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

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161–170 of 181 posts

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

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lyft support is inconsistent. Sometimes, you'll report a minor issue and get an over-the-top "OMG - WE'RE SO SORRY! HERE'S FREE MONEY AND YOU'LL NEVER BE PAIRED WITH THIS DRIVER AGAIN!" Other times, you'll report an actual problem, like being charged more than advertised, and they'll do nothing to remediate. After being charged more than expected on a couple recent rides, I basically stopped using Lyft.

If it's anything like AirBnB, it probably depends on whether you're getting the chipper day-shift call center or the cheap outsourced offshore call center as far as what kind of support you get. My wife and I landed in a cockroach-infested but very beautiful condo through AirBnB once and the night shift guy basically accused me of being used to living with cockroaches as a business traveler and that one or two should…

I have an Airbnb support horror story too.

I reported the space being poorly cleaned first thing in the morning (I had arrived at 1 AM). They asked if I preferred a phone call or chat. I didn't want to spend a morning on the phone with them, so I chose chat.

Every 20 minutes for the next few days, I got "Hi, I'm NAME_HERE, and I'm taking over your case!" The names changed, but they never actually _did_ anything beyond "taking over" the case. I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode.

One of them then decided the best resolution was to tell the host I'd complained about the cleanliness (without including me at all). I started getting nasty messages from the host, who thought I'd happily stayed there for 4 days and then spontaneously opened a complaint. So now on top of sleeping in a gross Airbnb, I was getting constant notifications on my phone of the host calling me all sorts of nasty names.

I opened a _new_ ticket and chose phone support to finally get a hold of somebody. Her accent told me she was in an offshore call center, but she was helpful in getting it resolved. I think they had me book a hotel for the remainder of the days and reimbursed me, or something to that effect.

After I checked out, the host filed a frivolous damages claim against me. I clicked the "not my problem" button and thankfully never heard about it again.

I will never, ever use Airbnb chat support again. Was perhaps the worst customer service experience I've ever had.

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

#162

> Ninety-eight percent of drivers who try Lyft’s maps stick with them — rather than switching to Google, Apple, Waze, or any other app. I find this surprising because my personal experience is the exact opposite. At least in NYC, drivers use the Lyft (or Uber) app for managing riders but use a dedicated mapping application for navigating to the destination once you're picked up.

Agreed. A lot of drivers in NYC (where I'm also based) seem to have multiple devices in the car. Maybe there's some flawed data gathering if a driver still is using the native Lyft app but running navigation on a separate device?

Maybe it’s to run uber and Lyft? I vaguely remember someone telling me this like 5 years ago

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

#163
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have thought that some major service migrated to OSM by 2019. I can’t remember which, or even if it was a success. But I didn’t realize the data was that bad just three years ago. Then again, Apple Maps started getting sorted out around then too iirc.

> Then again, Apple Maps started getting sorted out around then too iirc. And we assume completely coincidentally? Not that Apple Maps, like Google Maps, pulls in data volunteered by the OSM community (both corporate and personal members), packages and improves (sometimes "improves") it, then locks it away behind paid API calls? In this case and many others, the free and community built project enabled, assisted, or…

> Not that Apple Maps, like Google Maps, pulls in data volunteered by the OSM... then locks it away

You have that backwards, at least for some companies.

> How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are contributing to OSM

At the State of the Map conference in Milan, the teams from Microsoft, Apple and Facebook presented their projects, describing how they are working with communities.

https://www.theodi.org/article/how-are-facebook-apple-and-mi...

I've never seen any cite for Google contributing their data to OSM.

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

#164
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off the top of my head: LAX: walking paths and signalized crosswalks get you all the way to the hotels east of Sepulveda, or take the free shuttle to the cell phone lot and order from there. SJC: Cross the parking garage to the bike path and from there cross the street. Or just walk down the bike path ORD, MDW: Free shuttle to the rental car facility, or take the L one stop. MSN: kind of a long walk, but there are si…

When I fly out of Seatac in the summer I park my motorcycle in the employee parking, which is free. Do other airports not offer cheap/free employee parking?

Employee of what? The airport?

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

#165
post #100
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been in a company that marginally that was in the same situation as Lyft, financially speaking, and for me sounds brave and bonkers that those folks still have time to blog post in a very stock-nose-diving situation.

Seriously. That's their focus as their value tanks? Maps?

Won’t this save them money? Seems appropriate.

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

#166
post #3

Does anyone know if Lyft plan to contribute their map corrections back to OSM? They mention other companies doing so in this blog post, but don't make it clear whether or not they, too, intend to. I'm curious to see how good Lyft Maps is, too. Uber Maps is, frankly, a disaster in my area, frequently suggesting illegal and/or impossible turns. I try to submit map feedback every trip (very hard as a rider, as most form…

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…

After ten years of using Lyft/Uber for airport trips instead of driving I’ve decided to go back to park/fly companies. This past week I had a scheduled and confirmed pickup with Lyft, driver cancelled 2 min before pickup and it took 5 more “driver found” messages and 50 minutes before I switched to Uber and got picked up in 10 minutes. Uber has done the same in the past, so they aren’t reliable either. It was a $110 fare trip.

I’m beginning to despise Lyft/Uber as much as the cabs they replaced.

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

#167
post #89

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…

There's a sidewalk from Terminal A arrivals that you can take to the Maverick neighborhood and the East Boston Greenway. There was one from Terminal E as well to Wood Island and beyond, but part of it's been closed for a while due to the Terminal E expansion. There's a pedestrian detour through the cell phone lot that'll get you there.

You won't be able to walk to Downtown Boston, obviously, but Logan Airport is theoretically walkable if you're in East Boston. I'd still take the shuttle bus to the Airport T station where you can do the same walk to the greenway.

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

#168
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I fly out of Seatac in the summer I park my motorcycle in the employee parking, which is free. Do other airports not offer cheap/free employee parking?

Employee of what? The airport?

Who do you think?

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

#170

Lyft and Uber have been very disappointing at the local airport lately. Lyft pickups from the airport are supposedly cheap but the last time I tried getting one it let me wait for 20 minutes; I eventually gave up and got a taxi. Uber from the airport regularly surges, usually right after a flight lands, and their surge price puts them well above the price of the taxis that are ready and waiting to pick people up. I’m…

I compared pricing from hotels next to the airport (that have free shuttle service) and they appear to be $20-30 cheaper on Uber vs the airport pickup point. Planning on trying this on my next trip.
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