The last time I was in SF I used Waymo to get around town and Uber to get to the airport.
The Waymo rides were near-perfect. At one point when a delivery truck was blocking 3 lanes, the vehicle assertively merged over into the free lane to get around. A couple of people on e-bikes were all over the place, but at no point did I feel that the vehicle put them in any kind of danger. Starts, stops, and turns were all smooth. End-to-end time was good, the ride itself was comfortable, and the price was reasonable.
On the other hand the Uber driver picked me up in a Tesla that had regen cranked up. They continually accelerated and decelerated the entire way to the airport, rocking the car back and forth the whole time, as if it were a nervous habit to continually press and release the accelerator or something. I felt sick by the time we got to my terminal.
For me at this point, technology like Waymo can't carpet every metropolitan area quickly enough.
One caveat: I should be able to use it (and, hence, pay for it) anonymously.
I’d like to use it anonymously too but it doesn’t feel reasonable to ask for access to a $80k piece of hardware anonymously. I needed to give ID to rent a movie at blockbuster.
I’ve been trying to think of other expensive things you can do anonymously.
Busses aren’t cheap, but have a driver.
You can ride a plane (national only) here in NZ with no ID check. There is a name on the ticket, but no one checks it matches the passenger. Plenty of staff and other passengers around too.
Waymo is offering a very consistent experience, from the car that is used to the driving behavior.
Taxi services in the past, at least where I grew up, were kind of enforcing a more consistent experience by having requirements about the car and even the color.
But the driving experience was always highly variable and is getting solved by self driving cars.
With uber and Lyft you as the customer gave away some of the experience elements with the promise of cheaper and more abundant transportation.
But the experience has gone so bad, that getting into a Waymo feels so refreshing.
E-bikes are the way to move anonymously. If you're in an environment with any traffic congestion, they stand a good chance of getting you there faster than a car. Another reason to promote bike lanes.
In most of the US, and in urban areas in particular, absolutely E-bikes are king. In California or the bay area in particular, motorcycles are a major contender due to ability to take on highways at speed, but still able to cut through traffic (lane splitting i.e. cutting between cars is 100% legal, but only in California, and neither legal nor illegal in DC), not to mention more power and range generally. The big difference here however is parking. Squeezing a motorcycle between to parallel parked cars is still significantly easier than finding parking for a 4-wheeled vehicle, but with a bicycle one can practically park anywhere that the bicycle can be locked up (depending on common sense decisions of how mad a person would be if you lock to some fence, vs how long you will be parked there)
> One caveat: I should be able to use it (and, hence, pay for it) anonymously.
I assume you mean this as a moral claim and I can agree in that case. However, it's meaningless of course and kind of infuriating in any other light, because this is the world everyone has been mindlessly begging for and there is no chance that it comes without extremely severe consequences. An automated world like this means even less power for working people than ever before, so how on Earth do you expect to realize any of these desires? Do you still think capitalists care about your privacy? Even if they did "care" it wouldn't matter because they have to compete.
> Do you still think capitalists care about your privacy?
Why do you think most people did in the first place? We (speaking for the majority of consumers) care more about free services than we do having our privacy protected.
The fact that there are a seemingly endless stream of cases of identity fraud and leaks of private data and we still continue to use all the services indicates that we don't value it very much.
Do I care that Google knows I went to Amazon after searching for a particular book title? Nope. Do I care that Google knows I went to the grocery store today? Still no. I would much rather get a great search engine, free maps, GPS, email, documents, storage, photo backups and more.
If I did care about the privacy of these things, I'd pay for it. Or, I'd use a dedicated account on a different service on a different device that can't be connected if I want to do something I don't want others knowing about, like buying naughty lingerie for my partner or something.
The other day I decided to compare Uber and Waymo. I ordered a Waymo and it was slightly annoyed because it took 5 minutes to do a left turn and almost went into the wrong way.
On the way back I ordered an Uber, one driver cancelled the drive, the other started driving in the other direction, possibly using multiple car sharing apps and finishing another ride.
I ended up cancelling and requesting a Waymo. It may not be perfect but at least it comes when requested
I'm in the North East, so I've never used a Waymo, but I swear the last two or so years of ride share of sucked. I mostly take it to and from the airport, but I have about a 50% likelihood of my Uber drive getting either racist, preachy about religion, or taking a wrong turn that ends up tacking on another ten minutes. Usually those come in sets. I used to really like some pleasant small talk or a silent ride (whatever the driver leaned towards), but it's awful in my city now.
Just a month ago my Lyft driver said that God was telling him that the girl he was seeing was a whore because she said he should seek alcohol counseling.
Like six months ago my Uber driver (out of nowhere) said that the driver next to us on the highway (an Audi driving completely normally) must sell drugs to be able to afford a car that nice. The Audi driver was a black man.
When I'm out of town, that rate feels like it decreases though.
On a societal level I’d say, maybe it’s helpful not to be completely segregated from a certain social class that seems to exist in your town and to be exposed to them, albeit briefly during a cab ride.
Ah so sounds like the average cab driver experience. Uber has been one long and consistent regression towards the mean in that sense. I did get a good chuckle out of the taxi I saw recently with the "Do you follow Jesus this closely?" bumper sticker at least.
I almost always have headphones (or passive earmuffs) on so conversation isn't really an issue - but the number of rideshare cars with multiple warning lights on (Tire pressure, etc) is really rather alarming.
Several times I have ordered Uber Black early in the morning and watched as the driver clearly was leaving their house and walking out to their vehicle taking a nice 5+ minutes -- somewhat frustrating. You can't even spend your way out of the problem on Uber.
When Uber came out you often got nicer cars in nicer condition than cabs for less money. Funny that the condition thing has turned on them.
I don't have a strong opinion yet on the long-term viability of Waymo (or any other competitor) because I think we need to see two things:
* what will the cars look like in 3 years? 5?
* will autonomous tech and supporting infra (like cheap automated parking in sparse parts of cities for cars to stay when not in use) make its way into consumer products at a low enough price point, leading to heavy Waymo users turning into vehicle owners instead? This was one of the issues with the scooter/e-bike rental market.
As a non US resident - not having to think about tipping the driver makes me excited and significantly more likely to visit. Tipping culture is just exhausting!
If someone could automate wheeling the food a few dozen metres from a restaurant kitchen to a table next it would be perfect :)
I don’t know about that. Me and everyone I know use Uber as a verb but then always order from Lyft. I used to do it for the political reasons, but at this point it’s mostly just muscle memory. When I do open the Uber app the prices are usually equivalent.
Uber is global, so I think most visitors and tourists default to using Uber. I wouldn't be surprised if the non-Uber players in every rideshare market attract a totally different demographic - more local, more savvy, maybe daily commuters who tend to "comparison-shop" each trip.
If this is the case then if Waymo is consistently cheaper than Lyft, it would totally suck the air out for Lyft. Whereas, Uber would still see use despite charging a little premium, for the reason I stated in the beginning.
Readit News
The Waymo rides were near-perfect. At one point when a delivery truck was blocking 3 lanes, the vehicle assertively merged over into the free lane to get around. A couple of people on e-bikes were all over the place, but at no point did I feel that the vehicle put them in any kind of danger. Starts, stops, and turns were all smooth. End-to-end time was good, the ride itself was comfortable, and the price was reasonable.
On the other hand the Uber driver picked me up in a Tesla that had regen cranked up. They continually accelerated and decelerated the entire way to the airport, rocking the car back and forth the whole time, as if it were a nervous habit to continually press and release the accelerator or something. I felt sick by the time we got to my terminal.
For me at this point, technology like Waymo can't carpet every metropolitan area quickly enough.
One caveat: I should be able to use it (and, hence, pay for it) anonymously.
Waymo is offering a very consistent experience, from the car that is used to the driving behavior.
Taxi services in the past, at least where I grew up, were kind of enforcing a more consistent experience by having requirements about the car and even the color.
But the driving experience was always highly variable and is getting solved by self driving cars.
With uber and Lyft you as the customer gave away some of the experience elements with the promise of cheaper and more abundant transportation.
But the experience has gone so bad, that getting into a Waymo feels so refreshing.
For many goods (short term rental spaces, rideshares), there's a finite supply of quality at a given price point.
Both AirBnb and Uber/Lyft tried to over-scale their supply, to drive revenue, and quality suffered.
Now they're fishing for the Amazon-ian point where they maximize revenue without making people so unhappy they stop using the service.
That it requires a Google account is worth taking up with the TCP. That's a tie-in sale.
I assume you mean this as a moral claim and I can agree in that case. However, it's meaningless of course and kind of infuriating in any other light, because this is the world everyone has been mindlessly begging for and there is no chance that it comes without extremely severe consequences. An automated world like this means even less power for working people than ever before, so how on Earth do you expect to realize any of these desires? Do you still think capitalists care about your privacy? Even if they did "care" it wouldn't matter because they have to compete.
The same way this sort of thing has always been accomplished: Government regulation.
Vote, write reps, donate to the ACLU and EFF, socialize.
Why do you think most people did in the first place? We (speaking for the majority of consumers) care more about free services than we do having our privacy protected.
The fact that there are a seemingly endless stream of cases of identity fraud and leaks of private data and we still continue to use all the services indicates that we don't value it very much.
Do I care that Google knows I went to Amazon after searching for a particular book title? Nope. Do I care that Google knows I went to the grocery store today? Still no. I would much rather get a great search engine, free maps, GPS, email, documents, storage, photo backups and more.
If I did care about the privacy of these things, I'd pay for it. Or, I'd use a dedicated account on a different service on a different device that can't be connected if I want to do something I don't want others knowing about, like buying naughty lingerie for my partner or something.
On the way back I ordered an Uber, one driver cancelled the drive, the other started driving in the other direction, possibly using multiple car sharing apps and finishing another ride.
I ended up cancelling and requesting a Waymo. It may not be perfect but at least it comes when requested
Just a month ago my Lyft driver said that God was telling him that the girl he was seeing was a whore because she said he should seek alcohol counseling.
Like six months ago my Uber driver (out of nowhere) said that the driver next to us on the highway (an Audi driving completely normally) must sell drugs to be able to afford a car that nice. The Audi driver was a black man.
When I'm out of town, that rate feels like it decreases though.
That all said, I'd take a Waymo in a heartbeat.
On a personal level I fully understand that.
On a societal level I’d say, maybe it’s helpful not to be completely segregated from a certain social class that seems to exist in your town and to be exposed to them, albeit briefly during a cab ride.
Dead Comment
I don't have a strong opinion yet on the long-term viability of Waymo (or any other competitor) because I think we need to see two things:
* what will the cars look like in 3 years? 5?
* will autonomous tech and supporting infra (like cheap automated parking in sparse parts of cities for cars to stay when not in use) make its way into consumer products at a low enough price point, leading to heavy Waymo users turning into vehicle owners instead? This was one of the issues with the scooter/e-bike rental market.
If someone could automate wheeling the food a few dozen metres from a restaurant kitchen to a table next it would be perfect :)
The last time was when I could take photos on my phone that were as good enough as lugging around a Dslr.
There have been good products and services in between don’t get me wrong. But none of them instantly blew me away like those.
I bet that’s a reflection of a large “anyone-but-Uber” contingent stemming from the Travis Kalanick days.
If this is the case then if Waymo is consistently cheaper than Lyft, it would totally suck the air out for Lyft. Whereas, Uber would still see use despite charging a little premium, for the reason I stated in the beginning.
Dead Comment
Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44258139