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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

#771

Post by freedomben »

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.

This may be among common programmers who don't deal with any bit twiddling or low-level stuff, but having worked on embedded and also on network stack stuff, it is certainly not the case there. Using the wrong term there will at best confuse your colleagues, at worst result in a logic error in the code, and a potentially nasty one at that depending on how common the low-low case is.

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

#772

Post by ninetyninenine »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #741
ninetyninenine wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Uber drivers can take a break and pick their own hours whenever they want. They can even nap wherever they want.

Still not grueling imo.

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

#773

Post by RajT88 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #734
z2 wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to me, and the support system automatically decided nothing was wrong whatsoever despite my phone certainly sending a very different location from the driver. And the madness was I couldn't even book another ride as I was technically in one. So I ended up getting it resolved via the security panic button which did put me through to a real person who was empathetic to the issue.

> ended up getting it resolved via the security panic button which did put me through to a real person who was empathetic to the issue For both Uber and Lyft this is what I do. Which is wild since the only other company I auto-escalate-to-cancellation with is Comcast. Waymo isn’t winning because it’s automated. It’s winning because the major players left the premium segment of the market for grabs.

Comcast gives you the illusion of being able to talk to a human being if you are persistent enough.

What ends up happening is at some point they send you a link to talk to their support bot and tell you they are hanging up on you.

Threatening cancelation is the only way. The only reason they will not care is because of their captive markets. This is what you get with no competition.

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

#774

Post by roughly »

eptcyka wrote: post #595
seydor wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People adapt. Hopefully it will be more like elevators and less like public toilets. And then there will be cameras

In public spaces specifically, at least in Sweden, like train stations, the only difference between an elevator and a toilet is that one has to pay to enter the toilet.

> one has to pay to enter the toilet.

I’m not sure what people were expecting when they implemented this policy. There’s plenty of places to pee in the world, a restroom is a request it happens in one particular place.

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

#775

Post by gorfian_robot »

iwanttocomment wrote: post #45

In Austin, Waymos are hailed via the Uber app, which will quote you a price which is good for either a conventional Uber or a Waymo, and you get a Waymo if one is available. Same price. The Waymo is actually cheaper because there's no tip. The issue I have with Waymo is that getting in and out of those i-Paces as a "person of height" is rather difficult - I really have to do a strange contortion - and if I want to si…

for a while Austin had banned Uber/Lyft. do you know what happened to change that?

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

#776

Post by FireBeyond »

Macha wrote: post #395
StableAlkyne wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Caveat: there aren't many Lyft drivers in my town, so I have only used Uber] The problem is their system extorts you into tipping. If you don't tip, the driver will give you a 1/5 rating. If your rating averages low enough, nobody will pick you up. It's more of a bribe you pay for a good passenger rating than an actual tip. As a result, you're forced to tip if you want to use it long term. Personally, I'm hoping Way…

Don't the drivers only see the tips in aggregate form at the end of the week?

Unsure. But they at least know you've tipped. "Steve thanked you for your tip."

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

#777

Post by derektank »

nebula8804 wrote: post #630
dilyevsky wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I know about Geely and under current circumstances I categorize this as "never gonna happen". There's probably better chance of partnering with GM at this point...

Why would they even entertain the idea of even talking to a Chinese OEM. This is obviously very important technology and Google must know the Chinese history of IP theft. They are not in the Chinese market because of this! Zeeker must have given them such an unbelievable deal that Google couldn't pass it up. Either that or the other OEMs have really soured on them. I always thought the idea of OEMs being reduced to g…

Is any of the hardware on a Waymo vehicle proprietary to Waymo? I had sort of assumed they used off the shelf LIDAR and sensors from other manufacturers, and that their secret sauce was entirely in the software. If that's the case, I don't think there would be any risk of IP loss.

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

#778

Post by jobs_throwaway »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #676
chipsrafferty wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would pay extra just to never ride in a Tesla. They always make me carsick.

> ... Tesla. They always make me carsick. I never heard this once before HN. What is particular about Teslas? Is it the rapid acceleration from the electric motor... or lack of familiar engine sound?

> Is it the rapid acceleration from the electric motor

Yes. The hard acceleration and braking.

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

#779

Post by kulahan »

ghushn3 wrote: post #511
kulahan wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Once you spend time in an actually dangerous neighborhood - one where people can spot your out-of-place-ness before you even get out of the car - one where the good guys are the ones telling you to get the hell out before you find yourself in a real bad situation - ones where the gas station attendants are hard as hell - you’ll understand that your experience of walking through vaguely poor neighborhoods is not akin to dangerous neighborhoods.

Nobody who has ever been in a dangerous neighborhood would have this opinion unless they’re truly callous

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

#780

Post by Dylan16807 »

roenxi wrote: post #605
Dylan16807 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not arbitrary. It's part of an ongoing relationship that is worth significantly more. That $3 came out of the trust they have with the company. But even though they're wary now, they still have some trust and want to use the service in the future. Some random guy asking for $3 is a wildly different situation. It's not about the $3, it's about the relationship. A close analogy would be Netflix going up $2. If you…

The company is valuing the relationship at You can keep using them if you want. But history has no meaning when dealing with that sort of company.

Keeping an account in good standing, able to continue to purchase services, qualifies as a relationship here.

You can't view transactions in isolation because of the ban possibility.

Yes they're willing to cheat me. But I can limit that and I don't have many choices.

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