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Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

seattletimes.com

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Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#31

Post by oh_sigh »

ALittleLight wrote: post #10
Johnny555 wrote: post #5

Maybe the best strategy is to tip low when placing the order, then increase the tip after delivery to reward the guy who needed the money enough to take your order with a low tip.

Then you'd also incentivize workers to take orders with low tips and be disappointed when they really get a low tip. Seems more fair to me to require the company pay their employees a fair wage and benefits rather than redefine those that work for them as contractors to dodge those obligations.

Most people who accept a low tip order would not be expecting to get any more than what was there

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#32

Post by derwiki »

troydavis wrote: post #15
gruez wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not just tip them in cash?

Many or most deliveries are contactless: https://news.instacart.com/introducing-leave-at-my-door-deli...

I doubt an Instacart contractor would turn down a cash tip. Pre-COVID, I exclusively tipped Lyft drivers cash. Yes I had to keep small bills around. Ended up not being a big deal.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#33

Post by aphextron »

mkatx wrote: post #25

Reminds me of working at amazon doing prime deliveries and using an Android app where you can create flow charts to automate grabbing hours. The difference is amazon at the time didn't care. We even reported what we were doing as a bug, and recommended a queue system instead, yet we only got automated responses not mentioning the issue at all. This automation included an annoying screen refresh, where you hit back an…

>I think they consider the warehouse drivers like what I used to do temporary, till they get their drone fleets up.

Why even bother with drones when you can pay a person $8/HR with zero benefits thanks to collusion with lawmakers to bust unions and stall the minimum wage?

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#35

Post by arcticbull »

gruez wrote: post #23
rayhendricks wrote: post #21

Wow saw that video, maybe someone got into their API? What if someone from a non-USA location started selling access to the best batches in prime USA locations e.g. SF/LA/SEA/NYC/DC then we could start trading and packaging up those batches and trading on them in crypto exchanges, maybe even make a new coin? Also having someone put in a SSN is not any kind of verification if you’re trying to subcontract out to people…

>e.g. SF/LA/SEA/NYC/DC then we could start trading and packaging up those batches and trading on them in crypto exchanges, maybe even make a new coin? In that case you might as well make claiming orders be based on a dutch auction system.

And without ETH. Just with, you know, a server. With a dutch auction.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#36

Post by dylan604 »

troydavis wrote: post #15
gruez wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not just tip them in cash?

Many or most deliveries are contactless: https://news.instacart.com/introducing-leave-at-my-door-deli...

Taping an envelope to your door clearly visible for the delivery person would still remain contactless. If the envelope is still there when you pick up your items, then no harm in trying

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#37

Post by chii »

fosk wrote: post #3

Any system - or market - sophisticated enough will see the emergence of bots as the ultimate decision makers/arbitration players. It’s quite fascinating.

the problem stems from the fact that instacart is not doing a proper 'auction' of the orders to all participants.

if the instacart platform allows all deliverers to bid on a task (where each deliverer bids their % take of the order), and the lowest % take wins the bid, then this will give everyone a fair chance at taking all jobs.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#38

Post by _jal »

tptacek wrote: post #17
function_seven wrote: post #7

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is only possible on Android, right? The video linked by ultimoo shows an Android, and my perception is that iOS sandboxing is much tighter. How can Instacart combat this? They can't require iOS among their shoppers. Is it going to be an arms race of heuristics and anti-cheat code like it is for games that want to prevent aim-bots? Or they could start running their own…

Smaller teams than Instacart have put up effective fights against cheating. It's an arms race, but so what? The goal is to make cheating uneconomical, not impossible.

Every service I've been involved with that was useful enough to succeed ended up implementing mechanisms to deter undesirable behavior. (I blame the humans.)

If you look at it the right way and are not currently under attack, they can be a lot of fun to work out and implement.

Re: Instacart shoppers besieged by bots that snatch lucrative orders

#40

Post by Johnny555 »

dylan604 wrote: post #36
troydavis wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many or most deliveries are contactless: https://news.instacart.com/introducing-leave-at-my-door-deli...

Taping an envelope to your door clearly visible for the delivery person would still remain contactless. If the envelope is still there when you pick up your items, then no harm in trying

And if it's not, then you'll wonder if it went to the Instacart driver or the UPS guy.

(well, not my UPS guy, he's actually a she, and she gives my dogs treats when she sees him)

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