Waze Carpool • Hacker News Board

Re: Waze Carpool

#251

Post by cornholio » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:05 PM UTC

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…

There is an app for that, it's called Moovit and works in any city - the key thing being that there needs to be an actual functional transit system with solid timetables in place to get the Sydney level of service.

Re: Waze Carpool

#252

Post by gricardo99 » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:13 PM UTC

It looks just like Carma carpool[1], at least what they were attempting a couple years ago. They've been around a while, but I guess never had the network critical mass to really make it take off.

I've wanted to use a service like this for a while. I commute ~35 minutes solo in my own car, and it's just wasteful and needlessly costly.

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carma#Carma_Carpooling

Re: Waze Carpool

#253

Post by danso » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:15 PM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #215

Waze and Wazer? As in rhymes with laze and laser. It reads a bit like wazzer as in 'one who is known for urinating', I suppose? To my British eyes I can't help but read 'wazzock', as in a 1980's schoolboy insult par excellence [0]. To rescue this comment with a semblance of an arguement, what I'm trying to say is that maybe it's best to try the name in a few languages/dialects before you go with it. [0] https://en.m.…

Naming things is hard. There's not a large supply of 4 letter words that would serve as a succinct label for what Waze purports to do. Considering Waze was sold for $1.3B, the founders probably aren't too worried about the disadvantages of the name in the UK.

Re: Waze Carpool

#254

Post by danso » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:17 PM UTC

vonnik wrote: post #74

It's hilarious that this came out the day after Steve Yegge lambasted Google for failing to innovate. This is a perfect example of Google arriving half way through the race. Everyone else is on the final lap, they're on the first, and they think they're running neck and neck.

Who is on the "final lap" here?

Re: Waze Carpool

#255

Post by kilroy123 » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:24 PM UTC

scandox wrote: post #13

I was in Israel last year and they just love Waze. Everything is Waze this and Waze that. They have an absolute belief in Waze as a brand. Most have no idea it is owned by Google, nor seemed very interested when I mentioned it. So I'd say if they can get this working anywhere, it will be in a traffic-riddled country full of people who obsess over journey times and who absolutely love this brand.

It's also very popular in Mexico. I very rarely see anyone ever using Google maps.

Re: Waze Carpool

#256

Post by Yhippa » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:24 PM UTC

cornholio wrote: post #79

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…

The same thing that happens in the non-Waze case: you kick them out, call the police, get mugged etc. The pure software world exists from Google's perspective, they provide zero support and then it's just a matter of individual choice if you want to use the service or not. Google can go a long way into making this significantly safer than random pick-up: you can select female only drivers or riders, only riders from…

I admittedly haven't had much experience on the other side but would it be possible to use the identity system that AirBnB uses to "vouch" for people?

Re: Waze Carpool

#257

Post by yorby » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:25 PM UTC

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.

Why can't public transportation use the same model as uber (and be more convenient)?

Re: Waze Carpool

#258

Post by avip » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:25 PM UTC

kamaln7 wrote: post #46

scandox wrote: post #13

I was in Israel last year and they just love Waze. Everything is Waze this and Waze that. They have an absolute belief in Waze as a brand. Most have no idea it is owned by Google, nor seemed very interested when I mentioned it. So I'd say if they can get this working anywhere, it will be in a traffic-riddled country full of people who obsess over journey times and who absolutely love this brand.

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.

Because google maps is close to ignorant regarding suburbs, gravel, or any other road less travelled. Also Waze search in Hebrew is x10 better.

Re: Waze Carpool

#259

Post by ruairidhwm » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:26 PM UTC

flodevelennes wrote: post #168

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 fi…

Hey

Ah, very interesting. I didn't know that! Poparide looks like a good solution too.

Re: Waze Carpool

#260

Post by cornholio » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 8:29 PM UTC

Newtopian wrote: post #139

We had a similar service 20-30 years ago operating mostly out of Quebec and Ontario (Canada). Sadly regulators did not see it very kindly ( http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/province-stops-allo-stop-1.211... ). Story does not say though how thik was the kraft envelop that was exchanged, if there was ever such exchange, or was just an overzealous civil servant. The service had been operating for some time already and was…

>The board found the Montreal-based company was illegally competing with the Voyageur, Greyhound and Trentway bus companies.

>Felix D'Mello is with the Ontario Highway Transport Board, which controls passenger transportation in the province. He says because money is exchanged, it's a public transportation service, and that breaks the rules.

What a revolting crock of crap - politicians outright protecting established business interests. I guess in such locations Google can still implement a free service, and let users settle the price themselves, it's suboptimal but regulators can't outright kill it, unlike Uber.