We just had the kittens at our office (they just left). They have 3 cars doing it, and we were only the second company to get that car.
One of them really liked me (Artemis). :)
Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#52This is kitten prostitution
Pretty much. I went to one of those places in Tokyo, years ago, where you pay to pet cats and it was a depressing place. There were cats who were into it, but there were cats who clearly didn't want to be there (and some who'd been confined to cages that looked like little human apartments and were pacing constantly inside them).
I've been to a cat cafe in Tokyo, and I don't remember seeing any cats in cages. I do agree that it was a depressing place though, none of the cats were interested in interacting with the humans.
The place still seemed popular. I don't know why. The one stray cat I found during my stay in Tokyo was much more friendly than any of the cats in the cafe.
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#53This seems incredibly underpriced. Make it $50 and target office parties, add another $50-100 for catered cupcakes and they'd make a ton of money for shelters.
Kittens at office parties seems cruel. Cats can't stand crowds of people and will try to hide, not want to play.
I think it's learned. No kitten I've ever met shied away from people.
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#54"Sorry, all Kittens are currently being snuggled. Please try again soon!" :(
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gotta find a problem with every idea, no matter how minute, right? This is hacker news after all.
The welfare of animals isn't really a minute problem. It's ok to want more info on how the cats are selected and treated for what is ultimately a publicity stunt.
If I said the welfare of animals was a minute problem, you'd have a point. But it's kittens being pet by people that's a minute problem. Shelters bring them around to a variety of places, like the Palo Alto farmers market, already. This is just an extension of that advertising mechanism. And it is an infinitesimally small problem.
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Uber = On-Demand... anything? Yes, Uber has said in their interviews (or maybe it was pg talking about them?) that once they have the infrastructure set up to deliver a car anywhere they can branch out into on demand delivery of anything.
It was soon after that Google invested $200M+. I believe that Google's driverless cars have a bigger financial gain by delivering goods rather than people. We all think they're doing the automated taxi thing, but I think that's just to make the general public comfortable with driverless cars being on the roads.
It's a dessert topping! It's a floor wax! It's both!
Either a car is safe to drive on regular streets without human supervision or it isn't. It doesn't matter what's inside.
You could probably imagine a scenario in which the cost of the self-driving kit (not the software, but things like "a LIDAR array") was something like $100,000. In which case maybe most private individuals are priced out of the market, but some corporations are like, "This is still cheaper than paying for drivers." But I don't really see why that wouldn't apply to taxis as well as kitten-delivery. And in any case, it's hard to imagine why the cost of an automation kit would not drop in time.
So I don't think there are too many plausible scenarios in which it is persistently the case that automated cars only carry non-human cargo.
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Uber = On-Demand... anything? Yes, Uber has said in their interviews (or maybe it was pg talking about them?) that once they have the infrastructure set up to deliver a car anywhere they can branch out into on demand delivery of anything.
It was soon after that Google invested $200M+. I believe that Google's driverless cars have a bigger financial gain by delivering goods rather than people. We all think they're doing the automated taxi thing, but I think that's just to make the general public comfortable with driverless cars being on the roads.
Why not both? The legal/liability issues are there either way.
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#58I know it's fun, but I honestly think they're testing the waters with this sort of thing - same goes with the "Call an Ice Cream Truck" campaign from this summer. Uber = On-Demand... anything?
> Uber = On-Demand... anything? Yes, Uber has said in their interviews (or maybe it was pg talking about them?) that once they have the infrastructure set up to deliver a car anywhere they can branch out into on demand delivery of anything.
(A disclaimer: I work for Flywheel -- we're an Uber competitor. Take anything I say about Uber with a grain of salt.)
I'm not sure how much synergy there actually is between "get a taxi on demand" and "deliver goods on demand." I mean, taxis have existed forever. Presumably, if someone thought it was cost effective, they could have used taxis as a logistics network long ago. But taxis are really, really, really expensive (and Uber black cars are yet more expensive) in terms of what people expect to pay for shipping. UPS or the postal service will ship a small package across the country for me for $10 or less. A taxi in SF won't go a mile for $10.
Is there some reason to believe that Uber changes the game with regard to all that? They aren't drastically lowering the price of taxis. Their success has been in raising the service level of taxi-like-services, and in reducing the inconvenience of getting a taxi dispatched to you. I don't say this to take anything away from Uber -- I think they have a fantastic service -- but I don't see their successes as being things that really have a lot to do with what you want from a goods distribution network. If what you want to do is have a very expensive courier service for some kind of physical good, do you really mind calling dispatch and talking to a person?
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#59This does feel a bit weird - short-term rental of petting animals? I'm worried about mishandling, animal cruelty and the whole concept - pets form an attachment with you, doing it as a short-term rental isn't an acceptable way of building a relationship...
I had this idea a few years ago. Before my wife and I moved to a place that allowed animals, I used to wish there was a way I could rent a dog while at the beach.
I had this idea too. Except I want a kitten or a puppy, then like Netflix I can send it back and get a new one as it ages.
Re: Uber and Cheezburger will deliver you 15 minutes of kitten playtime for $20
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cats are nothing like dogs though. While it's also important to socialize kittens as soon as possible to make them comfortable around humans, I don't think it's a good idea to haul them around town in a car. Cats don't like to be taken outside their known environment at all, and they don't like to be locked inside a box, or transported in a noisy car. Just to give some perspective, my own cat loves people, strange or…
Might kittens be different from cats in this regard? I don't really have experience with either, but I imagine kittens may be more tolerating of environment changes.
It really depends on the kitten. If you are ever in the market for one, a visit to your nearest cat/kitten rescue centre will illustrate just how much of a unique personality each kitten has. Some sit on your lap and purr almost instantaneously, some are very nervous, some are playful, some mischievous, some seem to love kids, some don't etc etc.