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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

#741

Post by lotsofpulp »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #723
lotsofpulp wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sitting for extended periods of time is bad for one’s health. Also, being in a vehicle is the highest morbidity/mortality risk thing people do. More time on the road = more chance of injury.

Agreed. But it’s not grueling. Programming you also sit for long periods. Programming usually isn’t considered grueling.

You don’t have to sit to program, and there are generally far more degrees of freedom, e.g. bathroom breaks and eating healthy food from a fridge and microwave, etc.

Also, many/most taxi drivers have to regularly work evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. (Also upping the risk due to sleepy or drunk drivers).

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

#742

Post by Retric »

chii wrote: post #632
bapak wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And soon enough you don't have any apps to use. Sometimes you gotta pick your fights. Chargebacks to gatekeepers are the worst because life is long and you will always lose.

it's why you take them to small claims court. Unfortunately, the terms and conditions have made sure they are clear of small claims by forcing you to do arbitration, which is more expensive for you than them (in relative terms, unless they also put into the T&C to pay for your arbitration costs - which some companies have done iirc, such as epic games). Chargebacks are the last resort - only really worth doing if it…

Chargebacks are the reverse of these kinds of small thefts. A company is free to take you to small claims court over a chargeback, it’s really not worth their time though.

As such it’s often preferable for an individual vs arbitration.

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

#743

Post by JumpCrisscross »

sagarm wrote: post #356
MBCook wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s something to be said for being able to not be forced to deal with a person, but I see something different personally. I’m “old” (40s) so I didn’t grow up with Uber. Maybe that colors my take. I don’t want to hire random Joes. If I wanted to buy a lift from a random person, I’d expect it to be very cheap. If I’m hiring someone to drive me from A to B I want a professional service. I want professional drivers i…

Black cars existed before Uber and Lyft -- in fact, that was how Uber started. Uber, in fact, still offers black cars (professional drivers) as an option.

> Uber, in fact, still offers black cars (professional drivers) as an option

In my experience, Uber Black means the driver owns a professional-grade car. Whether they’re a professional driver who treats their clients professionally, e.g. not taking phone calls during the ride, is another matter.

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

#744

Post by JumpCrisscross »

klabb3 wrote: post #699
cyberax wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For now they’re well surveilled and a premium vehicle. Soon they will be filthy pods in a race to the bottom with all the charm of a public bathroom. So, like transit? I will likely have my own personal self-driving vehicle. And I'm 100% sure that there'll be an upmarket segment with slightly more expensive cars that are kept more clean than the rest.

> I will likely have my own personal self-driving vehicle. The self-driving car ”utopia” (or rather moderate improvement) very much hinges on the space savings on roadways and parking, to increase utilization, reduce congestion and allow dead space to be reclaimed. If people think like you (no value judgment, I suspect this might be the future norm), then you’ll see almost no change to the urban landscape as a whole.…

> It’ll continue to be a one-flesh-body-per-2-tonne vehicle utilization

My personal vehicle can fuck off to a distant parking lot way more conveniently than me taking a shuttle there.

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

#745

Post by johnisgood »

I admit I did not go further than the title, because I assume the conclusion is in the title.

Waymo is considerably cheaper in LA (at least in a region) than Uber. I have no clue about Lyft. I know this for a fact, because someone I know has taken Waymos and Ubers between the two identical points, around the same time of day, multiple times, and Waymo has always been way cheaper, considerably so.

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

#746

Post by misja111 »

bgwalter wrote: post #639
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…

Before Uber and Lyft destroyed the functioning taxi market, you got Mercedes by default for a traditional, regulated taxi in many EU countries. You didn't have to argue, interact with a surveillance company, interact with customer service etc. All you needed to do is pick up the phone and get a luxury ride without tracking or surveillance.

Lol. Before Uber 'destroyed' the functioning taxi market in Amsterdam, getting a taxi after going out meant waiting for sometimes up to 45 minutes. It meant standing in a line and when someone cut the line in front of you, saying something about it could get you in a fight. Taxi drivers often were (former) criminals who cashed in their savings of black money to get a taxi license and a quiet life. Occasionally tourists were robbed or taken on detours, good luck to get your money back in those days. And I'm not even mentioning the outrageous prices yet for a taxi drive in the city in those days.

Uber might not be 100% perfect but it has been a real blessing, a salvation of all the misery that we had to endure in the 'functioning' taxi market.

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

#747

Post by bee_rider »

TheDong wrote: post #692
Dylan16807 wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose, but I only responded because they went out of their way to say xor, and put it in all caps too.

XOR in common programmer speech is ambiguously used to mean XOR or NAND, so I think their use of XOR was casually correct, while not technically correct. While NAND is technically correct, it's just not commonly used as a grammatical conjunction.

It is?

I thought it was just used for, like, a couple jokes that you get from “intro to digital logic” class. The joke is funnier if it is correct, I think.

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

#748

Post by epistasis »

almosthere wrote: post #588

I've only used Uber a handfull of times, and all of them at least 7 years ago - nothing recent. Last time I used it was late at night, I had used an Uber to get Pizza but it was kind of far from my hotel. After eating I used it again to get a ride back. Unfortunately whatever driver it chose for me, decided to just SIT for an hour at their house (or somewhere). And then finally left. It was like 11pm, middle of nowhe…

This is a huge huge huge problem for Uber. They have severely degraded their one key fearure: reliable knowledge that your taxi is on its way. This is the entire point of Uber versus a regular taxi.

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

#749

Post by api »

misja111 wrote: post #746
bgwalter wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before Uber and Lyft destroyed the functioning taxi market, you got Mercedes by default for a traditional, regulated taxi in many EU countries. You didn't have to argue, interact with a surveillance company, interact with customer service etc. All you needed to do is pick up the phone and get a luxury ride without tracking or surveillance.

Lol. Before Uber 'destroyed' the functioning taxi market in Amsterdam, getting a taxi after going out meant waiting for sometimes up to 45 minutes. It meant standing in a line and when someone cut the line in front of you, saying something about it could get you in a fight. Taxi drivers often were (former) criminals who cashed in their savings of black money to get a taxi license and a quiet life. Occasionally touris…

I often tried taking taxis after reading about shady practices of Uber and Lyft. I usually came away saying “never again.”

You wait too long to get picked up by a smelly dirty old car and then they pull stuff like pretending the card reader is broken to get you to stop at an ATM so they can avoid taxes.

The worst experiences were in SF. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these companies started there. Of course SF is uniquely dysfunctional in many ways.

I’ve read many comments online over the years to the effect that people would pay more for Uber and Lyft to destroy the taxi industry.

What’s wrong with the taxi industry is that it’s a cartel, especially in major cities, and everyone knows when you have a monopoly or a cartel everything starts to suck.

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

#750

Post by bitmasher9 »

MBCook wrote: post #264
tempestn wrote: post #154

This makes a lot of sense to me. When you ride in an Uber or a taxi, you're a guest in the driver's space. In a Waymo, it's your own space. You can play music, talk on the phone, etc. without worrying about disturbing the driver. You're not likely to have strong odors, or driver's phone conversations. And the experience will be roughly consistent each time. In an Uber, you have no idea what the car or the driving sta…

There’s something to be said for being able to not be forced to deal with a person, but I see something different personally. I’m “old” (40s) so I didn’t grow up with Uber. Maybe that colors my take. I don’t want to hire random Joes. If I wanted to buy a lift from a random person, I’d expect it to be very cheap. If I’m hiring someone to drive me from A to B I want a professional service. I want professional drivers i…

The professional driver in a professional fleet service exists. It existed in the taxi era too.

If you ever see an aggressive driver cutting their way through traffic in a perfectly maintained Escalade or Navigator heading towards the airport, that’s them.

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