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Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

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Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#71

Post by pcurve »

acdha wrote: post #53
pcurve wrote: post #34

"For instance, Google always presents drivers with the fastest route, regardless of tolls. But sometimes, paying a toll would shave only a minute or two off the ride, while adding significantly to the cost." Ah... the joy of NYC tolls. Even with EZ pass, a ride to JFK from NJ is almost $28 just in toll roundtrip. $37 without EZ pass. $37!!!

That seems fair for crowding into one of the most densely populated areas in the country, especially since going to JFK instead of flying out of Newark means you’re taking up space and polluting NYC without generating any positive value for the city. Tolls directly benefit the city by partially helping to pay for the extremely expensive infrastructure needed to make that trip work, and indirectly by encouraging peopl…

JFK and Newark don't have a lot of overlapping routes that I use. They used to pre-9/11, but a lot changed since then. Big international airlines and routes that I take don't fly out of Newark.

Believe me, if I had the choice, I would.

Thankfully, domestic routes are still decent from Newark, though often more expensive than LGA or JFK.

This isn't just about the airport. I visit friends in Queens and spend money there. The toll is exactly the same as going to JFK.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#72

Post by BizarreByte »

nharada wrote: post #68
sushisource wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also find it consistently obnoxious that there is essentially no way to say "My driver was fine, but your platform did something stupid" when leaving feedback. At least, not without jumping through a million hoops. The arrogance of our industry is tiresome. I took a ride in SF a while ago and it predicted a 3 minute pick up time which turned out to be 25 minutes - no fault of the driver, and the only way I could co…

Totally agree, I just had this happen to me two days ago. The Uber app bugged out and left me with a fare that was double what I was quoted, and there was basically no way to get in touch with Uber about it. You know how often support chatbots offer a "talk to a human" option? Not Uber. Just links to articles about how I'm holding it wrong.

It’s worth taking to Twitter to complain in those situations. I’d love if we didn’t half to, but I’ve found most companies help when you make your issue public.

Maybe Uber isn’t a company who will care, but most are.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#73

Post by bri3d »

mistrial9 wrote: post #69
acslater00 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - Lyft contributed the overwhelming majority of the new data back into OSM. The only exceptions were layers that didn't meet OSM community standards for various technical reasons. Source - I led this team

your team contributed more OSM changes than .. who? everyone else in the whole world?

They're saying "we contributed the overwhelming majority of the data we collected and corrected, except for that which wasn't eligible for contribution." It really seems like Lyft operated in good faith here, they just didn't mention it in the blog post.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#74

Post by hinkley »

DoctorOW wrote: post #6

This is yet another "We found a community project providing us with billions of dollars in free work but don't find it worth the effort to contribute anything back"

I really wish that companies had a donation program where employees get to vote on their favorite project, and the company cuts a check every time a project hits 50 votes (including things that got 20 votes each for the last 3 election cycles)

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#75

Post by jaywalk »

mistrial9 wrote: post #69
acslater00 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - Lyft contributed the overwhelming majority of the new data back into OSM. The only exceptions were layers that didn't meet OSM community standards for various technical reasons. Source - I led this team

your team contributed more OSM changes than .. who? everyone else in the whole world?

I'm pretty sure he meant that Lyft contributed the overwhelming majority of the changes they made to OSM.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#76

Post by dylan604 »

londons_explore wrote: post #61
jazzyjackson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking to a driver about this I was told that the platform is always re-routing drivers to maximize revenue for lyft, so when the app says "finding you another driver", it's not the driver that canceled, it's the platform decided that driver was better off, revenue wise, to complete a different fare. The fact that this is opaque to the end user just means we get mad at the workers and not the corporation, classic.

The fact that OP can see "finding another driver" 8 times suggests that perhaps there is some prioritization system, and OP was low priority - such that if any other request came in before him, then the driver would be re-routed.

Possible that those shitty tips you've been leaving are adding up in other ways? I live in a neighborhood that borders a part of town that is accepted as a "bad" part of town and is often confused as being part of that part of town. I have only ever not had the "finding another driver" twice from my house, and originally assumed it was location location location. I had a guest stay with me last summer, and they never received that treatment which led me to believe it was an account thing. We'd test by requesting a car at the same time. Their rates were cheaper, and they never had a new driver issue.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#77

Post by londons_explore »

dylan604 wrote: post #76
londons_explore wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that OP can see "finding another driver" 8 times suggests that perhaps there is some prioritization system, and OP was low priority - such that if any other request came in before him, then the driver would be re-routed.

Possible that those shitty tips you've been leaving are adding up in other ways? I live in a neighborhood that borders a part of town that is accepted as a "bad" part of town and is often confused as being part of that part of town. I have only ever not had the "finding another driver" twice from my house, and originally assumed it was location location location. I had a guest stay with me last summer, and they never…

It would make perfect sense to have some ML model which predicts which customers will be most profitable, and treat those guys well to improve retention amongst that client set.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#78

Post by dylan604 »

londons_explore wrote: post #63
KMnO4 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a ride from YVR airport where no less than 30 drivers[0] cancelled on me. I would get the notification that the driver was on their way, tap it, and then catch a brief one second flash of the driver before they disappeared and I was back in the queue. [0]: I’m sure it would be much more, but I gave up and took the train instead

At airports, its often much better to walk just outside the boundary of the airport. Airports often have special rules, pickup fees, etc. Drivers don't want to pay an $8 fee just to make a loss on your journey. As soon as you're a few yards out of the airport, none of that applies and a driver will be happy to take you.

>its often much better to walk just outside the boundary of the airport

are you serious? what airports do you visit where you can do this as a suggestion without laughing. It's like telling the freshmen that there's a pool on the school roof.

even something as small like a Bob Hope in Burbank would be difficult. Most airports do not consider pedestrian traffic to the edge of their properties. I've done it once at that airport because my office was pretty much next door to the Fry's across the street. still made me regret that decision. I'm now in Dallas and even Lovefield pedestrian traffic past getting to the parking area is non-existent. From DFW? Forget it. Much like your suggestion

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#79

Post by minhazm »

londons_explore wrote: post #61
jazzyjackson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking to a driver about this I was told that the platform is always re-routing drivers to maximize revenue for lyft, so when the app says "finding you another driver", it's not the driver that canceled, it's the platform decided that driver was better off, revenue wise, to complete a different fare. The fact that this is opaque to the end user just means we get mad at the workers and not the corporation, classic.

The fact that OP can see "finding another driver" 8 times suggests that perhaps there is some prioritization system, and OP was low priority - such that if any other request came in before him, then the driver would be re-routed.

It's much simpler than that. Drivers accept and then they cancel the ride themselves if they don't like the destination or the earnings. Normally you would penalize those drivers but I imagine with Lyft losing market share they likely can't afford to penalize drivers all that much.

Re: Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

#80

Post by justrealist »

dylan604 wrote: post #76
londons_explore wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that OP can see "finding another driver" 8 times suggests that perhaps there is some prioritization system, and OP was low priority - such that if any other request came in before him, then the driver would be re-routed.

Possible that those shitty tips you've been leaving are adding up in other ways? I live in a neighborhood that borders a part of town that is accepted as a "bad" part of town and is often confused as being part of that part of town. I have only ever not had the "finding another driver" twice from my house, and originally assumed it was location location location. I had a guest stay with me last summer, and they never…

Uber used to never allow drivers to rate the riders after the tipping was complete. Not sure if that's still the flow.
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