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Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

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Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#511

Post by ghushn3 »

kulahan wrote: post #495
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Threatening someone for being a complete asshole is always okay, and even cool. I disagree, but I wasn’t actually there. I only heard one side of the story.

You are disagreeing with the concept, and then saying you only heard one side of… what story? I just do not care if my customer service agent has a bad time after putting me in a dangerous situation. Do people not realize that this is how the world works? If you are serving customers, putting them IN DANGER, yes EVEN if it was at their own request, is what is actually wrong. You don’t let someone ride a roller coaste…

> extremely dangerous neighborhood

I've lived in urban areas my whole life. Including some of the largest cities in North America. While there's places I consider higher risk, and routes I wouldn't typically take, simply existing in some neighborhood in Milwaukee isn't some existential threat to life and limb.

Keep your head down and walk a few blocks to somewhere safer and get a cab/uber/lyft out of there if needed.

Heck, book another Uber, you know at least one driver is in the neighborhood.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#512

Post by data_maan »

This is as much about Uber/Lyft, as it is about the (nonexistent) level of politeness in the vest (US+Europe).

Have you ever taken a Uber in Japan? The driver will make him/herself invisible. The space in the car is, factually, your space. No phone conversations on their part, no music, no odours.

Waymo won't thrive in Japan, because it offers nothing extra advantages to regular Uber.

We suck in the west in terms of customer friendliness.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#513

Post by cAtte_ »

data_maan wrote: post #512

This is as much about Uber/Lyft, as it is about the (nonexistent) level of politeness in the vest (US+Europe). Have you ever taken a Uber in Japan? The driver will make him/herself invisible. The space in the car is, factually, your space. No phone conversations on their part, no music, no odours. Waymo won't thrive in Japan, because it offers nothing extra advantages to regular Uber. We suck in the west in terms of…

so, in your opinion, the best way to be polite is to not exist? that's a nice outlook on humanity

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#514

Post by wyager »

There was a while, early on, where (at least in the areas I used it) the modal Uber driver was a college student or a (semi-)retired person looking for something to do. Generally polite, fluent in English, upwardly mobile or already successful. Cars were higher quality and cleaner than taxis.

Now, the modal Uber driver seems to be relatively rude, cannot speak English well, seems financially desperate, and drives a dirty/crappy car. Even if I pay extra for "comfort" I often get a pretty junky car. It's basically as bad as a taxi.

When the human element is a substantial net negative on the whole experience, I'll pay extra to avoid the human element.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#516

Post by seb1204 »

kelnos wrote: post #198
meindnoch wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the opposite once with Uber. I paid regular price (UberX or whatever it's called), then a guy showed up in a black BMW 530 with leather seats.

Of course, that happens, but the point is that it's a crapshoot, and you don't know what you're gonna get until the driver confirms, and you don't know what the car's actual condition is until you get in. And regardless, it's always reasonable for someone to provide you a better service/product than you paid for, but it's never ok to do the opposite. With Waymo, you know what you're going to get every time. I've also…

Same for cabs who used to be horrible until uber was the alternative. You need to use the vote button on Uber or Lyft. And not get into the car that is crap.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#517

Post by seb1204 »

phil21 wrote: post #415
ryandrake wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure by now the various "classes" of service offered by Lyft and Uber are instead just ways for the customer to donate money to Lyft and Uber. There's no difference in what kind of yahoo shows up in what kind of beater.

I pretty much just use it to book black cars these days - at least in my local city where those require licensed livery drivers. Good experience there for the most part. Most of the time I’m using Uber it’s either a business expense to the airport or I’m booking for a large party anyways. That and I guess UberXL - otherwise it’s pretty fungible. The interesting bit is that black is often pretty much the same price a…

What does "licensed driver" mean? The driver has a valid driving licence?

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#518

Post by 1776smithadam »

data_maan wrote: post #512

This is as much about Uber/Lyft, as it is about the (nonexistent) level of politeness in the vest (US+Europe). Have you ever taken a Uber in Japan? The driver will make him/herself invisible. The space in the car is, factually, your space. No phone conversations on their part, no music, no odours. Waymo won't thrive in Japan, because it offers nothing extra advantages to regular Uber. We suck in the west in terms of…

> Have you ever taken a Uber in Japan?

You're being snarky but it's obvious you're speaking from the prospective of a foreign tourist who has only been to Tokyo and major cities while not being able to speak Japanese.

You're making a strong but false generalisations as a tourist. The tourist aspect is important because of the anthropic principle. If you were a local who was in the inaka where Uber doesn't operate and you had to reserve a taxi by phone in Japanese, you'd have an entirely different experience.

Japanese people are notoriously introverted and shy. That's why people don't make small talk especially on a taxi. Plus, if they presume you're a tourist who doesn't speak Japanese, why bother? It's also not true that it's "your space". Just because the driver and other service people aren't confronting you on your behavior doesn't mean it's socially approved behavior. Japanese people silently judged and tourists can't even notice. There is an unspoken rule you keep your conversation with your fellow passenger private and quiet. Even wearing a perfume/cologne in a communal space, which a taxi is, can be considered rude.

If the reason people prefer Waymo is because they're introverted and not just avoid socializing but avoid being the presence of other people alltogether, then it's entirely possible for Waymo to do okay in Japan.

> The space in the car is, factually, your space.

This such an arrogant Westerner thing to think and say. Until you can step out of that, you will never understand Japan like you think you do.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#519

Post by seb1204 »

Jubijub wrote: post #277
jghn wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they bin vehicles by available seating and not by things like luggage.

+1 So you may get say a 7 seater where the seats are folded in the trunk, so you can carry 7 people XOR 5 people + light suitcases There is no option to say “send me a mini van”

Book a maxi-cab or a dedicated airport transfer service.

Re: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway

#520

Post by stahtops »

rfurmani wrote: post #477
harmmonica wrote: post #137

As a Waymo-booster on HN for a while now, here's my latest anecdote. I tried to figure out how to take Waymo to LAX even though it's not actually in their territory yet just because I value the experience so much. I was borderline going to take it within walking distance (about half a mile), but got lazy at the last minute. I took Lyft instead, and, as if the universe cursed my laziness, I booked a "comfort" car for…

I've had a couple bad experiences with Lyft recently, including one time the driver must have clicked that they picked me up while a block away, because I could see the lyft driving to the destination without me. I tried to get a refund since I was obviously waiting my start location the whole time, but the system claimed the drive went from start to finish (even though I wasn't in the car), so no refund.

I waited 40 minutes for a Lyft at an airport because the driver made up a story about an accident and traffic, in the airport. No one else seemed to be affected by this traffic- so eventually I tried booking an Uber. It arrived 3 minutes later.

20 minutes after that the Lyft driver keeps texting me “where are you?!”. Their turn to wait!

Saw later they just started the ride without me and drove to my hotel.

Lyft said “this trip was completed, no refund”. Welp, app deleted.

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