7 ms·

Uber seems to offer quite generous bonuses to drivers who complete milestones (e.g. $600 bonus for 100 trips in a week, for instance). Every time I've chatted

by hardtke 10y ago

Uber seems to offer quite generous bonuses to drivers who complete milestones (e.g. $600 bonus for 100 trips in a week, for instance). Every time I've chatted with a driver in Oakland, it seems that the bonuses are generally in the $5-7 per trip range. I've also been alone for many Uber Pool rides where I am nowhere close to being an economically viable passenger for the driver ($6 for a ride that costs the driver at least half an hour of time and requires more than 10 miles of driving).

xapata 10y ago
Pool is profitable on average, but low margin, so any particular ride is likely to be an expense. Much like how a casino loses money on 49% of slots sessions.
- svachalek 10y ago
  Sliding off topic but I think that's more like 49% of pulls. The amount of time that it takes a slot machine to drive your odds of walking away richer down to hopeless levels is pretty short.
  - Retric 10y ago
    I have only played slots for a few hours, but my lifetime average is up ~3x and a few hundred dollars vs. what I put into the machines. So, I think they are set fairly close to break even as that's from a few dozen minor wins vs a single jackpot. Honestly, if every single time someone played for 3+ hours they where always down then fewer people would come back. That said, they probably set machines in very high traffic areas to terrible odds to catch as many suckers as possible.
    - throwawaysbdi 10y ago
      It's likely that the RNG's in slots don't produce uniformly distributed wins and losses except over long timeframes. A machine that's truly random will result in everyone losing money slowly and reliably after a large number of pulls. So not fun. A machine built to have the odds wander around over a period of time will be more unpredictable with a greater earnings spread
      - gpawl 10y ago
        That's not how random works. If odd wandered like that, there would be long time frames where the slots were 'not fun' and would drive people away.
      - gpawl 10y ago
        That's not how random works. If odd wandered like that, there would be long time frames where the slots were 'not fun' and would drive people away.
      - jimmywanger 10y ago
        I don't think that slots can be stateful between plays - there are extremely stringent regulations for slot machines and odds. For instance, if you advertise a 99.95% slot giveback, they will test that. Also, for video poker and card games, the wins and losses are distributed as if it were a real deck of cards shuffled between hands. There are strict regulations there too, and payout percentages based on the rules of the game and the payout values for each type of poker hand.
        im3w1l 10y ago
        Well I know that at least progressive jackpots are allowed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_jackpot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_jackpot There of course, the state is not hidden.
        jimmywanger 10y ago
        Yes. I should have amended the statement in that slot machines, the odds of each outcome are stateless, and the payouts for each outcome must be clearly stated. For progressive Jackpots, the chances of you hitting the Jackpot on two successive pulls are the same as you hitting the jackpot on two pulls far apart. The payouts are different, but as you said, that is not hidden information. Slot machines are able to use psychological tricks, I believe, such as showing "almost hits" with a higher probability than them actually occurring. "Oh, if that one symbol had just changed, I'd be a millionaire right now!"
      - 10y ago
    - bigiain 10y ago
      You seem to misunderstand human nature. (How many people do you suppose play lotteries week in week out never winning back a fraction of what they out in, but dreaming about and planning what they're gonna spend the $10,000,000 jackpot on?)
      - Retric 10y ago
        These machines have a fairly low max payout. Winning 500$ is nice, but hardly a life changing event. Further, the cost is higher, where a lotto might cost 2$ for some hope these machines can burn 20$ fairly quickly. As to odds. If you have a 1% chance to win 99$ and play 90 times you are likely to be up 9$ and have a lower odds of being down 90$ And even lower odds of being up 108$. Over long enough time frames you still lose money, but it feels very different from losing 0.01 cents per pull.
    - vonklaus 10y ago
      They probably set those the highest so passerbys see people win most and sit down. That is what I seem to have heard but a case could be made either way

by hardtke 10y ago

xapata 10y ago

Pool is profitable on average, but low margin, so any particular ride is likely to be an expense. Much like how a casino loses money on 49% of slots sessions.

svachalek 10y ago
Sliding off topic but I think that's more like 49% of pulls. The amount of time that it takes a slot machine to drive your odds of walking away richer down to hopeless levels is pretty short.
- Retric 10y ago
  I have only played slots for a few hours, but my lifetime average is up ~3x and a few hundred dollars vs. what I put into the machines. So, I think they are set fairly close to break even as that's from a few dozen minor wins vs a single jackpot. Honestly, if every single time someone played for 3+ hours they where always down then fewer people would come back. That said, they probably set machines in very high traffic areas to terrible odds to catch as many suckers as possible.
  - throwawaysbdi 10y ago
    It's likely that the RNG's in slots don't produce uniformly distributed wins and losses except over long timeframes. A machine that's truly random will result in everyone losing money slowly and reliably after a large number of pulls. So not fun. A machine built to have the odds wander around over a period of time will be more unpredictable with a greater earnings spread
    - gpawl 10y ago
      That's not how random works. If odd wandered like that, there would be long time frames where the slots were 'not fun' and would drive people away.
    - gpawl 10y ago
      That's not how random works. If odd wandered like that, there would be long time frames where the slots were 'not fun' and would drive people away.
    - jimmywanger 10y ago
      I don't think that slots can be stateful between plays - there are extremely stringent regulations for slot machines and odds. For instance, if you advertise a 99.95% slot giveback, they will test that. Also, for video poker and card games, the wins and losses are distributed as if it were a real deck of cards shuffled between hands. There are strict regulations there too, and payout percentages based on the rules of the game and the payout values for each type of poker hand.
      - im3w1l 10y ago
        Well I know that at least progressive jackpots are allowed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_jackpot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_jackpot There of course, the state is not hidden.
        jimmywanger 10y ago
        Yes. I should have amended the statement in that slot machines, the odds of each outcome are stateless, and the payouts for each outcome must be clearly stated. For progressive Jackpots, the chances of you hitting the Jackpot on two successive pulls are the same as you hitting the jackpot on two pulls far apart. The payouts are different, but as you said, that is not hidden information. Slot machines are able to use psychological tricks, I believe, such as showing "almost hits" with a higher probability than them actually occurring. "Oh, if that one symbol had just changed, I'd be a millionaire right now!"
    - 10y ago
  - bigiain 10y ago
    You seem to misunderstand human nature. (How many people do you suppose play lotteries week in week out never winning back a fraction of what they out in, but dreaming about and planning what they're gonna spend the $10,000,000 jackpot on?)
    - Retric 10y ago
      These machines have a fairly low max payout. Winning 500$ is nice, but hardly a life changing event. Further, the cost is higher, where a lotto might cost 2$ for some hope these machines can burn 20$ fairly quickly. As to odds. If you have a 1% chance to win 99$ and play 90 times you are likely to be up 9$ and have a lower odds of being down 90$ And even lower odds of being up 108$. Over long enough time frames you still lose money, but it feels very different from losing 0.01 cents per pull.
  - vonklaus 10y ago
    They probably set those the highest so passerbys see people win most and sit down. That is what I seem to have heard but a case could be made either way