes and a bike-friendly city and great public transport but your…

>which means you're going to be taking home a lot more disposable income than you would in SV.

Rolling the dice in SV will result in much bigger winnings more often than it will in other areas. That's worth something, and obviously people are willing to pay for it (give up some things).

Re: Waze Carpool

#206

Post by jimmaswell »

jetpacktuxedo wrote: post #200
jimmaswell wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I get this in dense areas now. I will still get "in a half mile turn left on X street", but when it actually gives me "turn left" I will instead get "take the next left" or "take the second left" if there are multiple streets close together on the left.

When I was less used to using it, it would say "in 1500 feet turn" and then there would be a turn right there, and I'd think that was it, but it wasn't. I had to start gauging how far they meant by it. It does say "second turn" but only when the roads are very close. It would be better if it just always used that instead of these absolute numbers.

Re: Waze Carpool

#207

Post by pavel_lishin »

hrktb wrote: post #191
pavel_lishin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Good point. I think it’s intersting that you go to medium for even small claims is a phone call. I find the level of support we can get over chat to be pretty good nowadays, my bank, insurance, company HR also deals with all non lofe threatening issues by mail and messaging only. We’re finaly getting away from a phone centric world, and I feel the service is actualy better while cheaper and more efficient.

I specifically chose "phone call" because it's an instant response, and you're certain you're talking to a human being - someone who can empathize, and who can elevate, and who's focused on you, right now.

A chat box? That can be a bot. That can be someone in a call center in Hyderabad or Abilene. That can be someone juggling five conversations at the same time, whose ability to escalate starts and ends at a button, the effects of which they don't even really understand.

Re: Waze Carpool

#208

Post by Yizahi »

thetwentyone wrote: post #36
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…

I've contacted all of theses services independently and had positive customer support experiences: Google Wifi, Fi, Google Store (phones), and Drive. Time frame is last couple of years.

Until some algo decides to delete your universal Google account that powers everything from this company by request of some other bot or by some totally opaque procedure with penalties and so-called-AI detection of your activity. And the only thing you can do is nothing really. Just google such cases, they happen regularly. Of the more insane ones was the musician had his track used by BigCorp as a fair use or something and then automated algo of BigCorp send DMCA takedown to Google and it just banned legitimate song author and there is zero ways to appeal it.

Re: Waze Carpool

#209

Post by pavel_lishin »

danellis wrote: post #180
pavel_lishin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> What happens when the commuter I pick up vomits in my car? You clean it up and make a decision about whether you'd pick them up again. > Or steals something from my car? You call the police and tell them who that person is and where they live. > What happens if I get picked up by a person who changes their mind about where they're going? You tell them to drop you off and you don't ride with them again. > Or decide…

> > Or I grope the driver?

> Please don't do that.

Do you think that's going to be Waze's official FAQ entry on this topic?

Re: Waze Carpool

#210

Post by jacksmith21006 »

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…

Depends on the product with Google. Purchased the Google WiFi and support was excellent. Human with a phone call that was able to get answers.
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