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Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

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Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#681

Post by throwaway2037 »

ronyeh wrote: post #488
harmmonica wrote: post #137

As a Waymo-booster on HN for a while now, here's my latest anecdote. I tried to figure out how to take Waymo to LAX even though it's not actually in their territory yet just because I value the experience so much. I was borderline going to take it within walking distance (about half a mile), but got lazy at the last minute. I took Lyft instead, and, as if the universe cursed my laziness, I booked a "comfort" car for…

People paying more for Waymo doesn’t surprise me. I also once called for a comfort car, but it was a filthy Lexus. I’d much rather ride in a clean and well maintained Corolla. I pay more for Waymo and I’m happy to do it (as long as Waymo can detect when its interior is dirty so it can return itself to home base for cleaning.) I don’t have to sit awkwardly in a car with another guy who may drive in a way that annoys m…

I have only used car share once in my life. (My mother ordered it, and it was fine.) To me, a dirty car is pretty much unforgivable as a car share service. Do you report it on the app or just give a one/zero star rating and hope the car share service will fix it?

    > I don’t have to sit awkwardly in a car with another guy who may drive
You hit the nail on the head. I cannot belive that I am 100+ posts into this discussion and no one has mentioned it. It was the first idea that popped into my head. How about if you are woman? I would gladly pay a bit more to have no other strangers in the car with me.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#682

Post by lotsofpulp »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #330
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how backwards our socioeconomic order is that "people are no longer needed for grueling work" is a bad thing. I mean, you're not wrong, but I feel like it's a condemnation of out economic system.

Driving is not grueling work. Imagine a utopia where people aren't needed for any work at all! No job for you. Only AI robots taking care of rich people while everything else burns. Just make sure you're one of the rich ones and everything is A-okay!

Sitting for extended periods of time is bad for one’s health. Also, being in a vehicle is the highest morbidity/mortality risk thing people do. More time on the road = more chance of injury.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#683

Post by nu11ptr »

It might be more expensive now because it is novel, but over time, as it commoditizes and more competition enters, prices will likely go down.

Also, this is how the free market works. The actual users decide what something is worth based on using their wallets. Is it more valuable to have solitude and your own space in the car? Or better to have human interaction? The market will decide.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#684

Post by lotsofpulp »

somewhatrandom9 wrote: post #391

Speaking to a European woman, she said she was not surprised women would pay more not to be harassed. I guess in her country there is more of that. Me, I enjoy human interaction, but the European female angle on taxi "safety" was something I hadn't considered.

Most American women, and women all over the world, would say the same thing.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#685

Post by williamdclt »

bgwalter wrote: post #639
harmmonica wrote: post #137

As a Waymo-booster on HN for a while now, here's my latest anecdote. I tried to figure out how to take Waymo to LAX even though it's not actually in their territory yet just because I value the experience so much. I was borderline going to take it within walking distance (about half a mile), but got lazy at the last minute. I took Lyft instead, and, as if the universe cursed my laziness, I booked a "comfort" car for…

Before Uber and Lyft destroyed the functioning taxi market, you got Mercedes by default for a traditional, regulated taxi in many EU countries. You didn't have to argue, interact with a surveillance company, interact with customer service etc. All you needed to do is pick up the phone and get a luxury ride without tracking or surveillance.

My experience in my first-world country is that all I needed was to spend 10min on the phone to be told there’s no taxi available, or to be told it’ll take 30min and actually it take 1h30. Drivers aren’t any more amicable than uber drivers either (less, if anything).

Not to speak of many countries where taxis are outright scammers and getting into one is taking a real danger.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#686

Post by throwaway2037 »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #234
tempestn wrote: post #154

This makes a lot of sense to me. When you ride in an Uber or a taxi, you're a guest in the driver's space. In a Waymo, it's your own space. You can play music, talk on the phone, etc. without worrying about disturbing the driver. You're not likely to have strong odors, or driver's phone conversations. And the experience will be roughly consistent each time. In an Uber, you have no idea what the car or the driving sta…

Why is anyone surprised that a smaller segment of the market will pay more for a safer ride in a luxury vehicle compared to a base model Lyft (which can be a barely drivable car with rank cloth interior where you can't even fit two people in the back seat)? Next up, some one will post, "First class tickets cost more than coach." Waymo will eventually have Waymo Comfort and Waymo Black.

    > where you can't even fit two people in the back seat
Is this exaggeration? I hope so. I have never seen a taxi nor ride share car that would ever qualify this statement.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#687

Post by throwaway2037 »

nottorp wrote: post #664
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is anyone surprised that a smaller segment of the market will pay more for a safer ride in a luxury vehicle compared to a base model Lyft (which can be a barely drivable car with rank cloth interior where you can't even fit two people in the back seat)? Next up, some one will post, "First class tickets cost more than coach." Waymo will eventually have Waymo Comfort and Waymo Black.

I wonder... are the passengers recorded while in a Waymo? Does Google ever delete those records? Being Google, I bet they don't.

Yes, I assume these are recorded to prevent vandalism. To be fair, someone might get legitimately sick in the car (ex. child). So Google can review the tapes and decide if it was intentional or not.

Regarding retention of these video recordings, you should check the Waymo user agreement in your area. You might even have the right to ask them to delete it earlier.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#688

Post by lotsofpulp »

data_maan wrote: post #648
cAtte_ wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, in your opinion, the best way to be polite is to not exist? that's a nice outlook on humanity

Hah! The converse to your claim is: the only way to exist is to intrude on other people space (by loud talking, hearing music etc).;)

Contrapositive is the logistically consistent statement, and that does not involve intruding in others’ space (depending on one’s definition of intrude, I guess).

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#689

Post by tuna74 »

ronyeh wrote: post #488
harmmonica wrote: post #137

As a Waymo-booster on HN for a while now, here's my latest anecdote. I tried to figure out how to take Waymo to LAX even though it's not actually in their territory yet just because I value the experience so much. I was borderline going to take it within walking distance (about half a mile), but got lazy at the last minute. I took Lyft instead, and, as if the universe cursed my laziness, I booked a "comfort" car for…

People paying more for Waymo doesn’t surprise me. I also once called for a comfort car, but it was a filthy Lexus. I’d much rather ride in a clean and well maintained Corolla. I pay more for Waymo and I’m happy to do it (as long as Waymo can detect when its interior is dirty so it can return itself to home base for cleaning.) I don’t have to sit awkwardly in a car with another guy who may drive in a way that annoys m…

Instead you will have all of Google listen in.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#690

Post by firesteelrain »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #570
z2 wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to me, and the support system automatically decided nothing was wrong whatsoever despite my phone certainly sending a very different location from the driver. And the madness was I couldn't even book another ride as I was technically in one. So I ended up getting it resolved via the security panic button which did put me through to a real person who was empathetic to the issue.

Is this some sort of a scam? The driver cannot even mark the ride as completed without being in the area right? So they have to drive it anyway. I can’t imagine they would be on the platform for long if this happened on a regular basis. I would say it’s probably an accident but how could this behavior be accidental? Someone might accidentally say that they picked you up, but they couldn’t accidentally then drive an e…

My experience in DC is GPS can be spotty due to the buildings and the app glitches when it says you are in one spot but you are not there.

Also DC has rules for certain streets on what side of road you are allowed to be picked up on.

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