7 ms·

Juno to soft-launch this month as the anti-Uber service

26 points by tortilla 11y ago

rdtsc 11y ago
I like the ownership idea that is pretty cool. I already pick Lyft whenever I can just because I noticed in the past drivers with Lyft were happier and some mentioned they were treated better by Lyft than when they were with Uber.
- tortilla 11y ago
  In Phoenix, I pick Lyft because it's significantly cheaper than Uber. Lyft drivers also seem happier but that might just be in my head. I did notice more Uber drivers are doing it full time.
- freyr 11y ago
  In addition to being treated better, my Lyft driver yesterday claimed that he preferred Lyft because the software is better, with more efficient routing and fewer bugs.
  - acchow 11y ago
    Also, Lyft's GPS location for the car you're looking for is basically real time. Uber's seems to be off by about 1 minute, which is really not a great experience.
- moron4hire 11y ago
  I have noticed a marked change in the quality of ride on Uber in DC in the last couple of months. It makes me wonder if Uber is tracking my engagement with their app and is deprioritizing me as a low-value customer since I only ride about once a week.
koolba 11y ago
I've never heard of Juno before and it took some serious A-level googling to find their website. Only PR articles (like this one) show up when you search for them and none of them actually link to their site. That's some seriously odd SEO.
- FilterSweep 11y ago
  I haven't looked at their HTML source in a while, but last time I checked Uber's, it was meta keyword stuffed to an extent that would make a blackhatter proud. Did you try targeted or scoped Google searches? (EDIT: disregard second paragraph, thats A-level googling)
  - argonaut 11y ago
    Everyone knows Google ignores the meta keyword, so it's hardly blackhat - at worst Google actually penalizes it (just my speculation), at best it just slows down the page load a tiny tiny bit.
- bcgraham 11y ago
  Their target market is taxi & livery drivers in NYC, who they seem to have been very effective in reaching. Look at their homepage[0] - does it seem to be trying to speak to you? [0] https://www.gojuno.com/ https://www.gojuno.com/
jkraker 11y ago
This will show my age a bit, but am I the only one that had a rush of memories about Juno email seeing this headline? Good old dial up email... I'm probably just weird. At least the general population probably has no such associations with primitive email services.
- ch4ch4 11y ago
  Ha! I had the same thought as well.
- ineedtosleep 11y ago
  Ah yes, Juno. Along with NetZero and Freewwweb, I journeyed the path of the "grey"-side with free internet hacks (which just blocked the ads). My parents didn't yet see the value of internet -- nor did they have the extra cash for it.
  - peterwwillis 11y ago
    Free internet and "click this Ad to get paid $0.10" were some really interesting hacks back in the day. Oh, the money you could make with Visual Basic and a dial-up modem....
    - dopeboy 11y ago
      Don't forget the "cracks" you could download to hide the netzero ads.
      - peterwwillis 11y ago
        Some of us might have made them ;)
- Cheyana 11y ago
  Juno still provides dialup service and free email. I just fixed a Juno email issue for a friend (which turned out to be their AVG blocking it). Not sure how this other company gets away with calling themselves Juno.
jlgaddis 11y ago
Probably 20 years or so ago, there was a company named Juno that provided free (ad-supported) dial-up Internet access -- even via toll-free numbers if they didn't have a local number in your area.
dopamean 11y ago
I cant help but wonder if Juno and others are overestimating how much people care about the treatment of their drivers. I think very many people, myself included, would say that it is important to them that their driver is happy with his relationship with his employer. But at the end of the day does that really translate to a change in purchasing behavior? For me it does not. I use Uber here in Austin because it is significantly cheaper that Lyft. I hear people say that their drivers tell them that Lyft treats them better. Apparently that's not so much better that they stop driving for Uber. I've actually never had a driver make a comment to me in either direction about Uber. And I've had many drivers who drive for both companies. They have told me, on the few times that I've asked, that the reason they do it is to increase their likelihood of getting a fare. When I think about it more it really seems like drivers for these services are all getting a raw deal just based on the wear and tear on their vehicles and so small differences in business practices don't really count for much to me.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  This is why government regulation is so important. Most people don't mind others being exploited if its beneficial to them.
  - angryasian 11y ago
    I disagree. Theres plenty of alternative services. If all Uber drivers left for lyft and Juno, then Uber would drastically be hurt in terms of drivers available, and users would have to migrate. As long as there is competition, theres no need for regulation in this market.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      I don't think its wise to rely on market forces to ensure labor protections. It didn't work so well for tech workers several years ago [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
  - 11y ago
notlefthanded 11y ago
Seems weird to me that these are still called 'ride-sharing' services. Having used blablacar, which I would consider does true ride-sharing, uber and its ilk are more in the vein of ride-hiring.
- pavlov 11y ago
  Yes. If Uber is ride-sharing, then I guess factory work is "hand-sharing" and prostitution is "body-sharing"...
davidu 11y ago
"the anti-Uber service" is called driving your own car.
- jkyle 11y ago
  Or public transit or riding a bike, etc.
aianus 11y ago
> All drivers there are licensed by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), as required by law. Their vehicles must also be licensed with the TLC, and they have to carry commercial insurance. This is going to negatively impact driver supply (making wait times higher, especially in the outer boroughs) and increase the cost of the service vs Uber. > Juno’s drivers will provide better service because they’re happier, Marco said. The only 'service' I want from a taxi driver is to show up, follow the GPS, and not double-swipe my credit card or claim the machine isn't working. Uber already has basically perfect service. Unless they have some secret innovation I'm not seeing this is going to be a massive failure.
- ibejoeb 11y ago
  > This is going to negatively impact driver supply All professional drivers, including Uber drivers, already need TLC licensing, as do their vehicles.
  - aianus 11y ago
    I use Uber as shorthand for UberX, where the vast majority of drivers (at least in my city) have no commercial licensing or insurance. That's what enables them to be so cheap and ubiquitous. Maybe NYC specifically is different, I don't know.
    - ibejoeb 11y ago
      Yes, NYC is different. All for-hire drivers are required to go through the TLC. From Uber, itself: https://get.uber.com/cl/nyc/ https://get.uber.com/cl/nyc/. TLC also regulates the types of vehicles that must be driven and mandates commercial insurance.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
- ArnoldP 11y ago
  All other things being equal I'll go with the service that gives more to the person doing the actual labour.
hughes 11y ago
What a confusing headline... last I checked, Juno launched[1] in Oct 2013. It's almost all the way to Jupiter now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft)#Launch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft)#Launch
bcgraham 11y ago
I live in NYC. During an Uber ride, I was talking to a driver about Juno. Between my understanding of him and my recollection, some of this may be incorrect. They've recruited a lot of the NYC Uber drivers. They've been paying them $25/week to keep the Juno app open while they're on duty, collecting information about driving habits, routes, etc. The drivers' relationships with Juno won't be as contractors, so Juno will have much more control over the drivers - such as having exclusivity agreements. The idea seemed to be to bring on all the drivers as employees, destroy the population of (good) Uber drivers, and advertise the app. The plan is that everyone in NYC switches to Juno, since you won't be able to get an Uber in a timely way, and Uber's quality will be bad because it'll just be the "leftovers" of the driver talent pool. That's what I remember getting out of the conversation, anyway.
raimille1 11y ago
Isn't this Lyft's mission already? Good treatment of drivers, community creation and human connection?

26 points by tortilla 11y ago

rdtsc 11y ago

I like the ownership idea that is pretty cool. I already pick Lyft whenever I can just because I noticed in the past drivers with Lyft were happier and some mentioned they were treated better by Lyft than when they were with Uber.

tortilla 11y ago
In Phoenix, I pick Lyft because it's significantly cheaper than Uber. Lyft drivers also seem happier but that might just be in my head. I did notice more Uber drivers are doing it full time.
freyr 11y ago
In addition to being treated better, my Lyft driver yesterday claimed that he preferred Lyft because the software is better, with more efficient routing and fewer bugs.
- acchow 11y ago
  Also, Lyft's GPS location for the car you're looking for is basically real time. Uber's seems to be off by about 1 minute, which is really not a great experience.
moron4hire 11y ago
I have noticed a marked change in the quality of ride on Uber in DC in the last couple of months. It makes me wonder if Uber is tracking my engagement with their app and is deprioritizing me as a low-value customer since I only ride about once a week.

koolba 11y ago

I've never heard of Juno before and it took some serious A-level googling to find their website. Only PR articles (like this one) show up when you search for them and none of them actually link to their site. That's some seriously odd SEO.

FilterSweep 11y ago
I haven't looked at their HTML source in a while, but last time I checked Uber's, it was meta keyword stuffed to an extent that would make a blackhatter proud. Did you try targeted or scoped Google searches? (EDIT: disregard second paragraph, thats A-level googling)
- argonaut 11y ago
  Everyone knows Google ignores the meta keyword, so it's hardly blackhat - at worst Google actually penalizes it (just my speculation), at best it just slows down the page load a tiny tiny bit.
bcgraham 11y ago
Their target market is taxi & livery drivers in NYC, who they seem to have been very effective in reaching. Look at their homepage[0] - does it seem to be trying to speak to you? [0] https://www.gojuno.com/ https://www.gojuno.com/

jkraker 11y ago

This will show my age a bit, but am I the only one that had a rush of memories about Juno email seeing this headline? Good old dial up email... I'm probably just weird. At least the general population probably has no such associations with primitive email services.

ch4ch4 11y ago
Ha! I had the same thought as well.
ineedtosleep 11y ago
Ah yes, Juno. Along with NetZero and Freewwweb, I journeyed the path of the "grey"-side with free internet hacks (which just blocked the ads). My parents didn't yet see the value of internet -- nor did they have the extra cash for it.
- peterwwillis 11y ago
  Free internet and "click this Ad to get paid $0.10" were some really interesting hacks back in the day. Oh, the money you could make with Visual Basic and a dial-up modem....
  - dopeboy 11y ago
    Don't forget the "cracks" you could download to hide the netzero ads.
    - peterwwillis 11y ago
      Some of us might have made them ;)
Cheyana 11y ago
Juno still provides dialup service and free email. I just fixed a Juno email issue for a friend (which turned out to be their AVG blocking it). Not sure how this other company gets away with calling themselves Juno.

jlgaddis 11y ago

Probably 20 years or so ago, there was a company named Juno that provided free (ad-supported) dial-up Internet access -- even via toll-free numbers if they didn't have a local number in your area.

dopamean 11y ago

I cant help but wonder if Juno and others are overestimating how much people care about the treatment of their drivers. I think very many people, myself included, would say that it is important to them that their driver is happy with his relationship with his employer. But at the end of the day does that really translate to a change in purchasing behavior? For me it does not. I use Uber here in Austin because it is significantly cheaper that Lyft. I hear people say that their drivers tell them that Lyft treats them better. Apparently that's not so much better that they stop driving for Uber. I've actually never had a driver make a comment to me in either direction about Uber. And I've had many drivers who drive for both companies. They have told me, on the few times that I've asked, that the reason they do it is to increase their likelihood of getting a fare. When I think about it more it really seems like drivers for these services are all getting a raw deal just based on the wear and tear on their vehicles and so small differences in business practices don't really count for much to me.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
This is why government regulation is so important. Most people don't mind others being exploited if its beneficial to them.
- angryasian 11y ago
  I disagree. Theres plenty of alternative services. If all Uber drivers left for lyft and Juno, then Uber would drastically be hurt in terms of drivers available, and users would have to migrate. As long as there is competition, theres no need for regulation in this market.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    I don't think its wise to rely on market forces to ensure labor protections. It didn't work so well for tech workers several years ago [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
- 11y ago

notlefthanded 11y ago

Seems weird to me that these are still called 'ride-sharing' services. Having used blablacar, which I would consider does true ride-sharing, uber and its ilk are more in the vein of ride-hiring.

pavlov 11y ago
Yes. If Uber is ride-sharing, then I guess factory work is "hand-sharing" and prostitution is "body-sharing"...

davidu 11y ago

"the anti-Uber service" is called driving your own car.

jkyle 11y ago
Or public transit or riding a bike, etc.

aianus 11y ago

> All drivers there are licensed by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), as required by law. Their vehicles must also be licensed with the TLC, and they have to carry commercial insurance. This is going to negatively impact driver supply (making wait times higher, especially in the outer boroughs) and increase the cost of the service vs Uber. > Juno’s drivers will provide better service because they’re happier, Marco said. The only 'service' I want from a taxi driver is to show up, follow the GPS, and not double-swipe my credit card or claim the machine isn't working. Uber already has basically perfect service. Unless they have some secret innovation I'm not seeing this is going to be a massive failure.

ibejoeb 11y ago
> This is going to negatively impact driver supply All professional drivers, including Uber drivers, already need TLC licensing, as do their vehicles.
- aianus 11y ago
  I use Uber as shorthand for UberX, where the vast majority of drivers (at least in my city) have no commercial licensing or insurance. That's what enables them to be so cheap and ubiquitous. Maybe NYC specifically is different, I don't know.
  - ibejoeb 11y ago
    Yes, NYC is different. All for-hire drivers are required to go through the TLC. From Uber, itself: https://get.uber.com/cl/nyc/ https://get.uber.com/cl/nyc/. TLC also regulates the types of vehicles that must be driven and mandates commercial insurance.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
ArnoldP 11y ago
All other things being equal I'll go with the service that gives more to the person doing the actual labour.

hughes 11y ago

What a confusing headline... last I checked, Juno launched[1] in Oct 2013. It's almost all the way to Jupiter now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft)#Launch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft)#Launch

bcgraham 11y ago

I live in NYC. During an Uber ride, I was talking to a driver about Juno. Between my understanding of him and my recollection, some of this may be incorrect. They've recruited a lot of the NYC Uber drivers. They've been paying them $25/week to keep the Juno app open while they're on duty, collecting information about driving habits, routes, etc. The drivers' relationships with Juno won't be as contractors, so Juno will have much more control over the drivers - such as having exclusivity agreements. The idea seemed to be to bring on all the drivers as employees, destroy the population of (good) Uber drivers, and advertise the app. The plan is that everyone in NYC switches to Juno, since you won't be able to get an Uber in a timely way, and Uber's quality will be bad because it'll just be the "leftovers" of the driver talent pool. That's what I remember getting out of the conversation, anyway.

raimille1 11y ago

Isn't this Lyft's mission already? Good treatment of drivers, community creation and human connection?