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Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

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Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#81

Post by newaccountfool »

nofutureagain wrote: post #73
higherpurpose wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if eventually NSA will get massive layoffs because much of what they'd do would be redundant, and for 80 percent of the stuff they want they could just ask/hack Google. The other 20 percent employees will remain for users of Google competitors and more targeted spying. So essentially 80 percent of NSA's "intelligence" would be outsourced to Google (for free).

> they could just ask/hack Google You mean "buy from". This is Google's core business. And I don't consider the NSA more creepy than Google's other customers.

Surely they don't need to buy it, surely they can request it under the guise of national security.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#82

Post by ajju »

rottyguy wrote: post #77
ajju wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That $0.56 number includes depreciation. There are other costs like insurance which are non-trivial. Initially at least, it's not going to be much less.

Actually, insurance in driverless cars should be trivial. Accidents should drop to near 0 (over time) due to driver error... at least in theory.

Eventually it might, but that assumes that all cars will be driverless. Even if driverless cars have a 0 error rate, human driven cars will run into them at at least the same rate as they run into static objects.

At any rate, this eventual reduction in insurance is why I started by saying "Initially at least". With time, the cost of manufacturing self driving cars will also go down.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#83

Post by jsprogrammer »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #68
jsprogrammer wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better be on the look out. NSA might blackbag you.

Eating meat doesn't warrant that.

I'm not sure anything warrants that.

More seriously though (HN can't take a joke), what is the real concern here? NSA can't 100% trust the data they collect and it certainly can't be used in any court because plausible deniability (and past, known-fabrications/parallel-construction) will always trump whatever records or logs are produced.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#84

Post by oldmanjay »

comrade1 wrote: post #74
notatoad wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You call the police if somebody rapes you. that isn't a customer service problem.

Are you a robot?

What would a non-robot such as yourself hope to accomplish by calling the company that hires a rapist? Seems like the police would be a much more effective option for walking meat.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#85

Post by softdev12 »

I'm glad that the article highlighted how valuable the mapping information is that Google collects. While Uber probably could still run its current operations without Google map data, there is a much smaller probability that they would be able to run a self-driving car service without a highly accurate mapping product. And to build a mapping product is really difficult and expensive. I was surprised when Google starting putting money into mapping the streets because it's a giant effort with major barriers to entry. Nokia bought a company called Navteq that was the clear leader (and basically a monopolist) in driving the streets and collecting the data (they originally supplied data to Google Maps). Navteq supplemented the data with satellite images and other sources, but the roads change often enough that you need people driving on the streets.

So, Uber really needs to start thinking about the mapping aspect. Perhaps they can incent their current drivers to start reporting back all the street info as they pick up their passengers. Of course, this would bring up problems if the drivers eventually realize that this data could be used to replace them. It would be interesting to see uber cars with Google StreetView style cameras on their hoods.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#86

Post by jsprogrammer »

escherize wrote: post #75
higherpurpose wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if eventually NSA will get massive layoffs because much of what they'd do would be redundant, and for 80 percent of the stuff they want they could just ask/hack Google. The other 20 percent employees will remain for users of Google competitors and more targeted spying. So essentially 80 percent of NSA's "intelligence" would be outsourced to Google (for free).

Why would the NSA relinquish power? Layoffs imply a lack of income, a problem the NSA, as a government program, doesn't have to worry about. If those 80% were redundant, why not repurpose them to dig a little deeper into other activities?

How does NSA or other government programs not have to worry about lack of income?

1) Government programs have been temporarily and/or permanently shutdown by minority parties in the past.

2) US Government exists at the leisure of the people within its borders.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#87

Post by [deleted] »

fidotron wrote: post #31

Uber have struck me before as a bigger potential headache for Google than even Facebook were/are, and I suspect this is all an effort to acquire them and drive the price down. There is something about the automated dispatch at giant scale business which overlaps with the search as interface idea. "Get me to [wherever]" is a natural extension of what you might do after searching. Furthermore, the act of finding a driv…

[deleted]

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#88

Post by serve_yay »

Kalium wrote: post #36
thrownaway2424 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you're in luck on that last point, because nobody has ever paid for their meal with Google Wallet.

I've bought food with Wallet before. And made a meal of it. So, I suppose I have.

Welcome to HN, where "nobody uses x" is disproved by one person using x, because the only logic in existence is Popperian.

Re: Google Is Developing Its Own Uber Competitor

#89

Post by toomuchtodo »

ajju wrote: post #65
rottyguy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was baselining from here: http://www.irs.gov/2014-Standard-Mileage-Rates-for-Business,... but, sure, it would most likely be less.

That $0.56 number includes depreciation. There are other costs like insurance which are non-trivial. Initially at least, it's not going to be much less.

> That $0.56 number includes depreciation.

Electric vehicles would depreciate at a much slower rate than ICE vehicles, as the only components that wear would be moving parts (electric motor, fans for cabin comfort) and any degradation to the battery pack (Tesla has packs at 500K miles that still have 80% capacity).

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