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Waze Carpool

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Re: Waze Carpool

#371

Post by tempestn »

jsadow wrote: post #325
tytso wrote: post #318

The really big difference between Waze Carpool and Uber/Lyft is that the driver is paid at most 54 cents a mile (e.g., gas money), and Waze will only match the driver with passengers for two trips / day. So it is not designed to be something where the driver will make a living, but really just as a way for a driver to get some company, maybe take advantage of the HOV lanes, and it gets some cars off of the road to re…

This point is dead-on and the key distinction between ridesharing (or really, ride-hailing) and carpooling. With Scoop, for example, all the people who Driver are just everyday folks. They're commuters like you, me, and the Riders they get matched up with. The economic incentives are like a bonus - where the real value is the improved time in the car and the time savings from the carpool lane (where applicable). And…

It's fairly obvious, but this could use a tweak along the lines of: "With Scoop, for example," -> "With Scoop, my company,"

Re: Waze Carpool

#372

Post by Tarq0n »

jimmaswell wrote: post #176
darksaints wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc. The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously overb…

Gas is highly subsidized in the U.S.. Go look up European gas prices sometime.

Also when referring to the full cost of cars, GPb probably means environmental (emissions) and political (oil wars) ones, not direct costs.

Re: Waze Carpool

#373

Post by lotsofpulp »

majani wrote: post #280
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…

It always baffles me that a company based in a country as litigious as the US has gotten away with being so careless about Customer Care for so long.

The customer usually doesn't have sufficient money to be litigious.

Re: Waze Carpool

#374

Post by donkeyd »

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…

> it's going to need to staff entire buildings with agents if it doesn't want to completely piss off a nascent user base

That part from the original comment explains it though. I'm already pretty pissed at Google for them not being available at all while some music company is adding claims to all my videos. This is just annoying, but being groped by a person that a Google app set me up with would be infinitely worse.

Re: Waze Carpool

#375

Post by lotsofpulp »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #272

The question is can Waze change people's behavior? The entire premise is on people planning. Oh and by the way more cars =/ more traffic. More cars traveling at the same time causes traffic. If you want someone to blame, start blaming businesses who operate at the same hours. It still boggles my mind how 9 to 5 came about? Has it not been shown that people work better at different times of the day?

Think about operating a business where coordination is required, such as factories, or where meetings need to be conducted such as legal or finance firms. Also, children are in school at a set time with a set schedule, for obvious reasons, so their parents prefer also have a schedule.

Re: Waze Carpool

#376

Post by borispavlovic »

patch_collector wrote: post #285
dragonwriter wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Normally people, at least in cities, rarely hitchhike or take up hitchhikers. Hitchhiking is also illegal in most states.

Speaking as a former hitchhiker who used it to travel through 39 states, it's actually legal almost everywhere. What is illegal is to stand in the path of travel of a roadway, and in some locations standing on the shoulder is also illegal. But on a sidewalk, onramp, etc, as long as you're not physically in the road, it's almost always ok. Some exceptions being Utah, Delaware, New Jersey, and maybe another, where you'…

are you looking for this: https://web.archive.org/web/20140220034659/http://www.digihi...

Re: Waze Carpool

#377

Post by penetrarthur »

avip wrote: post #216

Waze carpool launched ~2Y ago in Israel. I've been a registered driver/passenger for about a year now. Here's my summary: - I don't like the fact it's a separate app rather than part of waze. - Apparently matching rides is technically non-trivial. I was hit with so many false positives I could not cope and had to deregister (as a driver). - Car sharing is culturally challenging, even in Israel. I guess more so in the…

Let's hope it doesn't end up as Foursquare/Swarm.

Re: Waze Carpool

#378

Post by dx034 »

jstandard wrote: post #184
cornholio wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 encourage you to read the reviews on the Waze app. "User keeps sending me lewd messages and can still see my trips even though I blocked him" "the system automatically deactivated my account and I couldn't contact anyone". Sure it's early days and these hiccups will be reduced. But they'll never completely go away and you need human support to resolve these situations. Better filters and software intelligence will…

Implementing proper features to block a user is the first thing a social app needs to get right. Esp if you can physically track users. That's basically an invitation for stalkers.

Re: Waze Carpool

#379

Post by dx034 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #369
scrollaway wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I wouldn't is Google's obsession with building US-only businesses (Example: Project Fi). Uber is worldwide and is a huge timesaver whenever I travel within Europe. (Edit: Had to reword my example since people just love taking stuff out of context.)

What percentage of googles US customers spend any significant portion of their time traveling in Europe? Hint I'm pretty sure its less than 1%.

But Europe has a lot of people (nearly the same population as the US) that are potential customers. Ridesharing in Europe is quite popular but apps are insufficient. Uber is banned in some countries. So Waze should work well if it gets proper support.

Re: Waze Carpool

#380

Post by ohtwenty »

virgilp wrote: post #156

Why don't they go global? I'm guessing "money exchanged" is the problem, but I'd happily give away that[+]. Give me a reason to trust the "carpooler" and that's all I ask. Heck, allow me to easily coordinate with my colleagues, and that'd still be a gain. [+] I don't care for the money, in the grand scheme of things you earn nothing from this, I'd rather have the gratitude of the rider; In fact, that's how I do it to…

Blablacar exists, and is global. It's pretty common in the Netherlands.
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