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Google launches Uber rival RideWith

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Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#151

Post by fennecfoxen »

freehunter wrote: post #44
minthd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UBER plans to attack the "drive to work" segment of the transportation market, and it's potentially a huge opportunity for UBER.This Google service, if successful, might fill that role very well. And the fact that it's cheaper is basically "disruption from below" - a proven strategy in many businesses. While this exact transport service model generally failed , it did succeed in France(blabla car), and Google has uni…

Just FYI, it's Uber, not UBER. It's not an acronym.

https://www.uber.com/ take a look at that-there all-caps branding. It's pretty prominent in the app, too. (At least for UBER as an overall brand - uberX and the like are gladly lowercased.)

Though they do use lowercase in some minor text. Still easy enough to make the mistake, though.

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#152

Post by amelius »

dylanjermiah wrote: post #68
frozenport wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber: fuck the law

When the laws hurt consumers and protected the taxi cartel, I, and 2 million plus people per day welcome the destruction of such backwards laws.

Just wait until some billion-dollar funded company decides to ignore all normal business rules, in your particular market of interest. I'm curious what your response will be then.

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#153

Post by patrickdavey »

lem72 wrote: post #122
cryptoz wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's pretty clear that this won't be their last effort in this area. In this case, you can take the very-close-proximity efforts by them - self driving cars - that they are taking very seriously, and extend that expectation here. Does it really make sense that Google would build self-driving cars without also thinking about ride sharing technology and userbase? I think the primary use case of Google's cars wi…

I agree, ride sharing with self driving cars is going to be pretty normal in the near future. What will be cool is once they are self driving, they will be able to auto calculate quickest routes to pick people up, drop off, etc while being able to re-calculate to pick up people along the way.

Absolutely, this a million times. Realistically public transport should evolve to a network of self driving (smaller) vehicles - and yes, optimise the heck out of it. Bus systems are pretty inefficient things (except at peak times)

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#154

Post by chinathrow »

dataker wrote: post #33
abluecloud wrote: post #2

> Drivers will only be able to make two trips per day, and the software will ensure they only travel from their home neighborhoods to their workplaces. > There also won’t be a ton of money changing hands as a passenger will pay the driver only a nominal fare for the trip I'd hardly call it a Uber rival

With Google's amount of data, 2 trips will 'force' drivers to restrict input to commuting habits and have more insights on it. Google still holds 5% of Uber. For commuting, I'd call it Uber's abandonment and Lyft's death.

> Google still holds 5% of Uber.

Is that public knowledge?

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#155

Post by SilasX »

stephengillie wrote: post #42
abluecloud wrote: post #2

> Drivers will only be able to make two trips per day, and the software will ensure they only travel from their home neighborhoods to their workplaces. > There also won’t be a ton of money changing hands as a passenger will pay the driver only a nominal fare for the trip I'd hardly call it a Uber rival

> I'd hardly call it an Uber rival Isn't this what Lyft does? I'm guessing Uber put some money in a reporter's pocket to submarine them in this article instead.

You are correct: that's pretty much exactly how Lyft started: "oh, this is just ridesharing [1]", it's "just trips to places the driver would go anyway", and for which "you can choose to give them a nominal amount" to cover gas, totally optional (though they'll rate you poorly).

They've since dropped the pretense but a lot of the trappings remain.

Edit: Don't mean to sound like I'm "hatin' on" Lyft, just amused at the dance they have to go through to fend off busybodies.

[1] a term they still use against protest from journalists, and TBH, reasonable people

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#156

Post by puranjay »

onion2k wrote: post #37
minthd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why doesn't Apple doesn't try to create an UBER ?

For the same reason they don't make washing machines, or sell apples, or build houses - they believe their money is better spent on other things. Apple think they'll make more money in the long term innovating on consumer electronics. That said, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see an Apple car within 5 years of the first autonomous vehicles going on public sale.

Isn't one big deterrent simply Apple's lack of data? Google, by contrast, has all the data it needs about riding habits, maps, etc

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#157

Post by appletree »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #151
freehunter wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just FYI, it's Uber, not UBER. It's not an acronym.

https://www.uber.com/ take a look at that-there all-caps branding. It's pretty prominent in the app, too. (At least for UBER as an overall brand - uberX and the like are gladly lowercased.) Though they do use lowercase in some minor text. Still easy enough to make the mistake, though.

That's just the logo. Looking at their legal documents is just Uber Technologies Inc.

http://newsroom.uber.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FormRule...

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#159

Post by CamperBob2 »

arebop wrote: post #141
duaneb wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people talk about Google being an advertising company when, while it's a significant fraction of current revenue, it's also only a small portion of their interests and investments.

The first time you hear it, it sounds surprising. Then someone explains about revenue and it makes sense. So then you want to share the cleverness. Of course, it's actually a pretty shallow analysis, unsupported by the company's history and inconsistent with some of the company's current behavior. How useful is it really to consider Google as being in the same equivalence class as TBWA\CHIAT\DAY? Well never mind, the…

OK, Google is an ad company with a lot of hobbies. Better?

Re: Google launches Uber rival RideWith

#160

Post by acgourley »

patrickdavey wrote: post #153
lem72 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, ride sharing with self driving cars is going to be pretty normal in the near future. What will be cool is once they are self driving, they will be able to auto calculate quickest routes to pick people up, drop off, etc while being able to re-calculate to pick up people along the way.

Absolutely, this a million times. Realistically public transport should evolve to a network of self driving (smaller) vehicles - and yes, optimise the heck out of it. Bus systems are pretty inefficient things (except at peak times)

Buses are likely most efficient at peak times (assuming efficiency to mean is cost-per-rider and not mean-annoyance-of-riders)
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