Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 916 posts

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

#131

Post by BugheadTorpeda6 »

majormajor wrote: post #123
greybox wrote: post #107

This doesn't surprise me at all. I work in the EU but recently the Americans we hire are very hesitant to have conversations with service providers. They will pay more to use a service that has an app, rather than call up another taxi company by phone for example (and it's not a language barrier problem, because everyone speaks english). I can see this extending to not wanting to have a driver in their taxi. I see th…

Americans have been raised for a couple generations to be afraid of people. "Stranger danger." Apocalyptic news media. A general millenarianism-run-amok "the final battle between good and evil is coming and evil outnumbers us" assumption that permeates much of American culture across the political spectrum. Catastrophizing. Somehow that had an impact on our social skills! It takes a lot of work to de-program that if…

[dead]

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

#132

Post by Animats »

Waymos will get cheaper to make as they scale up. The Ioniq version [1] costs less to build. All the sheet metal and mechanical mods for Waymo are done at the Hyundai factory in Georgia.[2] Waymo just mounts the electronics.

Jobs at the Hyundai factory start at $23.66/hour, with reasonably good benefits.[3]

[1] https://waymo.com/blog/2024/10/waymo-and-hyundai-enter-partn...

[2] https://www.hmgma.com/

[3] https://careers-americas.hyundai.com/hmgma/job/Ellabell-Prod...

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

#134

Post by Symmetry »

robocat wrote: post #73
bastawhiz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dime of commercially priced electricity is around a kWh depending on where you are. That'll take a car a lot further than you think, and the more aggressively you drive the more electricity gets used. The most efficient way to drive is the flattest, most leisurely route. The only way aggressive driving becomes profitable is when you've exhausted your supply of cars. Even then, it's not clear to me that you'd increa…

If aggressive driving is 5% faster, then your expensive investment (the cars and the business) might get a few percent better utilisation (assuming liabilities don't increase much). More likely to see aggressive driving on way to pickup? Capital costs matter, and how quickly you get ROI matters.

Because of how many miles taxis drive their depreciation as a physical asset that wears out costs more than the interest on the money invested in them. To the extent that driving aggressively generates more wear or introduces more accidents it will likely end up costing more money.

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

#135

Post by cardanome »

greybox wrote: post #107

This doesn't surprise me at all. I work in the EU but recently the Americans we hire are very hesitant to have conversations with service providers. They will pay more to use a service that has an app, rather than call up another taxi company by phone for example (and it's not a language barrier problem, because everyone speaks english). I can see this extending to not wanting to have a driver in their taxi. I see th…

Americans are often a bit early on trends but honestly as a German, I would love to see waymo here. We are very slow at adapting new tech so it probably still be many years away but it would be a total game changer for me.

Especially if they offered an option for pet-owners. Being able to just chill with your pet and not bothering anyone would be amazing.

Why? Just the consistency is worth the extra money. You know exactly what type of car you are getting. You don't have to worry about getting a bad driver or anything. It just works. Plus the whole tipping thing just sucks. I don't want to decide whether to tip and how much. I want to pay what the service costs and that is that.

Also personally, I just don't like people serving me. Probably because I would barely survive a day in a customer facing job myself. I never quite sure if they attempt smalltalk because they want to talk or if they expect to get a better rating. It is just so awkward.

There are people that genuinely like to work in service jobs of course and long term job loss will suck for them so I am not exactly helping.

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

#136

Post by thunky »

basisword wrote: post #96
thunky wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just driving dangerously Why don't we have a feature to brake or at least beep when tailgating? 2 car lengths at 80 mph is not ok.

All this would do is cause noise pollution. Have you never had the displeasure of riding with someone who will leave their seatbelt unplugged despite the annoying beeping?

You could easily avoid the "noise pollution" by driving safely.

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

#137

Post by harmmonica »

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 $3 more than the base level Lyft. At first I was going to get a Tesla Model Y to take me, but that cancelled. Instead, what must have been a first generation Honda Pilot picked me up, suspension creaking and muffler that had seen better days. Did Lyft recognize what they sent instead of the "comfort" they promised and therefore charge me $3 less? Of course not. When I tried to contact customer service I ran into what I'm sure plenty of HN people have, which is a dead end where you report the issue and they (programmatically?) adjudicate the complaint on the spot. Their determination? I wasn't entitled to a $3 refund. Ironic that the rideshare app with human drivers doesn't allow me to contact their customer service whereas Waymo has no problem with it (yeah, yeah, I get it, "we'll see once they reach a huge scale." But today the experience is so much better than Uber or Lyft that while it lasts I will bask in its driverless glory).

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

#138

Post by Spooky23 »

panarky wrote: post #63
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been picked up multiple times by Uber drivers who have, essentially, bragged? about being drunk or high. I've also had multiple drivers in multiple countries try to sell me drugs. I also once had a driver in Chile who, somehow, micro-slept in stop and go traffic every time the car was stopped (which, was actually fascinating, and would've been very concerning if we ever got going more than like 10 mph). Women al…

This is the thing that people don't realize about autonomous AI. It's not primarily about saving money. Autonomous taxis are superior to Uber and yellow cabs. It's a better experience, and it's far safer. Autonomous cars aren't cheaper, they're better. When AI agents replace human jobs, any cost savings is secondary. A coding job where the AI does most of the grunt work is superior to a job where humans do everything…

lol. Sure.

I’ve seen three of these implementations in contact centers. AI drives lower satisfaction and lower cost. That business is about delivering defined level of service at the lowest possible cost.

The advantage of Waymo is that it’s a first party service that doesn’t hide behind the fig leaf of an independent contractor. Easier to regulate those nexus points than to figure out of some dudes 2015 Sienna is safe or reliable.

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

#139

Post by Workaccount2 »

greybox wrote: post #107

This doesn't surprise me at all. I work in the EU but recently the Americans we hire are very hesitant to have conversations with service providers. They will pay more to use a service that has an app, rather than call up another taxi company by phone for example (and it's not a language barrier problem, because everyone speaks english). I can see this extending to not wanting to have a driver in their taxi. I see th…

Years ago when I worked in the food industry, customers would voluntarily pay 20% more for the entire meal just to use the doordash app instead of calling us up. We informed repeat customers that they pay a premium to use 3rd party apps - they just kept using them anyway.

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

#140

Post by yusina »

oytis wrote: post #133

People are eager to pay money to not deal with other people. Which makes me pessimistic about the future of humanity given recent developments in AI really

Well it's not just the talking or otherwise awkward interactions. It's also smells and generally being in a person's personal space. Let's face it, sitting in a car, you physically get closer to the driver than you'd normally be comfortable with in an open, unrestricted space. And the car is closed too. You are essentially forced to be in their personal space. Not so with a driverless car.
Post reply on HN