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Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

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Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#241

Post by mgkimsal »

fixedd wrote: post #206
billsimpson wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston cabs do this now (I assume it's happening all over) by playing a short ad reel that loops over and over. It's pretty horrible. If that's their end game here, I'd be disappointed.

I only take cabs 5-10 times a year anymore, and never in Boston, but I've never been in a cab that pestered me with advertisements. If I found myself in one, it'd be the last ride I took with that company. On the last flight I took with Delta Airlines they had all the TVs drop down and they played five minutes worth of advertisements on the screens and through the loudspeakers. I just refuse to deal with companies th…

I think every flight I've taken in the last 2 years did this on multiple carriers. refusal might man driving everywhere.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#242

Post by miguelrochefort »

Is there anything special about Uber, other than its brand?

How hard can it be to implement an Uber clone? Like a week?

What's stopping anyone from entering this space? Is it technology? Marketing? Regulation? Trust? A secret sauce?

I'd love to understand.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#243

Post by sumedh »

cpeterso wrote: post #170
relaxatorium wrote: post #69

They've well and truly inherited the 90s Microsoft banner of being the tech company that wants to be in every line of business at all times.

Wall Street demands infinite growth so the only option is to eventually enter all markets.

If I am not mistaken the two Google founders have majority of the controlling shares so it would not really matter what wall street demands.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#244

Post by krisgee »

visakanv wrote: post #228
Alupis wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a lot of unknowns and serious challenges and difficult problems to solve before driver-less vehicles can become "mainstream". Majority (all?) of the road testing has been on fairly controlled roads with "normal" circumstances, ie. not a blizzard with iced roads, hydroplaning, debris falling in front of the vehicle at speed, etc. Longevity of the vehicle - it's doubtful a driverless vehicle purchased toda…

> The moment the first human casualty occurs do to some software/hardware failure, there will be serious ramifications for the self-driving world. Just want to add to the discussion a reminder that this is said about literally every new piece of technology that has ever happened- the first human casuality from riding a horse, first human casualty from driving a car, etc. It's interesting to note that we're expected t…

>It's interesting to note that we're expected to lose our minds over the first human death with New Technology Y, when Old Technology X is typically killing humans all the time.

Exactly, call me when they're killing 1.2 million people a year[1].

The number of people killed by automobiles is completely fucking insane and the only reason we're cool with it is it mostly doesn't happen to someone a large number of people care about and if it does we can hum, haw and then lay blame on someone (who is probably dead).

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-re...

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#246

Post by bsdpython »

username223 wrote: post #163
rottyguy wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, insurance in driverless cars should be trivial. Accidents should drop to near 0 (over time) due to driver error... at least in theory.

That's like saying "software should become bug-free over time." I'm not sure it's actually getting worse over time, but it sure isn't getting better. Have you ever had to find a bug in a Wordpress plugin written in PHP by a part-time developer, that generates JavaScript, that in turn generates buggy HTML? I doubt wonky driverless cars trying to optimize a bunch of conflicting metrics (operation cost, utilization, rev…

Google has an insane level of motivation to wring out any and all bugs from a driverless car. Even a single deadly accident in one of their cars could potentially destroy their entire business. Comparing that type of software to a Wordpress plugin makes no sense. The potential cost of a bug is huge in this case thus you will get very good software with any driverless car.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#247

Post by andygates »

mathattack wrote: post #225
dkarapetyan wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many data points do you think you need to make predictions about where people want to go? Uber's data isn't as hard to get as you think. The article mentions also that Uber is already using Google maps to do routing so Google already has all the data it needs.

Google Maps has destinations and directions. Not sure if they store histories of where people searched for directions. (Anyone in the know have thoughts?) Uber has, or eventually will have, "User 1VB7X has hailed an Uber from 45th and 6th nine times out of ten when they were within two blocks. They are now 5 blocks away and headed in that direction." If you add this up for everyone who has the app on their phone, it…

I have a directions search history, and as half of my searches are "from here", that ties my searches to my location as well.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#248

Post by bsdpython »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #242

Is there anything special about Uber, other than its brand? How hard can it be to implement an Uber clone? Like a week? What's stopping anyone from entering this space? Is it technology? Marketing? Regulation? Trust? A secret sauce? I'd love to understand.

The technology itself is probably not that difficult to build. The difficulty is launching a robust two sided marketplace. Now that there are already existing two sided marketplaces in this space it makes it even more difficult for a new entrant. In the same vein, building a social network isn't that difficult but getting a huge user base to generate network effects is extremely difficult.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#249

Post by andygates »

seren wrote: post #235
avodonosov wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think OpenStreetMaps can be a reasonable substitute? IMHO their maps are quite accurate.

The issue with OSM is that the information level is uneven. Dense urban center, you have every bench and bin mapped. Go into the countryside, there is not even the buildings. It might not be an issue for a taxi company that is mainly operating in urban center though.

It's in the taxi company's interests to improve the maps for everyone: popular routes will be refined to a T, and gaps will quickly become obvious. These days the most common mapping gap is new developments, and they're faster to appear on OSM than the commercials.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#250

Post by [deleted] »

cabalamat wrote: post #233
mathattack wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value is only partially in the driver base. Drivers are tangible. But the true value is intangible. There is enormous brand value in thinking "I'll get an Uber" as a synonym for "I'll get a taxi, but right what I need it, and it probably will smell better." There is value of having that app on the phone, with credit card # already in place. But perhaps more important is that Uber is building a graph of everyone w…

> There is enormous brand value in thinking "I'll get an Uber" Yes, and there is enormous value in "I'll Google it", but that doesn't stop people from using other search engines (and online services) as soon as a better one comes along, because the cost to the user of switching is small. Name recognition does not, IMO, make Uber worth $40bn.

[deleted]
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