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Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service
- bluejekyll 10y ago> Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., began a pilot program around... So, basic question, What is the difference between Alphabet and Google again? It seems like everything is still being branded as Google. I know it's slightly off topic, but I am honestly confused as to when something is not Google.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoIt's just your average shell company thing. People only make a big deal of it because it's a thing Google did.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- bluejekyll 10y agoYeah. I realize the shell company thing, but I also seem to remember them talking about brands being differentiated from Google, but every announcement continues to be the Google brand.
- ashaikh 10y agoFrom their most recent 10Q, Alphabet currently breaks down their revenue into two segments: "Our reported segments are described below: • Google – Google includes our main internet products such as Search, Ads, Commerce, Maps, YouTube, Apps, Cloud, Android, Chrome, Google Play as well as hardware products we sell, such as Chromecast, Chromebooks and Nexus. Our technical infrastructure and newer efforts like Virtual Reality are also included in Google. Google generates revenues primarily from advertising, sales of digital content, apps and cloud offerings for enterprise, as well as sales of Google branded hardware. • Other Bets – Other Bets is a combination of multiple operating segments that are not individually material. Other Bets includes businesses such as Access/Google Fiber, Calico, Nest, Verily, GV, Google Capital, X, and other initiatives. Revenues from the Other Bets are derived primarily through the sales of Nest hardware products, internet and TV services through Google Fiber and licensing and R&D services through Verily." https://abc.xyz/investor/pdf/20160331_alphabet_10Q.pdf https://abc.xyz/investor/pdf/20160331_alphabet_10Q.pdf
- iamcasen 10y agoUber and Lyft have had to tackle so many legal issues already. Drastically improving and modifying how they deal with drivers on a daily basis from both an operational and legal standpoint. If what the article says is true about google vetting problem drivers with mere user reviews, they don't know what they are getting into. I think the idea is great of course, and I imagine it would cut down on freeway traffic during commute hours. It just seems that the legal web of trust, insurance, safety, etc will be a lot to handle.
- moefogs 10y agoFortunately, Google has regulatory contacts and an armada of lawyers. They're fully capable of working on this.
- imgabe 10y agoIf this is strictly to more easily facilitate carpooling during rush hour, there's some precedent. In the Washington DC area, for at least a decade, possibly more, there have been "Slug Lines" outside the city for people commuting in. The idea is you go to a specific place via public transportation or park there, then drivers heading into the city pick you up so they can use the HOV lane. There's a similar setup in the evening where you'll catch a ride back with a different person. I've never used it, but as far as I've heard it works well. I don't think there's any compulsion to pay, but maybe it's generally polite to offer a few dollars for gas. This sounds like a more automated version of that.
- vthallam 10y agoThis happens in many places i guess. But when a company gets into picture to facilitate this, things like safety/insurance comes into picture. I am sure Google might have already figured that out, if not any small crime incident by a driver would cause huge reputational damage.
- bduerst 10y agoIt's different because it's carpooling, which is typically covered by most insurance policies. https://www.waze.com/carpool https://www.waze.com/carpool >Auto insurance policies in many states including California typically allow not for profit, share-the-expense carpooling. Waze Carpool is designed to help riders and drivers share the cost of carpooling on a given ride. It is not designed to allow a driver to make a profit or to earn a salary. Payments to the driver, by the rider, will always be less or equal to the cost of the particular drive, taking account of such factors as gas and vehicle depreciation.
- mmanfrin 10y agoHonestly I wish they wouldn't try to compete on price. Maybe I'm alone with this, but I'd rather not feel obligated to tip a driver because the ride is so cheap. Pay them a living wage, let me pay the exact fee, and let me not have to carry goddamn cash like I used to in the era of Taxis. e: Addressing common replies: "This is for people commuting already" -- okay, point taken; my point about Uber/Lyft still stands. "Tipping isn't obligatory" -- yes, it kind of is. Uber used to bar drivers form asking, but they recently lost a lawsuit over that rule and so now Uber drivers will occasionally ask for tips (which will cause it to slowly become the norm). When tipping becomes the norm, the low-base-wage of the driver becomes less of an 'issue', and then tipping becomes even more of a necessity as that is where the drivers will make their actual margins.
- inlined 10y agoFTA: the price is intended to be low enough that one wouldn't try to use this to be a taxi driver. It reminds me of the days when someone offered to chip in for gas in exchange for carpooling. Disclaimer: I'm a Google employee but have never heard anything about this before.
- dragonwriter 10y agoEDIT: Oh, nevermind.
- saalweachter 10y agoKeeping up with everything Google is doing is itself a full time job. I barely have time to keep up with all of the gazillion announcements in my own tiny corner of the world that affect my day job, so I'm usually as surprised as anyone when something "big" happens in a different part of the company.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- stingrae 10y ago
- vegabook 10y agoread: "Google ride-share is to Uber as Windows Phone is to Android". Late to the party, tragically deficient in first-mover network effect advantage, and on the decline in credibility since they're shutting down all moonshots, including, as we saw as recently as today, halving the staff at Google Fibre. Talk about panic catch-up with no intrinsic advantage, nor vision. "Mountain View, start your photo-copiers". We know where that ends... Larry and Sergei have shown in the past 3 years that they have no staying power on anything that isn't an obvious profit lay-up in short order. This thing will burn through cash at a rate that will make any of their other ill-fated ventures look like a bargain. I mean, UBER has already coughed 1.2 yards this year! Smells like Google+ all over again. Isn't this the sort of sham that the Alphabet carve-out was supposed to avoid?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- useful_intern 10y agoThey do have access to Google Maps data which provides sizable competitive edge
- vegabook 10y agoIf it we were in 2012 that would be true. There are multiple competing mapping suppliers now which are perfectly good enough for taxi navigation, including Uber's own system, not forgetting Tomtom's third party stuff, AAPL's heavy investment, etc. This looks like too little too late.
- yefim 10y agoHow are they vetting drivers? I wouldn't trust a driver if all they had to do to qualify is download the Waze app.
- edoloughlin 10y agoOnce they have a critical mass of robberies, stabbings, etc., then the machine learning can easily filter out undesirable drivers. Not a problem.
- tajen 10y agoAre you ironic? Do you see what's strange in that? Machine learning isn't exempt of racism. Google has a lot of background on people, but it's generally accepted as unethic to filter undesirable people based on generalizations, even if they were statistically correct.
- oldmanjay 10y agoI can't tell if you're continuing the jocular tone of your parent or if you're serious that this is the concern that actually came to your mind first. I charitably hope it's the first.
- stevenwiles 10y agoHaha, looking through your comment history, you have absolutely no right to be using such a concescending tone. Does your resume include any position besides "old, disgruntled, unhappy, friendless programmer"?
- JacobCZ 10y agoThe OP was being sarcastic.
- drcross 10y agoI think you missed the satire but you raise an interesting perspective. For example, if machine learning knows through a user's phone that they match the locations of someone who drink drives will their online persona be disciplined without their knowledge? The scenario takes a twist if that person was actually a bar worker and not a drinker. Who do we appeal to to reclaim our online reputation if all the patterns match but we are a false positive case?
- camiller 10y agoBasically this is different from uber/lyft because it is trying to match you with someone already going to the same area, say on their normal commute. You are not just calling up a driver to get you from place to place. I can't help but to think of Ford Prefect's Electronic Thumb from H2G2.
- hooloovoo_zoo 10y agoIf it's as successful as Google+, you'll also be stuck waiting for 15 years.
- dirtyaura 10y agoLarry finally got his way :D
- hosh 10y agoThat's an interesting comment. Would you care to elaborate?
- Myrmornis 10y agoHas Waze quit using the childish cartoon stuff by default under Google?
- Myrmornis 10y agoHow should I reword this in order not to get downvoted? Is this better? When I've used Waze in the past, I notice that the default UI features cartoon spermatozoa moving around a road system. Such an aesthetic is going to be off-putting to most serious adults, but it sounds from this article that Waze is playing an important role in some actively developed Google products. I'm curious whether anyone here can shed light on the marketing strategy.
- euyyn 10y agoCome one, most serious adults don't give a rat's ass about how cartoonish or not their mapping app looks, as long as it works well.
- Myrmornis 10y agoWhen I said adult, I was thinking of people over 40. I think you're thinking of younger people. There's no way, for example, my parents would use it. They'd feel uncomfortable, that they were stumbling into some sort of "thing for young people".
- yalogin 10y agoGoogle had to get in at some point. They should have entered a year ago may be but I think this is a good enough time. Google can afford to not take a cut for their service and hurt Uber quite a bit. If they are not taking a cut they can also reduce the price for the rider. However, how can it be viable to the driver. I understand if someone is already going in that direction they can make a little money but if I want to live on it (like Uber is pitching) will the price be enough?
- mahyarm 10y agoThere are a whole bunch of .54/mile commute carpool apps out there. Uber & Lyft have them / have had them too. Usually they don't pan out because it's not enough money for the hassle.
- fma 10y agoIt's a good idea, and in Georgia there's a program to pay you to car pool (http://gacommuteoptions.com/Save-Your-Commute/Earn-Cash.-Win-Prizes?_ga=1.167874657.1173807379.1472587947 http://gacommuteoptions.com/Save-Your-Commute/Earn-Cash.-Win...). I see this as something similar. But I was never able to find someone to car pool with.
- swolchok 10y agoWhy would you pay to carpool to/from work instead of arranging carpool with a coworker, paying for your share of gas directly, and cutting out 1) the (future) middleman 2) the tax man?
- dragonwriter 10y ago> Why would you pay to carpool to/from work instead of arranging carpool with a coworker, paying for your share of gas directly, and cutting out 1) the (future) middleman 2) the tax man? Because the middle man is charging nothing, and its easier to use the middle man to find people that are good car pool partners by both desired arrival/departure time and where you are going to work from or going after work than trying to ask everyone around your work, and the tax consequences of accepting money to defray expenses don't change with or without the presence of the middle man.
- soared 10y agoBecause no one at my work lives near me, but some guy who works a block away might?
- losteverything 10y agoIt's about awareness and opportunity required before the arrangement you suggest, imo. If Waze becomes the "I need a ride " or "I'm coming to work, want me to pick you up?" handy-dandy awareness machine that is dynamic (key point) and universal (in everyone's pocket) then i think it becomes another management-benefit tool for the scores of workers that do not own cars in areas without transportation. Before I go to my retailer I'll check waze to see if anyone I know needs a ride. Likewise when I drive home. This is missing from our engagement with employees - a way to help with transportation. I hope waze works the way I think it will.
- ilostmykeys 10y agoThis is a hitchhiking service, not a "I want to get from my hotel to the airport" service. What are the chances that someome happens to be passing by my hotel on their way to the airport and happens to have room for an extra passenger. LOL. Retarded (to view it as competing with Uber/Lyft) Just part of the media that is itching to start a new drama.
- alkonaut 10y agoCan we stop calling every new taxi service "ride sharing"? Are people "sharing" anything in any meaningful way? The drivers car isn't shared, he sells a ride, that's a Taxi. A medallion or other arbitrary system doesn't define what a taxi is. Can I tell uber I want to share a ride to the airport with any stranger? (my taxi co will do that)?
- mortenjorck 10y agoIronically, this is probably the first prominent "ride sharing service" that is actually intended as a ride sharing service.
- Quanttek 10y agoBlaBlaCar?
- ChristianBundy 10y ago> prominent
- JorgeGT 10y agoIt has some 20 million users in three continents and it is valued at $1.6 billion: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/blablacar-a-french-ride-sharing-start-up-is-valued-at-1-4-billion/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/blablacar-a-french-...
- kough 10y agoBlaBlaCar is quite prominent in Europe, or at least when I was there two years ago.
- agentdrtran 10y agoBlaBla car is very prominent in Europe.
- loic_sf 10y ago
- hyperbovine 10y ago> Unlike Uber and its crosstown rival Lyft Inc., both of which largely operate as on-demand taxi businesses, Waze wants to connect riders with drivers who are already headed in the same direction. Funny because that is Lyft's (né Zimride) original model. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
- fma 10y agoYeah...they are Ride Sharing...not Taxi apps. Just like how Airbnb was supposed to be sharing your room, not people buying up condos and turning them into a hotel room.
- coldpie 10y ago> Funny because that is Lyft's (né Zimride) Holy crow, I've always seen it spelled née, and sure enough, it's because it's almost always used when referring to a woman's name before marriage. Turns out né exists for men! Are companies masculine, then? (Gendered languages belong in the dumpster of history.)
- durga 10y agoGoogle is simply bored while making so much money so comfortably, with an absolutely dominant market position in search. So every few months they need to do these copycat things simply to entertain themselves ;-).
- losteverything 10y agoGreat news. As a PT worker at one of the articles mentioned companies, I know there is considerable demand for rides to and from the retailer. This could be huge if employees shift from dial-taxis or uber to "co-workers" via waze. Other night a pizza server at a shop next door said she was very slow. It's summer and nobody buys pizza. She added it costs her $10 one way cab ride and makes nothing for the day. This is the type of news I would post on employee board when it comes to my area.
- futureproofd 10y agoI interpreted "pizza server" as a computer that produces pizza and thought about how cool that would be. I guess a pizza server could also be an oven.
- devy 10y agoWaze carpooling has been around since May [1] [1] http://www.wsj.com/articles/alphabet-unveils-program-for-carpooling-via-app-fraying-ties-with-uber-1463428668 http://www.wsj.com/articles/alphabet-unveils-program-for-car...
- dragonwriter 10y agoThis is an expansion of the service area and availability.
- TheOneTrueKyle 10y agoWhen I was younger and financially unstable, I had a decision to make. Take a crappy restaurant job or live out of my car. I chose to live out of my car. Every time I hear the argument that people in the restaurant industry are getting unfair pay, I ask myself, "I wonder who made that decision to work there in the first place" Stop this bullshit tipping. These people made a choice and then chose to complain about it. Also, this only seems to occur with FOH employees in the restaurant industry. You don't really hear BOH employees (you know, the people who actually do the work of cooking your food) complain.
- doomtop 10y agoYour privilege is showing. Not everyone who "chose" the job they have really has a choice. It's just not that simple. BOH employee pay rates are generally not based on the assumption of tips the way they are for FOH employees. And don't forget, BOH employees don't have to deal with the way some people treat service workers.
- Throwaway585250 10y agoYours is showing too, along with an unhealthy dose of smugness. GP literally chose to be homeless instead of licking the boots of the wealthy for table scraps, which is a degree of courage above and beyond what could have been expected of him, but it was still courage. Saying that his ability to do this is privileged, is like claiming a man who saves a baby from a burning house is showing his able privilege: true, technically, but grosly unfair and an underhanded way of attacking him. Why do you eat at restaurants that don't pay staff enough? If "some people" treat service workers badly, and you know this because you've seen it, why don't you tell "some people" that they're acting like pigs? After the Spanish civil war was underway, tipping was made illegal within the Republic, and George Orwell reports that one of his first experiences "was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy". They had it absolutely right. A business model where staff get paid whatever their customers feel like moves all the financial risk from the rich business owner to the poor worker, emphasises the class differences between the two, and is generally a practice which anyone left-wing enough to be using the word "privilege" should find abhorrent.
- dannylandau 10y agoWith so many competitors in the marketplace, such as Lyft, Gett, Via, Juno, and now Google, seems like Uber's leadership position is at risk. There appears to be very little differentiation between all of them, and while Google is starting out with carpooling, it is just a matter of time before they expand. Not sure how any investor could ever justify Uber's $60B valuation. In 10 years, will likely be 1/10 of that.
- estefan 10y agoThey've done everything right in terms of building a brand. > seems like Uber's leadership position is at risk You could have said that about any of the ex-Googlers who went off to try to develop a 'better' Google. At this point, Uber have the mindshare, at least amongst everyone I know, so unless Google have a 10x improvement planned then they'll just compete in Uber's shadow like the rest.
- aktoluna 10y agoTest
- mintplant 10y agoI've noticed Google Maps will sometimes give me Uber ads when I'm looking up directions ("this route only $N on Uber" or such). Idle speculation but I wonder if this was a mistake for Uber -- perhaps Google has seen a high rate of click-through on these and will now try to get in on that action themselves.
- dragonwriter 10y agoIn some places (all, IIRC, outside of the US), the Google Maps ride service feature already supports non-Uber ridesharing services. In the US, I think it only has Uber, but its basically a feature that lets GMaps be a platform for commoditizing ride services.
- HappyTypist 10y agoNah. In many cities Uber is the only service.
- dragonwriter 10y agoIf the GMaps ride service functionality is accessible to other services (it currently is by specific negotiation/partnership only, apparently, so not really, but as a platform that could change), it provides an avenue for weakening Uber's moat and making it easier for competitors to gain traction.
- JorgeGT 10y agoIn my city in Spain Uber is not available but GMaps offers rides with Cabify instead, a local alternative. But I think it is negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
- hosh 10y agoI've noticed that too, and wondered about the connection with this. I wonder if this was a similar play as when they opened that 411 service back in the day. Turned out, they were using it as a way to amass a large collection of voice samples. I kinda wonder how valuable ride sharing data would be. They might necessarily have to make a profit directly on that. It might have something to do with their self-driving cars. For example (just randomly spouting off), knowing where people want to ride towards the same direction might inform how to deploy a fleet of self-driving taxis.
- josh_carterPDX 10y agoWait, doesn't Lyft use Waze? So it's Lyft in a different interface?
- ChuckMcM 10y agoOk, not unexpected given that Drummond stepped back from being a board member, of course they got that seat by buying nearly 7% of the company[1]. Which if they had sold it to the other investors who came in on $62.5B round[2] they could have taken about $900M out which they could use to start their own ride sharing service. Sort of like drinking the Unicorn's blood to create a spell that will kill the Unicorn. The irony here, especially after Google did the same thing at Apple, big investment, board seat, oh wait you have a business that seems to be a winner (iPhone) lets step back and do that! I wonder if this will make it harder for GV to participate in any sort of funding rounds. [1] "Google Ventures invested $258M at $3.7B post-money valuation in 2013" -- https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Uber-does-Google-own https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Uber-does-Google-ow... [2] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-03/uber-raises-funding-at-62-5-valuation http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-03/uber-raise...
- euyyn 10y agoYou're saying all that as if, right before Drummond stepping back, Uber hadn't announced that they'd start doing self-driving cars, pretty much forcing him to step down out of conflict of interest.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI'm not sure I understand, are you saying this is some tit-for-tat move after Uber acquired Otto? Sounds a bit Machiavellian even for Uber and Google. Would love to hear the actual back story if that is the case.
- yazaddaruvala 10y agoI think the gp was just saying, Google and Uber started in different places, and therefore there didn't seem to be a conflict 5-10 years ago. i.e. Google = fully autonomous car research; Uber = practical service for transportation. However, as they both iterate and approach their logical local-optimums they find more and more that there is actual competition. i.e. Uber and also Google = a service "driven by" a fully autonomous car fleet.
- readhn 10y agoRIP Uber. 8/29/2016.
- estefan 10y agoMore like "Google late to the party... again"
- LordHumungous 10y agoI was actually just thinking about this the other day- why doesn't a large tech company with lots of cash create a ride service which basically lets the driver keep everything? Uber can't possibly compete. Google can destroy them before they can become a threat in other tech spaces.
- imaginenore 10y agoNetwork effect + first mover advantage. It takes a lot of time and money to develop the community if there already are major players. In this particular case Google would have so spend a shit ton of money on advertising, and it's not guaranteed to work. They failed with Google+.
- seizethecheese 10y agoGoogle could just add this as a feature in Google Maps.
- imaginenore 10y agoAnd they should. But they probably won't any time soon. Google is very conservative about new major changes in Google Maps, and it's a good thing.
- taurath 10y agoSo its just a quality of service type thing. However if there were far more incentives for the drivers themselves and you built it in such a way that they could be actively doing service for a competitor while monitoring/taking rides from another.. why not? Many drivers work for both uber and lyft. With the right technical structure you can use Uber's army against them, made easier by the fact that Uber isn't known for really wanting to take care of drivers.
- dzhiurgis 10y agoWhat network effects do you see in Uber?
- MrZongle2 10y agoI can't help but think that if Google is successful, the entire endeavor will end up like Reader: Google wipes out the competition, decides that they no longer want to run the service, end it, and there is no-one left to fill the void.
- codecamper 10y agoThis is it? Ha. Uber must be letting out a collective sigh of relief.
- youarewhite 10y agoLets talk for a moment about this plague on society. This social justice warrior bullshit is getting really old really quick. Human beings are becoming unbelievably weak
- lobf 10y agoHow do you mean?
- hehheh 10y agoHe or she was triggered by the word "privilege".
- budde 10y agoI will never for the life of me understand why pointing out that some people have been fortunate to have an easier path in life than others is so offensive to some folks. I think people see it as a way to try to diminish what some have accomplished rather than trying to shine light on the inequality that exists in society. Additionally, "social justice warrior" is truly a pejorative that says more about the person using it than its target.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- sctb 10y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12393835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12393835 and marked it off-topic.
- michaeldunworth 10y agoGoogle is emphasizing for low prices and people not to make careers from this for one reason, automation. This is a pilot for them, and will be replaced by autonomous cars in a few years. They don't want to be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of jobs and fight that moral fight. Uber is about to have a huge amount of people displaced from the jobs they created, and Google doesn't want to share that reputational hazard imo. Good call for Google.
- aristus 10y agoGoogle likes to use software to eat the world. But sometimes their software-only approach just ends up slobbering all over it. The point of Uber isn't the "sharing" of a ride, but the availability and predictability of getting one.
- drcross 10y agoOn the point of software eating the world google may be uniquely positioned to make something of this scale work- They have trend data for a majority of people with smartphones and I often see from Google Now cards that they know what I'll do generally before I have even decided. If used in the correct way it would deliver huge value and disrupt the established patterns of car ownership.
- theraper 10y agoSince when did dealing with people equate to more money? You forget that BOH makes the food. I would very much love a restaurant where I communicate directly to the chefs. Cut out the middlemen. Kind of like how autonomous cars will get rid of drivers.
- hehheh 10y agoThese restaurants exist, but they're very expensive, as you'd expect for a place that can afford to let the chef chat with guests.
- dang 10y agoYou can't have an account named "the raper" on HN. Even if I'm not parsing it the way you intended, many other people will read it the same way. That breaks the civility rule here. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12393835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12393835 and marked it off-topic.
- ianamartin 10y agoAm I the only one who laughs when I see, "Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., . . . ."? Umm, who reading this article doesn't know who Google is? That construction is almost always there to let you know who some no-name subsidiary or division of a much more well-known company is. In this case it functions in the reverse if at all--reminding people that Alphabet is a thing, in case you didn't know. Anyway, I just think that's funny.
- rjbwork 10y agoWSJ's primary audience is folks in business or finance. From my understanding, they have automated aggregators and algorithms that consume those articles, and look for constructs like that for tagging/categorization.
- dingdongding 10y agoWell algorithms can be advanced enough to reference Google with Alphabet automatically without putting need to write Alphabet in article itself. I don't think what you're saying is the reason to write it in the article
- acchow 10y agoIf your algorithm can't automatically associate Google with Alphabet without a cue, you have bigger problems.
- dbbk 10y agoI don't think it's funny... it's a business publication. It's not presuming you don't know who Google are. It's just saying they're a unit of Alphabet. There's no harm.
- salomelunarojas 10y agoWe should stop calling this ride sharing. It's still taxi. Modern taxi.
- JohnMF 10y agoLyft recently shut down their commute share program due to lack of interest... and now Alphabet is restarting it.
- sequoia_semper 10y agoWas it a lack of interest or poor economics? My coworker found that he could take a Lyft commute share, which was often empty, get to where he was going and pay much less. So, just like a Lyft on discount.
- sequoia_semper 10y agoThis is an actual ride sharing experiment instead of a taxi for hire business, quite nice to see this.
- jdauriemma 10y agoGoober
- hosh 10y agoBack in the day, when Google opened up a 411 service, Microsoft did the same. It looked like a way to expand the search engine. After several years of operation, they shut it down. Why? They were collecting voice samples to feed into their voice recognition system, and they had collected enough. I can't help but wonder if this ride sharing is a similar move. It sounds like a stepping stone for the kind of services that might be practical with self-driving cars. There might be some angle on collecting data that isn't obvious.
- symbolepro 10y agoThe best part of the interview is the way Sam has asked questions.
- segmondy 10y agoThis is not about taking on Uber. Google is testing AI for self driving cars. Once we have self driving cars, the idea is that you deploy these cars and the cars figure out who to pick up and who to drop off and possible doing group pick ups along the way. Waze is going to predict who to pick up based on their collected data thus far using ML, their data scientists are going to supervise it and correct it. Once we have self driving cars, Google will have the tech that can manage assigning cars and picking people up. This is what it is all about.
- shinamee 10y agoExactly what I thought myself after reading the article, it is totally logical (business-wise) to have an established market they can easily capture once their cars gets rolling.
- wpietri 10y agoYou don't think that's exactly the market Uber has been going for? There's a reason Uber raided CMU for researchers: http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-mellon-in-robotics-1433084582 http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carne... And that reason became pretty obvious when they started testing self-driving cars recently in Pittsburgh: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ubers-driverless-rides-in-pittsburgh-whats-happening-and-what-it-means/ http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ubers-driverless-rides-i... I don't think Uber started out with this plan, but clearly at some point they realized that they had to be a two-stage company like Netflix. Google's doing the same thing, but with a different stage 1. My bet, though, is that Uber wants to own the market, while Google is going to go after a platform play. I expect it to be sort of like Android. Google will make the software and own important parts of the consumer relationship. But most people who can manufacture cars or otherwise acquire large fleets at low costs will not want to do the software work, so they'll partner with Google. So yes, in the same way that Android was about taking on Apple in a way that makes decent money and keep Google from getting cut out of an important piece of the tech/human intersection, this is ultimately about taking on Uber.
- Zigurd 10y agoGoogle is not "taking on Uber." An important point is that Google is not making money off the payments for the ride, which presumably all go to the driver. For the driver that means defraying the cost of a commute in return for going a few minutes out of his way. True ride-sharing, not a gypsy-cabs-plus-reputation network. It's more akin to a transport-specific Splitwise than to Uber. What Google gets out of this is a real-world model of on demand automated transport patterns, pricing, demand, etc.
- sredniv 10y ago"Google takes on Earth by building a new mechanical planet"
- sredniv 10y ago"Google takes on Earth by building a new mechanical planet"
- dano 10y agoThis ought to be a boon for vanpool's where demand in terms of source and destination can be matched to drivers and 6+ passenger vehicles. Researching the necessary correlations would be fascinating work.
- petra 10y agoIt's exactly @ridewithvia
- 627467 10y agoThis won't be the first true ride-sharing program, but it's high enough profile to show people how ubers and lyft of the world have highjacked and distorted the meaning of that word. Uber is not part of the "sharing" economy. This is.
- known 10y agoWondering why Napster was ruled illegal :)
- luka-birsa 10y agoLove it how Uber is getting Ubered by providing a service they were supposedly providing but it was only a marketing scam to get around Taxi regulation. This is proper "sharing economy" where the other party isn't doing this to make a living out of it. I wonder who will Airbnb the Airbnb and is that at all possible. The end will be the same anyways - both companies are competing for a spot on the customers mobile phone so that they could provide a service when autonomous cars are up and running.
- dzhiurgis 10y agoI do not like the fragmentation though. I want one app to work everywhere. Uber in China is broken already and no way I could use Didi app. Also, I do not think that there is any significant network or engineering value in the app itself. If Google or Tesla finally starts delivering self-driving car service for 10x less than Uber, users will flee in a jiffy.
- dwightgunning 10y agoYou're overlooking the importance of competition when it comes to things like pricing and innovation.
- zhte415 10y agoDidi is very easy. Just type the location, and a cab will turn up within 1-2 minutes. Given cab drivers make a pittance after the cost of the LPG and insurance, little disruption in the industry other than to share a ride home with a stranger that possibly works in a similar industry and/or similar locations, and smalltalk happens. Current China eliminating blue collar jobs after they've already been decimated by modernisation over the past 3 decades is pretty unlikely.
- Grue3 10y ago>I wonder who will Airbnb the Airbnb and is that at all possible. I think it's called "couchsurfing".
- 10y ago
- saisun1988 10y agoDoesn't Google give "directions" to Uber? Literally & metaphorically? If Google starts charging a premium for consumers like Uber who use its services with a major commercial reason, Uber wouldn't be able to sustain.
- dbbk 10y agoUber bought their own mapping company for this reason.
- JOnAgain 10y agoI predict this will fail as it is described today. Because it pays little and is meant to find people on the way already, 1) people won't be dedicated to driving people, 2) which will make it unreliable to get a ride, 3) which will cause people not to use it or at least not rely on it. Also, with little money, 1) whole segments of the (population (especially in the bay area) won't be incentivized by the money, 2) people will be less likely to go out of their way to pick anyone up, and 3) one or two annoying ride sharers will cause drivers to decide picking people up isn't worth the occasional annoyance.
- genedelisa 10y agoWhat if actual there were a licensed Taxi service that offered the online/app capabilities of Uber? Do you think that would compete?
- coldpie 10y agoMany do. There are several reasons they're not very competitive. They were late to that market, just following Uber's coattails. Their advertising is not as slick and the apps often have poor UI, so it's not as enjoyable and effortless to use. And significantly, they actually follow the law, which results in higher costs to the end-user than law breakers like Uber.
- brianbreslin 10y agoSeveral markets have this (several also have taxis IN uber app). They often fall back to cash payments.
- BenElgar 10y agoIn some UK cities and in New York there is one. It's called Gett (http://gett.com/uk/ http://gett.com/uk/). It's more expensive and the experience is worse.
- asciihacker 10y agoCurb is the app I've seen for Taxi service.
- rayiner 10y agoProbably not. What makes Uber/Lyft so compelling is that they can do two things cab companies are legally not allowed to do: (1) subsidize fares with VC money; and (2) cross-subsidize between surge fares and fares during periods of low demand. From my office in the Watergate, it takes a good 5-7 minutes to call an Uber/Lyft (some GPS/app bug causes people to drive right by and end up on Rock Creek Parkway). If it wasn't $3 to my apartment in Gallery Place, I'd just grab a cab from the cab line.
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