Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 916 posts

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

#61

Post by nineplay »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #33

As a man I thankfully haven't ever really felt unsafe (in this way anyways, definitely some bad/distracted Uber drivers) but I could see women or kids finding Waymos to be a safer overall experience worth a premium

Recently my daughter and I had to take a Uber home from airport at 11pm. I did not like the driver and I did not like the situation and I seriously was considering exit plans if he started going off the normal route.

The next time I had to take a late Uber I paid up for Uber Premium, which is maybe imperfect reasoning but the driver was pleasant and polite and didn't give any bad vibes.

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

#62

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

username223 wrote: post #53
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been picked up multiple times by Uber drivers who have, essentially, bragged? about being drunk or high. I've also had multiple drivers in multiple countries try to sell me drugs. I also once had a driver in Chile who, somehow, micro-slept in stop and go traffic every time the car was stopped (which, was actually fascinating, and would've been very concerning if we ever got going more than like 10 mph). Women al…

> I also once had a driver in Chile who, somehow, micro-slept in stop and go traffic every time the car was stopped Imagine how desperate you would have to be to drive a cab when you're that sleep-deprived (probably haven't slept in 36 hours). Now imagine someone took that income away from you to give it to Sundar Pichai. Yeah, sometimes it's unpleasant talking to a cabby, and sometimes he won't take a hint and stop…

So instead of giving my money to Google, I should get in a car where someone could easily kill me and others?

No thanks.

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

#63

Post by panarky »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #16
pkrecker wrote: post #6

I'm willing to pay more for a better ride experience: * Waymos are all the same. I underrated the value of this until I started taking Waymo more often. * I can control the music and volume with my phone. * I can listen to YouTube or take a call without AirPods. Sometimes I even hotspot and do some work. But most importantly Waymos all _drive_ the same way. I have had some really perplexing Uber drivers, either drivi…

I've been picked up multiple times by Uber drivers who have, essentially, bragged? about being drunk or high. I've also had multiple drivers in multiple countries try to sell me drugs. I also once had a driver in Chile who, somehow, micro-slept in stop and go traffic every time the car was stopped (which, was actually fascinating, and would've been very concerning if we ever got going more than like 10 mph). Women al…

This is the thing that people don't realize about autonomous AI.

It's not primarily about saving money.

Autonomous taxis are superior to Uber and yellow cabs. It's a better experience, and it's far safer. Autonomous cars aren't cheaper, they're better.

When AI agents replace human jobs, any cost savings is secondary. A coding job where the AI does most of the grunt work is superior to a job where humans do everything. It's better for the worker (less tedium). It's better for the employer (consistent style, greater test coverage, security vulns evaluated for every function, follows company policy and procedures).

AI agents done well are superior at call center jobs, screen-based office work, mortgage processing, financial analysis, most business consulting like process redesign, etc. The biggest benefit isn't reducing payroll, it's doing the job faster, with higher quality and more consistency.

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

#64

Post by daft_pink »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #42
daft_pink wrote: post #7

The photo in the pictures is a brand new Jaguar. Just sayin’ I was under the impression they use Chrysler minvans, but I’d pay more to ride in a late model Jaguar than some random Hyundai.

I mean, if you’ve ever set foot in a Hyundai Ioniq 5/6, they’re better than any of the alternatives from American brands.

I'm sure they are, but I meant that if you were to take a Lyft or Uber, you would just get someone's random car that is often a Hyundai Elantra or Accent in my experience and not necessarily perfectly clean etc vs riding in a corporate maintained fleet of Jaguars.

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

#66

Post by unsignedint »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #4
baxtr wrote: post #2

Interesting. Very little about the underlying reasons for this. Maybe it's driven by curiosity/awe for the new experience? Maybe being alone in the car makes a better ride?

I pay a premium for Waymos. No need to tip, or even think about whether one should tip. The ride won’t cancel on me, which makes it more reliable. (Waymos are also more consistently clean.) I can take phone calls without worrying about my rider rating. And yeah, they’re more fun because they're novel.

Yeah, I’d happily pay a bit extra just to take tipping out of the equation entirely. Not having to worry about it is enough of a draw on its own. (I’m not a fan of tipping culture to begin with — especially with apps like Uber, where you’re also being rated, which adds even more pressure.)

Now if only Waymo were available in my area…

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

#67

Post by bastawhiz »

pkrecker wrote: post #6

I'm willing to pay more for a better ride experience: * Waymos are all the same. I underrated the value of this until I started taking Waymo more often. * I can control the music and volume with my phone. * I can listen to YouTube or take a call without AirPods. Sometimes I even hotspot and do some work. But most importantly Waymos all _drive_ the same way. I have had some really perplexing Uber drivers, either drivi…

It's always a bad feeling when you get in the car and the driver is on the phone with someone and clearly starts talking about you in another language. Or even just mumbles something on the phone and you're not sure if they're talking to you or not (and they are, like 20% of the time). Super stressful.

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

#68

Post by bastawhiz »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #22
pkrecker wrote: post #6

I'm willing to pay more for a better ride experience: * Waymos are all the same. I underrated the value of this until I started taking Waymo more often. * I can control the music and volume with my phone. * I can listen to YouTube or take a call without AirPods. Sometimes I even hotspot and do some work. But most importantly Waymos all _drive_ the same way. I have had some really perplexing Uber drivers, either drivi…

Same here. Waymo doesn’t make me feel car sick, while aggressiveness-incentivized uber/lyft drivers do. Thinking of incentives, I wonder what happens when self driving is “solved” to the point they can start nickel and dime optimizing. I wonder if waymo starts driving overly aggressively at that point too.

A dime of commercially priced electricity is around a kWh depending on where you are. That'll take a car a lot further than you think, and the more aggressively you drive the more electricity gets used. The most efficient way to drive is the flattest, most leisurely route.

The only way aggressive driving becomes profitable is when you've exhausted your supply of cars. Even then, it's not clear to me that you'd increase profit in that time by driving faster, since one car over the course of a day might squeeze in one or two extra rides at most. Just having more cars that sit idle until needed would accomplish the same thing with no extra risk.

In fact, the biggest area for optimization is getting the car to the next rider from the end of a previous ride. But that's not about being fast, that's about positioning idle cars in the right places to minimize distance to potential riders. If pickup distance becomes a hard bottleneck, it's again about capacity, not speed. Most of the between-trip driving is not on highways and back roads, it's through dense areas with lots of stop signs and traffic lights, so increasing speed isn't even really feasible.

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

#69

Post by bryanlarsen »

bastawhiz wrote: post #68
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Waymo doesn’t make me feel car sick, while aggressiveness-incentivized uber/lyft drivers do. Thinking of incentives, I wonder what happens when self driving is “solved” to the point they can start nickel and dime optimizing. I wonder if waymo starts driving overly aggressively at that point too.

A dime of commercially priced electricity is around a kWh depending on where you are. That'll take a car a lot further than you think, and the more aggressively you drive the more electricity gets used. The most efficient way to drive is the flattest, most leisurely route. The only way aggressive driving becomes profitable is when you've exhausted your supply of cars. Even then, it's not clear to me that you'd increa…

Electric engines are very efficient; aerodynamic drag is by far the biggest source of efficiency loss. The most efficient traversal for a fixed time interval is fast acceleration / deceleration with a reduced top speed. OTOH the most efficient for same time interval for a gas vehicle would be a slightly higher top speed but lower acceleration / deceleration.
Post reply on HN