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Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

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Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#121

Post by dylan604 »

LynxInLA wrote: post #105
dylan604 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>its often much better to walk just outside the boundary of the airport are you serious? what airports do you visit where you can do this as a suggestion without laughing. It's like telling the freshmen that there's a pool on the school roof. even something as small like a Bob Hope in Burbank would be difficult. Most airports do not consider pedestrian traffic to the edge of their properties. I've done it once at tha…

It is very easy at LAX. You walk about 100 yards across one (admittedly very busy) intersection and get picked up for 1/3 the price. You already have to take a shuttle to even get picked up unless you have a black car, so this adds 5 minutes. It is still annoying if you have luggage. You could also take a shuttle to a local hotel or car rental, but that is breaking some rules.

What 100 yards are you talking about? Stepping out the doors at any terminal at LAX takes you to the parking lot if you walk 100 yards. To get off of airport grounds would take a much significantly longer walk without any pedestrian walkway

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#122

Post by hackernewds »

RobotToaster wrote: post #85
Twirrim wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this is another example of HN commenters getting up on their high horse before gathering facts? Say it isn't so!

Honestly you would think Lyft would be more explicit about contributing back in their article. This isn't the first time I've seen a company contributing back to open source but completely neglecting to mention it in their post about it. It's weird, usually companies love to virtue signal about any tiny thing they do for society.

should we commend them for doing that or pull them down?

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#123

Post by ebiester »

ghaff wrote: post #89
dylan604 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>its often much better to walk just outside the boundary of the airport are you serious? what airports do you visit where you can do this as a suggestion without laughing. It's like telling the freshmen that there's a pool on the school roof. even something as small like a Bob Hope in Burbank would be difficult. Most airports do not consider pedestrian traffic to the edge of their properties. I've done it once at tha…

Walking out of an airport of any size (and even many/most smaller commercial airports) is between impossible and taking your life in your hands given that sidewalks/crosswalks/etc. are largely lacking. Most commercial airports just don't contemplate pedestrians walking in and out. It might be possible to walk to East Boston from Logan airport though I'm not sure how--and that's an airport that's basically right in th…

Logan is one of the easiest. You just take the bus to the MBTA stop or the free silver line into Seaport. The convenient public transportation is the reason I rarely take cabs or rideshare to or from Logan.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#124

Post by ricktdotorg »

balderdash wrote: post #118
KMnO4 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a ride from YVR airport where no less than 30 drivers[0] cancelled on me. I would get the notification that the driver was on their way, tap it, and then catch a brief one second flash of the driver before they disappeared and I was back in the queue. [0]: I’m sure it would be much more, but I gave up and took the train instead

I feel like the regular taxi stand is now often much faster (and often cheaper) at many airports as a result of these dynamics

i recently flew to Austin a few times and the turnaround time from airport to destination using waiting taxis was far, far faster. not cheaper though! i have found these Uber/Lyft lots that airports are using now to be a bit of disaster; they have markedly reduced the convenience factor of uber/lyft from airport to destination.

edited for spelling

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#125

Post by ghaff »

ebiester wrote: post #123
ghaff wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking out of an airport of any size (and even many/most smaller commercial airports) is between impossible and taking your life in your hands given that sidewalks/crosswalks/etc. are largely lacking. Most commercial airports just don't contemplate pedestrians walking in and out. It might be possible to walk to East Boston from Logan airport though I'm not sure how--and that's an airport that's basically right in th…

Logan is one of the easiest. You just take the bus to the MBTA stop or the free silver line into Seaport. The convenient public transportation is the reason I rarely take cabs or rideshare to or from Logan.

Sure. It's convenient to public transit. Really no reason to catch a cab to downtown unless you have a lot of luggage, you're going in or out at a weird time, or home is somewhere inconvenient to public transit. I was responding to literal "walking." (I live outside the city personally and transit doesn't really work.)

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#126

Post by minhazm »

hinkley wrote: post #74
DoctorOW wrote: post #6

This is yet another "We found a community project providing us with billions of dollars in free work but don't find it worth the effort to contribute anything back"

I really wish that companies had a donation program where employees get to vote on their favorite project, and the company cuts a check every time a project hits 50 votes (including things that got 20 votes each for the last 3 election cycles)

Microsoft does this, though not sure if the program is still active.

https://github.com/microsoft/foss-fund

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#127

Post by dylan604 »

sahila wrote: post #115
ghaff wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking out of an airport of any size (and even many/most smaller commercial airports) is between impossible and taking your life in your hands given that sidewalks/crosswalks/etc. are largely lacking. Most commercial airports just don't contemplate pedestrians walking in and out. It might be possible to walk to East Boston from Logan airport though I'm not sure how--and that's an airport that's basically right in th…

Take a shuttle to car rentals or a hotel, and then you'd be out of the airport area; doesn't have to be a "walk" walk.

Most airports have moved to a centralized rental car location that is still inside the airport perimeter, so not sure how this is helping? The ride share algos are still going to recognize you are at the airport and charge you accordingly

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#128

Post by panarky »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #103
humanistbot wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, drivers don't see the destination until they arrive and the trip begins. I'm often on one side of the Bay Area trying to get to the other and had many drivers pull up, then cancel or try to get me to cancel when they see I'm going across the Bay.

My assumption was that most drivers are using 3+ different apps, so if they get an Uber request while they're driving a Lyft route they just don't accept it, hence the bouncing around "finding another driver" because all the drivers are already busy

Also, riders are using two or three different apps, so if Uber promises a 2-minute wait and then confirms with a 6-minute wait and Lyft is promising a 3-minute wait, cancel the Uber ride and now that driver is available again.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#129

Post by panarky »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #45
sushisource wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also find it consistently obnoxious that there is essentially no way to say "My driver was fine, but your platform did something stupid" when leaving feedback. At least, not without jumping through a million hoops. The arrogance of our industry is tiresome. I took a ride in SF a while ago and it predicted a 3 minute pick up time which turned out to be 25 minutes - no fault of the driver, and the only way I could co…

I think for users who comparison shop between Uber and Lyft, the pickup ETA is part of each app’s bid. Putting a lower price costs them money, while putting a lower ETA is free.

Which is why Lyft does that annoying 59-second countdown until you can see your driver's details and actual wait time, so you have a sunk cost to discourage you from switching to Uber when the actual wait time is longer than promised.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#130

Post by neurostimulant »

otterley wrote: post #23

The tone of this article is troubling. First, the focus is on savings to Lyft, and not how this innovation benefits customers in any way. Second, it is highly antagonistic to Google - who is probably still a partner to Lyft in many other aspects (advertising etc). Taking shots at your partners is generally considered bad for business.

> Second, it is highly antagonistic to Google - who is probably still a partner to Lyft in many other aspects (advertising etc). Taking shots at your partners is generally considered bad for business.

Wasn't it Google that significantly raised their map api price a few years ago that prompted ride sharing apps to pursue open source solutions to replace google maps? Google took the first shot here. Other ride sharing apps are doing this. Grab is another ride sharing app that invest heavily in open street map.

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