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…
> So the actual support required will be minimal to zero, it's just a software app Sigh... Where can one start with this? It’s like trying to argue with flat-earthers, where logic and infinite ost experience don’t matter.
Waze Carpool
391–400 of 406 posts
Re: Waze Carpool
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So the actual support required will be minimal to zero, it's just a software app Sigh... Where can one start with this? It’s like trying to argue with flat-earthers, where logic and infinite ost experience don’t matter.
That's not particularly constructive, although I don't disagree with you here. If you have experience here, what has it told you?
Re: Waze Carpool
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> the marginal cost of adding another passenger to an already happening trip As minor as it is, going to pick someone else up and take them with me is pretty big inconvenience, especially in time.
1 hour of commuting could cost something like 30$ in gas (Europe), vechile depreciation and tolls. Sharing that cost 50-50 or 33-33-33 for a 5-10 minutes delay would yield a 120-180$ / hour rate for the delay period. Very few people could afford to turn that down, it's the average income of an whole hour of work compressed into 5 minutes.
Re: Waze Carpool
#394The 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…
Re: Waze Carpool
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are assuming hitchhiking is unsafe. It may be less safe than other forms of transportation, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's especially unsafe. News outlets love stories about strangers abducting children because of how they draw eyeballs, but that happens to be extremely rare. But the anecdotal examples make you overestimate the risk of it. And this is safer than hitch-hiking. The vast majority of people p…
I somewhat recently learned about the propaganda from the FBI in the 60's and 70's to discourage hitchhiking. (possibly a covert assault on civil rights protesters hitching to rallies) It's easy to be scared of failure, suffering or what can go wrong... but not everyone is excited about what could go right. Ultimately, I believe a big reason why hitchhiking is not very prevalent is that both the cost of air travel an…
Would love to read more about that... Got anything trustworthy?
Re: Waze Carpool
#396The 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 isn't something new. Scoop is already doing this and Lyft had carpool for a while before they shut it down.
Re: Waze Carpool
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
> > What happens if I get picked up by a person who changes their mind about where they're going? > Let them out at the first feasible opportunity, as long as there is some infrastructure (or they accept the location). Let them deal with finding transport from there. Nope, gp was talking about getting picked up by someone who changes mind. You can't let them out, it's their car.
Oh. Drop the passenger of at an appropriate interim location, and you're forced to fund part or all of their subsequent trip accommodations to their original destination.
Who is going to decide what is reasonable cost for covering the replacement trip. Is a bus ticket ok? cab ride? limo? Should the cost of time be counted for?
Re: Waze Carpool
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh. Drop the passenger of at an appropriate interim location, and you're forced to fund part or all of their subsequent trip accommodations to their original destination.
And suddenly we are back to the human help desk again. Who is going to decide what is reasonable cost for covering the replacement trip. Is a bus ticket ok? cab ride? limo? Should the cost of time be counted for?
I 's not entirely simole, but let's not act like it's impossible either. People use Google apps and services with shitty support all the time, because Google is fairly good at reducing the times you need support and also because they are pretty good at saying "you pay $X, we provide Y, and Z is what you can expect if there's a problem, and if you don't like that, go find a competitor."
Make breaking the contract painful on both parties, and hopefully it will be rare. In the case where it happens, you try to make sure the normal penalty covers it, and where it doesn't you eat the cost and look at why it failed and fix it if you can.
Re: Waze Carpool
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
The weird thing about this is for some reason it's huge in NoVa but not so much in the Maryland suburbs. Or at least it used to be. Not sure why.
Slugging doesn't seem to really exist on a sustained basis anywhere other than NoVa. My guess is that it requires a specific set of circumstances to take off: SOV commutes need to be generally feasible (so that you have drivers), HOV lanes need to exist (so that drivers have a reason to pick up passengers), you need specific job loci (to make driver/passenger matching exist), and you need commuter buses (to provide t…
Re: Waze Carpool
#400Why 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.