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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

#761

Post by cyberax »

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.…

Nah. Transit is already a bankrupt transportation mode, cars and a good city design are already superior to transit.

The US is far ahead of the curve, it has not fucked itself like Europe with insane housing density. This is clearly seen in the birth rates. Compare the US, Europe, and Japan.

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

#762

Post by amoshebb »

bastawhiz wrote: post #71
bryanlarsen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you own the vehicles and manage the fleet, is there any compelling benefit (aside from current up-front capital costs) to prefer ICE engines over electric for a fleet big enough to compete head on with Lyft or Uber? Even the additional uptime per vehicle thanks to lower ongoing maintenance is a compelling enough reason to jump for EVs.

Charging so many cars. With a fleet of ICE cars any old gravel lot by the airport works. With a fleet of EVs you're going to need depots with upgraded service drops, chargers strung everywhere that need to be maintained, and to pay somebody to come unplug them every morning.

Closer to guaranteed range. With a fleet of EVs it's possible that a frosty morning or long weekend where everybody wants a trip out of town might drain them all in sync in a way ICEs would be less impacted by.

And then at the intersection of these two: flexibility recovering from some incident. Assume some "night crew didn't refuel" situation, sending out a fleet of ICE cars half empty and planning to refuel them all between trips is fairly simple, but sending out a bunch of half empty EVs and trying to somehow add an unplanned recharge midday is at best logistically more difficult, and at worst, causes other cascading problems.

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

#763

Post by bigstrat2003 »

bqmjjx0kac wrote: post #674
dheera wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charge back with your credit card if Lyft isn't willing to help you. Keep businesses in check.

In my experience, you should prepare for retaliation when you do a charge back.

Whether one cares depends very strongly on what "retaliation" means. If they ban your account, not a big deal - you were getting bad service and didn't want to do business with them anyway. If they send an armed hit squad to kill you, that would be worth being concerned about though.

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

#764

Post by FireBeyond »

raverbashing wrote: post #449
ghushn3 wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I was that driver, you bet I'd be contacting Uber to try and get your friend banned for life. Threatening a driver is never ok, even less so when it's not his fault.

Then maybe don't threaten to leave a family in a dangerous area while they're offering to pay it

The driver is under precisely zero obligation to provide you a service. He provided the service asked for, too.

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

#765

Post by jogjayr »

tuna74 wrote: post #704
joshSzep wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been thinking about how modern family structures seem increasingly misaligned with what our biology and history may have prepared us for. It seems likely that nature "intended" families to be multigenerational, larger clan-like units linked by shared responsibility, proximity, and care. Modern norms have instead left many parents effectively on their own, juggling full-time work with full-time childcare. If mult…

Or you could just have really good public childcare and after/before school programs for kids up to 10 years.

Speaking from experience, both are necessary. Public childcare and afterschool programs aren't a replacement for quality time with grandparents. They also don't cover weekends or evenings like grandparents can do.

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

#766

Post by johnnyanmac »

AuthConnectFail wrote: post #566
johnnyanmac wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in LA, so I'm still skeptical about "safer". Granted, that's not a high bar, but I know who's accountable if an Uber/Lyft crashes.

but do you care for accountability or more safety (through lower crash rate)at the end of the day?

Between modern car safety standards and modern US healthcsre: accountability. The worst case scenario (where I still live) is drastic and I'd rather not add fighting a tech company in court on top of the medical burden, which I'll need to do just to afford the latter.

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

#767

Post by johnnyanmac »

michaelt wrote: post #655
johnnyanmac wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in LA, so I'm still skeptical about "safer". Granted, that's not a high bar, but I know who's accountable if an Uber/Lyft crashes.

I don't know if this is still true in the age of cellphones and uber, but when I was young, women were often advised not to take taxis alone, especially when drunk. There were a few high-profile rapes and murders. As an bald, middle-aged man such risks are negligible for me, but I can see how some people might prefer a driverless vehicle.

Yeah I'm an ugly middle aged man myself. I'm more worried about the car than the person in it in my case. And I don't trust the tech yet in my area.

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

#768

Post by notyourwork »

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…

Tesla fsd and Waymo are far different in the technical sense.

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

#769

Post by bqmjjx0kac »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #763
bqmjjx0kac wrote: post #674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, you should prepare for retaliation when you do a charge back.

Whether one cares depends very strongly on what "retaliation" means. If they ban your account, not a big deal - you were getting bad service and didn't want to do business with them anyway. If they send an armed hit squad to kill you, that would be worth being concerned about though.

I "purchased" a digital game once on the PlayStation Store. It wasn't clear from the description that it was completely useless without an active subscription to PSN, so I tried to return it. They said no way, sales are final and you've already launched the game. I did a chargeback, and they basically locked down my account until I filed a support ticket and had to lie, saying someone else made a purchase on my account.

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

#770

Post by notyourwork »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #743
sagarm wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This, black car service is not what uber offers. They offer a uber driver with a black car.
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