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Lyft Carpool: A New Way to Commute
- schwap 11y agoNeat that a "ridesharing" company is finally helping people actually share rides. I imagine something like this would be a lot easier for municipal governments to swallow, compared to the current "not a cab but yes it's actually a cab" model.
- randyrand 11y agoThey already had lyft line. That's not a cab model.
- schwap 11y agoNot exactly but it is pretty "cab-like", in that the driver is still independent of the passengers. It's basically an easier way of sharing a cab.
- techrat_hacker 11y agoLyft Line is cab splitting
- atdrummond 11y agoVery similar to wunder's current model. (http://www.wunder.org/en/ http://www.wunder.org/en/)
- andy_ppp 11y agoLyft are spending time and money on things like this (it looks great to be fair) but they can't be bothered to compete with Uber in markets outside of the US. Seems a bit of a shame really...
- jedberg 11y agoThey need to grow within their budget -- Uber has way more funding than they do. Lyft is scaling by leveraging technology to be better. Uber is doing that but also burning cash opening in new markets. The only way Lyft can compete is to out-innovate Uber.
- deegles 11y agoPlus, why waste money validating the market when Uber is doing it for them :)
- api_or_ipa 11y agoThe early worm gets eaten by the bird. The late one presumably enjoys the spoils.
- andy_ppp 11y agoIf I was Uber I would love to have a competitor as callow as Lyft; they seem willing to cede whole markets up front. For me it's as weak as not internationalising your software; if you wanna downvoted for this view point that's fine btw but I stand by it! EDIT: downvoters, Lyft has $2.01 BILLION dollars in funding... It's ridiculous to suggest they shouldn't be competing with Uber internationally!
- Apocryphon 11y agoLyft has been working with local Uber competitors in various non-U.S. markets.
- jedberg 11y agoI wonder what this will do the the already established causal carpool for crossing the bay bridge. At the moment, it's free for riders, the benefit for the driver being that they skip the toll. On the upside, I had a friend who was a rider, and had lots of stories of terrible drivers. Once he witnessed the driver hit a person and then drive off, and then drop off my friend. My friend called the police, but I guess with Lyft carpool this type of thing wouldn't happen, or at least not as often?
- ProAm 11y ago> Once he witnessed the driver hit a person and then drive off, and then drop off my friend. My friend called the police, but I guess with Lyft carpool this type of thing wouldn't happen, or at least not as often? Lyft would probably rate the drivers like they do normally and stop allowing them to drive for the carpool. You can't prevent accidents like that, but you can prevent those people from doing it again with your service fairly easily.
- Eridrus 11y ago> I wonder what this will do the the already established causal carpool for crossing the bay bridge. At the moment, it's free for riders, the benefit for the driver being that they skip the toll. Depends on how big the market is/how it's shaped; if there are more riders who are willing to pay than drivers and drivers can easily find a rider not too far out of their route then the cars at the carpool will dry up.
- soyiuz 11y agoIt is good to see Lyft moving towards a more civic minded direction in their business model. A lot of "disruption" talk is simply code for deregulation.
- justinhj 11y agoI can see drivers/passengers travelling together for weeks or months at a time. So you'd probably just want to quit Lyft and enter a private arrangement. Is there anything in Lyft's business model to prevent or mitigate this?
- jtokoph 11y agoIt says riders pay up to $10 per ride and drivers get up to $10 per ride. This makes me think that Lyft won't be taking a cut from the carpool rides. If that's the case, then Lyft is also providing a super easy way to pay the driver without having to remember to bring cash.
- loco5niner 11y agoThe "up to" parts make me think they will be taking a cut ;-)
- Cookingboy 11y agoWell the math says they won't. If the most a rider can pay is $10, and if Lyft takes a cut, then the max the driver will receive will be less than $10, which is not what they say.
- thezilch 11y agoIt says "drivers earn up to $10 per trip", which means a driver can earn nothing! Or the rider can pay "from $4-10"; Lyft takes no more than the rider(s) pay; and the driver takes the rest.
- thrwwyh 11y agoThe terms of service have a section reserving the right to impose a service fee. Not sure if there will be a fee at launch. "Service Fee. In exchange for providing the Carpool Platform, Clara Rides may assess a service fee on each Carpool Ride (on either or both of the Carpool Rider or Carpool Driver). The amount of the applicable service fee shall be communicated to you in writing."
- eveliotc 11y agoAwesome! Congratulations on the launch!
- huac 11y agoI expected a feature similar to UberPool but having the limitations on this being your daily commute is very cool. Encourages a different set of drivers and seems friendlier.
- hencq 11y agoLyft's alternative to UberPool is called Lyft Line. Pretty sure they actually launched that (a bit) before Uber as well.
- infecto 11y agoIf I recall correctly Lyft made an announcement/small release of Line and shortly after uber sent out a PR page with a signup form to be notified when available.
- bastawhiz 11y agoThis isn't a response to UberPOOL, it's a response to UberCOMMUTE: http://www.uberpartnerschicago.com/ubercommute/ http://www.uberpartnerschicago.com/ubercommute/
- assoteric 11y agointeresting. didn't lyft start off as zimride which is a carpool app? https://zimride.com/ https://zimride.com/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/29/6000-words-about-a-pink-mustache/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/29/6000-words-about-a-pink-mus...
- wcfields 11y agoDon't think so. I used Zimride when I was moving from Portland to Los Angeles, I picked up some random guy along the way and dropped him off in SFV. Great way to subsidize gas of the moving truck. After that it seemed like ZimRide went for the University market instead of having total strangers effectively do e-hitchhiking. Now it seems Enterprise Car Rental bought the company.
- cvburgess 11y agoYes they did, the founder of Lyft gave a speech at SXSW last year on the evolution of Zimride => Lyft. He said that "the focus of Lyft would continue to be and always has been reducing the number of empty seats on the road." (paraphrasing)
- bertjk 11y agoSpeaking of early rideshare entrants, I'm at least a bit amused that Ridester(http://www.ridester.com http://www.ridester.com) is currently being auctioned off on Flippa. https://flippa.com/5863667-ridester-com https://flippa.com/5863667-ridester-com
- TuxerLulz 11y agoSince this is limited to one passenger only, would this allow for drivers that have two-door cars? I'd love to use this all the time if that's the case :)
- mikeryan 11y agoA few notes on items I find a bit strange here. 1. To get from the East Bay to SF in the carpool lane you need 2 passengers (3 people total - or a car that only seats two) 2. The East Bay already has a pretty nice system for this called the Casual Carpool which is probably its biggest competition. The Casual Carpool is just a bunch of spots (usually BART Stations) where drivers can stop and pick up a few other passengers to get in the carpool lane across the bridge and usually the passengers chip in a few bucks for the toll. This system is pretty good and works well considering the need for 3 folks in the car to get carpool lane access. The Lyft model is a lot harder to coordinate picking up 3. The biggest issues with Casual Carpool are that there's no revenue for the driver and it's mostly one way (inbound in the morning). The eastbound after work system is not as efficient, there's a common pickup area downtown with stops indicating destinations but it can be hit or miss on whether passengers are there when you're ready to go home. Long and short of it I think this is a Peninsula solution not really an East Bay to SF one yet.
- chockablock 11y agoCasual carpool does not solve the first/last mile problem, though. Lyft Carpool seems to be door-to-door.
- floodfx 11y agoFair but OTOH I don't mind walking 5 minutes for a free ride into the city.
- nguyenbr 11y agoI don't think the first and last mile problem applies to people living within a 5-minute walk from a casual-carpool pickup location. Most people would probably choose Lyft over casual carpool if they lived, say, 20 or more minutes from their nearest casual carpool pickup.
- Laaw 11y ago#2 is the kind of system that's ripe for "disruption" (or whatever your favorite buzzword is for this). Is the answer specifically this app? Maybe not, but "pretty nice systems" don't tend to involve "usually", "chip in", or "common" (not to pick on your specific language, I just mean the "hidden" knowledge and customs that come with informal, organic systems). It's that informal and inconsistent group knowledge that gets turned into an app, which formalizes the informal parts, removes the barrier to entry (knowing about the informalities in the first place), and (should) build protections in to ensure conformity to the now established system (payment, insurance, etc).
- chockablock 11y agoNo driver background checks or vehicle inspections, per the TOS [0]: "The Carpool Platform is operated by Clara Rides, Inc., not Lyft, Inc. Clara Rides, Inc. is not a Transportation Network Company or a transportation service. Clara Rides and Lyft do not conduct criminal background checks on Carpool Drivers, perform vehicle inspections on vehicles used for Carpool Rides, or provide insurance for Carpool Rides." [0] https://www.lyft.com/carpool/terms https://www.lyft.com/carpool/terms
- fillskills 11y agoExcellent find. This is concerning.
- Kinnard 11y agoThat is how carpooling works.
- pc86 11y agoFor non-commercial purposes, sure.
- lettergram 11y agoI doubt lyft is making much if anything on this. It's likely just a way to get users to start using the app. If they use it daily it's more likely they'll use the standard lyft service too
- giarc 11y agoI wonder if it will recommend a regular Lyft driver if there are no carpool matches.
- bduerst 11y agoWhy don't we just skip these platform tie-ins and make an auction network for rides and deliveries? That way you can see options like dollar & time estimations across multiple available services whenever you need to go somewhere.
- nguyenbr 11y agoCurious if this allows for picking up two passengers so that one can use the carpool lane in areas that require 3 passengers (notably, the Bay Bridge). If not, most of the value for both parties is drastically diminished.
- fillskills 11y agoHow do they handle commutes back? With carpooling to work, that is always my biggest concern - will I be able to get a ride back.
- arasmussen 11y agoI totally would have used this last year when commuting from SF to Menlo Park. It's too bad I sold my car and quit my job, would have been fun to meet some cool people and make some extra money at the same time.
- joshandrews 11y agoWe've been doing this in Vancouver, Canada for 5 weeks now (http://sparerides.com http://sparerides.com). It is great to see another player doing true ridesharing. Lyft actually started with a business model similar to this (http://zimride.com http://zimride.com) but saw much greater growth with the taxi model so rebranded and pushed that instead. While HOV lanes are a large incentive for drivers, we have seen that many of our drivers here in Vancouver are looking to either cover the cost of parking and driving, or meet new people. These solutions generally work best in dense metro areas with relatively good public transit (I.E you have to be able to get home, if you can't find a carpool home). Also interesting, Uber is not allowed to operate under the existing Vancouver taxi regulation. Because carpooling does not provide an income to the driver, the car is not considered a vehicle-for-hire, making systems like Lyft carpool and Spare Rides legal in Vancouver and I'm guessing many other cities that have pushed Uber out. This is a really good way for Lyft to grab those markets before the regulation changes.
- Cyph0n 11y agoWhat do you mean by "carpooling does not provide an income to the driver"? I honestly wouldn't pick up people without compensation, especially for longer distances. So you just charge riders and the driver gets nothing? I'm curious because I'm planning on starting a similar venture in my home country.
- joshandrews 11y agoSorry, the correct word to use there would be profit. The driver does get paid, just not enough to exceed the operating cost of the vehicle and parking, which in Vancouver is roughly $0.58 per km.
- Cyph0n 11y agoThat makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.
- smacktoward 11y ago"Compensation" doesn't have to be monetary. Here in DC, for instance, the compensation you get for driving a carpool is being allowed to drive in the high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes, which are restricted to vehicles carrying 2+ or 3+ occupants, depending on the road. These lanes are less congested than the main part of the highway, so your payment for sharing your ride is access to a faster, less stressful commute than you would have if you drove by yourself.
- raitom 11y agoSounds really interesting but will it be available for 2 doors cars (like a mustang)?
- rdl 11y agoI'd probably be willing to do this if they gave me insurance, tied it to the regular Lyft rating system (and maybe let me set a threshold of 4.5 rider score or something?) and if the Bay Bridge were a HOV-2 v. HOV-3. I don't do Casual Carpool right now because of 1) insurance 2) not knowing who the passengers are 3) not really knowing how to do it. I hope Lyft will tweak this to work better for my use case. Otherwise, it will probably be a US-101 solution only.
- viscanti 11y agoI liked this when Uber did it last September. https://newsroom.uber.com/ubercommute/ https://newsroom.uber.com/ubercommute/ it's great to see Lyft picking up from a great idea.
- curiousDog 11y agoJust curious, do you work for Uber? The rest of your comments seem to be berating Lyft, haha
- plank 11y agoClicking on viscanti's profile does not seem to reveal any other comments in this thread...
- TorKlingberg 11y agoAll of viscanti's submissions are pro-Uber and/or anti-Lyft.
- hipaulshi 11y ago10USD from San Jose to SF?! AWESOME
- sivanmz 11y agoI wanted to join their previous Line effort, but re-read my insurance policy and found it falls under prohibited commercial driving. The terms now encompass any participation in online ride-coordinating services. Government needs to step in because individually the insurers have no incentive to allow this.
- thrwwyh 11y agoLyft is attempting to get around the limits on commercial activity by only reimbursing up to the driver's costs (see the TOS section on Reimbursements). But the terms you describe would seem to preclude even this. Do you mind saying which insurance company has those terms? As to the question of incentives, I have pay-by-the-mile car insurance (from MetroMile, in SF). They would make more money if I took a detour and drove a little further, or if this service caused me to drive to work more frequently.
- open-source-ux 11y agoInteresting. This new service from Lyft has some similarities to the ride-sharing service of French startup company Bla Bla Car. The French company is doing well in European countries but hasn't launched in the US.
- randyrand 11y agoThis would be better if you could ride with the same people or persons on a regular basis. Maybe at reduced lyft fees.
- rconti 11y agoYou could. Just arrange it informally once you get to know the driver/passengers and ditch Lyft entirely. Which is a risk a service like this faces.
- martinald 11y agoI don't drive or live in the bay area. What sort of typical time savings does the carpool lane give you?
- orlybach 11y agoDuring my morning commute I sit in traffic in the regular (non carpool lane) for about 5-10 minutes, whereas the carpool lane passes right by with no traffic. I am only on this stretch for about a mile. So imagine about 5-10 minutes/mile saved as an example. It really depends on the area though. I am referring to the 85/101 merge near all the Google exits.
- omginternets 11y ago>I am referring to the 85/101 merge near all the Google exits. I've never stepped foot on the West coast, but I found this sentence really amusing! I guess I never realized the extent to which GAFA was embedded in the landscape. (Nevermind this East-coast pleb. Carry on!)
- matt_wulfeck 11y agoIt seems the natural progression of this service is not paying each other $5-$10 for a ride, but some sort of service that allowed getting and giving credits for sharing rides. Most of us in the bay area have cars (because public transportation is stinking horrible). I want more to lessen my burden on the environment/save money on gas by sharing the road. A more natural pair would be to easily find people who share my commute and then rotate rides.
- puetzk 11y agoWhy is it preferable for the "credits" to be in units other than currency?
- matt_wulfeck 11y agoBecause when it's money the goal is money. I desire the goal to be efficient and fair ride sharing.
- username223 11y agoI'm guessing it's because the OP wants riders to also be drivers, so you don't end up with one set of people making less than minimum wage to drive another set of people around (the Uber model). Of course, this won't work with formal "credits," since people will just create a market exchanging "credits" for dollars. This is where an informal reputation system shines: people eventually identify freeloaders, and kick them out of the carpool.
- HappyTypist 11y agoThey're using credits. It's called money.
- martinshen 11y agoAny idea if commuter benefits are eligible for this? If so, this sounds better than my Caltrain ride.
- rosnow 11y agoUnlikely unless there is a regulatory change. Commuter benefits, as in an employer paying for transit with pre-tax dollars, currently exclude vehicles that can carry less than 7 passengers.
- based2 11y agoalt eu https://www.blablacar.co.uk/ https://www.blablacar.co.uk/
- nickeleres 11y agothis service is complete shit. my trip to SFO from Golden Gate Park was 2.5x the amount of time it could have been, and I saved 7% on my final bill. lyft is bleeding is dry with this new service, i highly recommend against it.
- jsadow 11y agoI'm the CPO and Co-Founder of Scoop automated carpooling - www.takescoop.com. I wanted to jump in with a few thoughts. It's exciting to see one of the ridesharing/ride-hailing companies focus their attention on where the pain is still high - the commute. 100M Americans still wake up everyday, grab their keys, and get in their car to drive to work. On average, that drive lasts at least 25 minutes. The negative impact of driving alone is enormous - congestion in our communities, $250B out of our pockets every year, and a huge toll on the environment. Autonomous vehicles, hyperloops, or whatever the future has in store might change this - but not for a while. So, carpooling is obviously something I've spent a lot of time thinking about - and I think Lyft is doing some smart things here. I like the Rider scheduling buckets. We do something similar with Scoop - every trip is scheduled with "time slots" that help align Rider and Drivers' schedules. And of course, Lyft's availability around the Bay Area is nice. For Scoop, we really focus on partnering with employers and 511 (https://carpool.511.org/ https://carpool.511.org/) to strategically open "routes" into different Bay Area cities. We do this carefully, to ensure that commuters can really rely on their local Scoop community for a carpool every single day. There are also some important ways that carpooling is really different from ride-hailing, and it'll be interesting to see how Lyft, Uber, etc. address that. For example, who you go with really matters. 45 minutes in a car isn't the same as 10. How you get home really matters too. In the case of no carpool, a regular Lyft or Uber with surge-pricing will make for an unhappy commuter. Our team of 13 works really hard every day to try to take cars off the road, and are excited by anyone who wants to try to do that too. To that end, we just opened up our newest route today to tackle congestion in a new community. Starting today, you can schedule commute trips with Scoop into Palo Alto. All trips to Palo Alto are just $1 - sponsored by the Palo Alto TMA and Stanford Research Park. And we're excited to have great partners like the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and companies like Tesla, Palantir and HP. PS: If you do want to try to help, we're hiring! Email us at jobs@takescoop.com or visit https://angel.co/takescoop/jobs https://angel.co/takescoop/jobs.
- api 11y agoReally would love this in Orange County, CA. I think it would work very well in SoCal where there isn't a lot of transit but many routes are fairly deterministic.
- martinshen 11y agoJust tried to sign up but apparently my route isn't ready yet.
- exabrial 11y agoHey Lyft: I have a truck (in addition to my fuel and earth friendly bike). However, I know a lot of people need help getting stuff home from home depot, babiesrus, best buy, etc. How about a summon a truck option?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- unusximmortalis 11y agoat a cost of $4-10 per ride (I read correctly I hope) does it make financial sense for commuters in bay area?
- muzz 11y agofor the passenger absolutely! it's on par with transbay bus or caltrain fare. not sure if I would participate as a driver for so little though
- free2rhyme214 11y agoIn my case it doesn't make sense. Fremont to San Jose is $10 per ride or $400 per month. This cost more than what I pay in gas, insurance and maintenance. ($240 in gas on avg)
- mderazon 11y agoGoogle/Waze is trying something similar http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/07/google-owned-waze-launches-ridewith-carpooling-app-on-android/ http://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/07/google-owned-waze-launch...
- bbcbasic 11y agoI wonder what the ettiquite is when sharing a ride like this? On a bus or in a cab there is no pressure to make conversation with the other passenger/driver, although sometimes they may be chatty. In this situation I'd feel pressure to make conversation with the driver, but what if I want to just read? Would that be rude? If I found a good driver I would just deal directly with them because (a) I know they share my route and (b) I don't need to get to know them again each time I commute. That would be money off the table for Lyft though. But I would not use the service because I have kids to drop off and also I may not finish at the same time every day.
- pstrazzulla 11y agoThis was essentially Lyft's first idea right? I believe it was called Zimride?
- super_dude12 11y agoI wonder if people will take this to the airport with airport employees.
- codezero 11y agoSomeone on HN tried to make a similar service in Africa (I can't remember who you are, sorry!) and found that eventually the commuters just worked together to commute and cut out the middle-person. $10 per ride is really not a lot of incentive to drive an hour to the city with company that you don't want, who may not want to listen to your music/podcast, or smell your farts, or listen to you sing along to Rebecca Black.
- intrasight 11y agoHow does Lyft expect to maintain a financial middleman relationship in a carpool relationship? What incentive does a commuter have to keep paying Lyft?
- anamexis 11y agoSeems like the advantage here is that you're never beholden to a particular time, or really any prior agreement. You can check for compatible carpools whenever and wherever you want.