Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well you're in luck on that last point, because nobody has ever paid for their meal with Google Wallet.
I've bought food with Wallet before. And made a meal of it. So, I suppose I have.
#NotAllWallets
Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
101–110 of 294 posts
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#102On the one hand, this is great. Competition and I couldn't wish Google's infinite pockets on a more terrible group of people. On the other hand, Google has only been successful with search and advertising and are known for terrible customer service. I mean, who are you going to call when your driver rapes you? You'll never be able to talk to a human.
> I mean, who are you going to call when your driver rapes you? I would presume, whether the driver was a personal acquaintance, a traditional taxi driver, an Uber/Lyft driver, or a "Google Rides" driver, the answer to that question would be ... the police and a personal injury attorney, and whatever physical and mental health professionals you thought were appropriate. Of course, since the reports of Google developi…
You obviously don't watch the same anime that the rest of us watch.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#103My inner paranoid finds this interesting from the perspective of Google entering yet another domain where they have high accuracy data on the present/future whereabouts and private concerns of a large number of people.. add it to the hundred other properties they maintain that appear to have no direct business value other than capturing masses of sensitive data that was previously nicely decentralized and private. Ca…
i assume you've read the recent article by nafeez ahmed from vice, etc, about how google's search algorithms were funded via the NSF/CIA/NSA for 2 years before google ever existed and that sergey reported to someone working for the CIA's ORD for that period.
https://medium.com/@NafeezAhmed/how-the-cia-made-google-e836...
if you haven't read this, it's a long but great read.
the best thing google ever did was create go (golang). huge props to robert griesemer, rob pike and ken thompson for getting it all going.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#104My inner paranoid finds this interesting from the perspective of Google entering yet another domain where they have high accuracy data on the present/future whereabouts and private concerns of a large number of people.. add it to the hundred other properties they maintain that appear to have no direct business value other than capturing masses of sensitive data that was previously nicely decentralized and private. Ca…
While I agree, I don't see why Uber or Lyft couldn't be bribed/pressured into sharing all they have.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#105Many people here are suggesting that Google views Uber as a threat or a competitor. My take is that (a) Google wants to follow through on its self-driving car experiment, (b) public transportation would be a natural fit this product, and (c) Google doesn't want to be reliant on Uber, Lyft, or any other middleman for introducing self-driving car to the word. Initially, it will be a tightly-controlled roll-out that will eliminate as many variables and risk factors as possible.
This is their way of getting a head start in that direction, and smoothing the transition of the technology to partners like Uber down the road.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#106Uber have struck me before as a bigger potential headache for Google than even Facebook were/are, and I suspect this is all an effort to acquire them and drive the price down. There is something about the automated dispatch at giant scale business which overlaps with the search as interface idea. "Get me to [wherever]" is a natural extension of what you might do after searching. Furthermore, the act of finding a driv…
Facebook was viewed as a threat to Google for two primary reasons: - Facebook had access to tremendous amounts of personal information, and it was assumed they could leverage this data to improve ads and search and beat Google at their own game. - Everyone sat at their desktop computer staring at Facebook for hours on end, making it valuable ad real estate. Again, this cut into Google's core business. So is Uber a co…
Passengers in cars are potentially a huge captive advertising audience.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#107this is the least surprising news of the decade.
Its at least mildly surprising -- lots of people assumed Google would try to get in this market, sure, but most of the speculation, given Google's investment in Uber, has focused around Google acquiring Uber, not competing with them.
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#108I'm glad that the article highlighted how valuable the mapping information is that Google collects. While Uber probably could still run its current operations without Google map data, there is a much smaller probability that they would be able to run a self-driving car service without a highly accurate mapping product. And to build a mapping product is really difficult and expensive. I was surprised when Google start…
Drivers have basically zero power here, so I'm guessing Uber would just update the driver side of the app to always report location. No need to add incentives when you can just make it mandatory with minimum pushback (from Uber's PoV). Assuming they don't already.
I assumed the parent comment meant user-provided data, not raw GPS data, since presumably the driver app is always reporting their location (how else would they know which drivers to dispatch?)
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#109[deleted]
Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor
#110I'm glad that the article highlighted how valuable the mapping information is that Google collects. While Uber probably could still run its current operations without Google map data, there is a much smaller probability that they would be able to run a self-driving car service without a highly accurate mapping product. And to build a mapping product is really difficult and expensive. I was surprised when Google start…
I think the self driving car is a tougher problem to solve than the maps. If uber can buy self driving cars, they can make maps on a city by city basis. If you have a pile of money, you can get maps. If you have a pile of money, it's not really clear you can get an autonomous car. I'm the first to shout they're coming - but they aren't here yet.