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Waymo Premier

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Re: Waymo Premier

#191

Post by saghm »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #185
boarsofcanada wrote: post #89

$30/mo is slightly mind boggling for this. I’ve enjoyed the ~70 or so Waymo rides I have taken but to me Waymo, Uber, and Lyft are methods of last resort. My feet, BART, and SFMuni are my primary methods of transportation and for $104/mo I can take an unlimited number of trips, usually very conveniently.

Don't tell me... you are a man? I guess so. How many middle class women and above want to ride SFMuni after dark? Few. The future of self-driving taxis is women (customers) who want to live in a big city, but don't want to ride mass transit, nor ride in a ride-hailing services (Uber, etc.) with a human driver... because most drivers are men.

I imagine that Uber can also be somewhat sketchy but with a different risk profile (getting into the car with a stranger, often a man, and needing to trust that they'll drive you to the right location), which means that self-driving taxis would be a potential safety upgrade over that as well.

Re: Waymo Premier

#192

Post by throwaway2037 »

nfw2 wrote: post #179
arjie wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest advantage with public transit is that your mind is not engaged driving. But at some point, the speed advantage is overwhelming. And eventually the price advantage dominates. Taking my family and grandparents to the airport is $40 by car^W rideshare and $45 by BART and twice the amount of time for me: I live upstairs from a T-train / Caltrain stop. I'd invite anyone to price out the difference themselves.…

Bart seems much more cleaner and safer now than in years past. I don't know if free mental space is the main benefit of transit. During rush hour, you can't do much outside of listen to something, which you can do while driving too. Not having to deal with parking and the fact that driving is actually very dangerous seem like stronger points in transits favor. Fwiw, driving also has some negative je ne sais quoi for…

    > Bart seems much more cleaner and safer now than in years past.
Did you ride in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and (early) 2000s? It was fine. How narrow is your "years past"?

Re: Waymo Premier

#193

Post by matthewdgreen »

asveikau wrote: post #16
toddmorey wrote: post #6

I'm SO tired of subscription services that only offer the opportunity to buy more stuff. - Doordash wants you to subscribe - AMC movies want you to subscribe - Now Waymo wants you to subscribe You can't buy anything now without being hassled for a subscription. I don't see any value here except for when they degrade the service for non-subscribers to make the priority pickups seem worth it.

This type of subscription model is a little less annoying, most "normal" people will sign up for the non-subscription rate, and frequent users are already frequent users, so they will be more OK with a subscription. Speaking personally, I don't see enough movies or do enough ride shares to want to subscribe to AMC or Waymo, but Doordash would make sense. Maybe it's OK for me to pay a higher price for the ~1 time per…

I was recently offered a sale price by a restaurant on Doordash, when I was logged out. I logged in as a subscriber and the sale deal went away, which meant that the delivery actually cost slightly more. I've noticed this pattern a lot: the subscription supposedly offers savings, but when you A/B test the same meal against a subscribed/logged in account and a non-subscribed account, the amounts are usually very similar.

My conclusion is that Doordash actually cares more about their non-subscribed users than their subscribers: that's where they see growth.

Re: Waymo Premier

#194

Post by sebzim4500 »

dminvs wrote: post #136
Pseudocrat wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, recently in Austin Waymo cars blocked emergency services during a mass shooting event. That may be causing other cities some caution.

there have been a lot more issues than just that incident they apparently like driving into floodwaters [1] one vehicle got confused by construction barriers, entered opposing traffic, and halted [2] in Dallas, a gas leak caused an explosion that leveled an apartment building, a Waymo unit blocked the scene, and first responders had to first reach into the car and try grasping the wheel, before the remote support age…

>I have a moderate fear for the safety of my children with these things on the road

I have some terrible news for you about the human drivers already on the road

Re: Waymo Premier

#195

Post by saberience »

junon wrote: post #5
dabinat wrote: post #2

This caught my eye: > I'm not obligated to talk to someone that I don't want to talk to I’m wondering what we lose as a society if people never have to be in even a mildly uncomfortable situation. There’s a book called The Comfort Crisis about this topic. EDIT: The full quote is “I get privacy, time back, a safe ride, and I'm not obligated to talk to someone that I don't want to talk to.” In her quote she chose to se…

As a gay dude I experienced my fair share of "uncomfortable" Uber rides from or to various places. No thanks. I don't need to stimulate those kinds of social skills or whatever. Can't even imagine what women go through.

[flagged]

Re: Waymo Premier

#196

Post by HDThoreaun »

jbmchuck wrote: post #129
boarsofcanada wrote: post #89

$30/mo is slightly mind boggling for this. I’ve enjoyed the ~70 or so Waymo rides I have taken but to me Waymo, Uber, and Lyft are methods of last resort. My feet, BART, and SFMuni are my primary methods of transportation and for $104/mo I can take an unlimited number of trips, usually very conveniently.

It seems to me a lot of people just really don't like to be associated with public transit or anything associated with anything remotely underclass. It's a class marker to be driven around in an autonomous 6000lbs tank rather than move your legs a bit.

Wealthy people in NYC have no problem with the subway. When the service is better than alternatives people use it.

Re: Waymo Premier

#197

Post by throwaway2037 »

frankfrank13 wrote: post #133
jbmchuck wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me a lot of people just really don't like to be associated with public transit or anything associated with anything remotely underclass. It's a class marker to be driven around in an autonomous 6000lbs tank rather than move your legs a bit.

This is a huge difference between NYC and SF. There are certainly some in NYC who would prefer Waymo (direct route, no driver chitchat), but I don't think many New Yorkers would be proud of taking Waymo's. Most people feel embarrassed to admit they took an Uber somewhere!

    > Most people [in NYC] feel embarrassed to admit they took an Uber somewhere!
High income women (or women married to high income men) -- of all ages -- not at all. Most women under 30 with a good job expected to be "Uber'd" home from a date. As a joke, if you are very high income, you would be embarrassed to ride Uber because your car and driver were diverted for an unexpected repair.

Re: Waymo Premier

#199

Post by saberience »

cflewis wrote: post #114
dabinat wrote: post #2

This caught my eye: > I'm not obligated to talk to someone that I don't want to talk to I’m wondering what we lose as a society if people never have to be in even a mildly uncomfortable situation. There’s a book called The Comfort Crisis about this topic. EDIT: The full quote is “I get privacy, time back, a safe ride, and I'm not obligated to talk to someone that I don't want to talk to.” In her quote she chose to se…

This is a male perspective. My wife will not ride alone in Uber's because she's had one too many uncomfortable -> possibly dangerous situations. This appears to be true for all of her friends as well.

[flagged]

Re: Waymo Premier

#200

Post by airstrike »

kotaKat wrote: post #69
jimkleiber wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like Waymo meets Zipcar?

That actually sorta? exists! Vay uses remotely teleoperated vehicles in Vegas to drop off your rental, then take it away once you're done. https://vay.io/

This is the best combo possible. It feels like the ideal trade-off between the autonomy of car ownership and the flexibility of ride-sharing. I've been hearing about this concept for literally over a decade now.

I hope it expands quickly to the rest of the US.

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