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Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

wsj.com

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Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#371

Post by rodgerd »

estefan wrote: post #173
wtvanhest wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Treo was way before Andriod. First mover advantage is rarely an advantage at all. My guess is that google sees this as optionality and testing to get things right like insurance etc. in anticipation of self driving cars. At the very least it allows them to extract more value from Uber when Google finally have self driving cars ready to sell them. I really don't see how Uber is worth…

> First mover advantage is rarely an advantage at all Genuine question (not a snarky comment as it might sound), but can you link to any research that indicates it's 'rarely' and advantage? I've been reading books recently that emphasise the importance of being the first to market with something innovative. Your brand then gets associated with the product/service ("hoover", "Uber", "google") even when referring to th…

> I've been reading books recently that emphasise the importance of being the first to market with something innovative

That worked well for the Newton, the Lisa, the Nomad, Amiga Inc, didn't it?

Contrast with Palm, Mac & Windows, iPods, and so on and so forth.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#372

Post by flukus »

euyyn wrote: post #273
estefan wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First mover advantage is rarely an advantage at all Genuine question (not a snarky comment as it might sound), but can you link to any research that indicates it's 'rarely' and advantage? I've been reading books recently that emphasise the importance of being the first to market with something innovative. Your brand then gets associated with the product/service ("hoover", "Uber", "google") even when referring to th…

Those books aren't really mentioning Google Search as an example, right? It didn't have first-mover advantage.

It kind of did, AFAIK it was the first functional search engine.

Everything else at the time was pretty terrible.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#373

Post by piyush_soni »

mmanfrin wrote: post #3

Honestly I wish they wouldn't try to compete on price. Maybe I'm alone with this, but I'd rather not feel obligated to tip a driver because the ride is so cheap. Pay them a living wage, let me pay the exact fee, and let me not have to carry goddamn cash like I used to in the era of Taxis. e: Addressing common replies: "This is for people commuting already" -- okay, point taken; my point about Uber/Lyft still stands.…

Tipping is the worst form of 'wage', and it's sad that restaurants in United States have made it a norm already.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#374

Post by elcct »

DasIch wrote: post #112
eva1984 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has Uber Pool for the exact same purpose.

No, it isn't because the driver still makes a profit with Uber Pool and they didn't intend to travel where they're going. In Germany for example ride sharing under the legal definition requires that the driver doesn't make any profit and really just takes people along. If that's the case, you don't require additional/different insurance etc.

If passengers cover your costs then you always make profit indirectly - by gaining experience carrying people and being more experienced driver in general.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#375

Post by shinamee »

segmondy wrote: post #272

This is not about taking on Uber. Google is testing AI for self driving cars. Once we have self driving cars, the idea is that you deploy these cars and the cars figure out who to pick up and who to drop off and possible doing group pick ups along the way. Waze is going to predict who to pick up based on their collected data thus far using ML, their data scientists are going to supervise it and correct it. Once we ha…

Exactly what I thought myself after reading the article, it is totally logical (business-wise) to have an established market they can easily capture once their cars gets rolling.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#377

Post by JorgeGT »

dragonwriter wrote: post #253
HappyTypist wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. In many cities Uber is the only service.

If the GMaps ride service functionality is accessible to other services (it currently is by specific negotiation/partnership only, apparently, so not really, but as a platform that could change), it provides an avenue for weakening Uber's moat and making it easier for competitors to gain traction.

In my city in Spain Uber is not available but GMaps offers rides with Cabify instead, a local alternative. But I think it is negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#378

Post by ghshephard »

themartorana wrote: post #260
res0nat0r wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, very true. The fact really is in the USA if we eliminated tipping, the cost of the food on the menu would just go up by $X number of dollars, and people don't want that, they want low prices for the items on the menu which is why the system also is the way it is.

I don't believe you. No one I know likes tipping. It's awkward no matter how you slice it. We would all much rather just pay what it costs and not have to tip. -- Looked it up. You were right. Well, at least in the pay structure. 85% of surveyed people prefer a tipping pay structure to including it in the price of food. I think it has to do with the perceived idea that tipping leaves the diner in control and leaves t…

I don't think people (as least zero of the people I associate with) have any problem with tipping in the United States - it's just so understood it's what you do when in a restaurant, that the only question is usually one of "(A) I'm Lazy, don't want to calculate, 20% tip, (B) I'm being anal, figure out exact 18.5% tip, (C) Got poor service, 15% tip, (D) Waiter spit in my food and was really obnoxious/rude to me - 10% tip (but be prepared for further hostility when you do this)."

After doing this for enough years, it becomes a background task that you don't even really think of, no awkwardness.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#379

Post by lovemenot »

yefim wrote: post #9

How are they vetting drivers? I wouldn't trust a driver if all they had to do to qualify is download the Waze app.

Looks like for now at least, they'll be using the HR department of participating big companies as Customer Service. If your colleague screws you over on your way to work, who you gonna call?
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