4 ms·

I always felt SDC is the death of Uber. If you had 5 billion to invest in SDCs for a taxi service, why would you become a small investor in Uber, when you could

by jboy55 8y ago

I always felt SDC is the death of Uber. If you had 5 billion to invest in SDCs for a taxi service, why would you become a small investor in Uber, when you could probably build the app for $10 million and just roll your own? Also uber could become profitable if they charged more. I've actually started taking taxi's again, since they are marginally more expensive than Ubers/Lyfts. However, if you pick them up from an airport, you don't have to wait staring at your phone for 5 minutes watching your driver just sit around in their car until they start moving.

fossuser 8y ago
I take Taxis from airports and from hotels for that reason (often faster than waiting for the uber to get through traffic). The exception is SFO where Taxis cost 2x what an UberX costs. The Taxi experience is still bad though - just yesterday in DC I had to listen to my driver 'joke' about why the Taliban should be able to fight for their country while also repeatedly pointing out and talking about women on the street.
- lapinot 8y ago
  So you prefer being serviced by a machine that records everything you say, do, think, than bearing an interaction with a living human being which may or may not be quite different and interest, question, amuse or revolt you? I must say i don't agree with that, anytime i would prefer a place where people authentically and actually speak their mind and act spontaneously (not considering whether or not i actually think their behavior is stupid, alienated or impolite), instead of being corporate zombies, their soul already exhausted by the system, silent and jaded, having lost faith in any kind of joy in the productive part of life we call "work". > Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them. Epictetus
  - a_t48 8y ago
    Don't worry, many of the taxi\uber drivers record inside their car, too.
  - p1esk 8y ago
    So you prefer being serviced by a machine Yes
  - mcbits 8y ago
    Uber drivers are also recording everything I say and do (not think, but that was hyperbole), so the question is whether I want to ride in such a machine with or without some human trying to interact with me. It depends on whether the human is cool or not. In general, no.
- jboy55 8y ago
  I've had plenty of poor but not shocking Uber/Lyft rides. Its nice you can rate them and get them out of the ecosystem. However, as time goes on, the bar on Uber/Lyft's drivers will lower, the cars will get dirtier and less maintained and the costs will get higher. The stabilization point is probably close to taxi service. I think that Uber/Lyft really solve for SF's taxi problem mostly.
  - fossuser 8y ago
    I think the rating system is key and means the lower bound on drivers will be higher than taxis.
zepearl 8y ago
> I always felt SDC is the death of Uber. But aren't SDCs currently something veeery remote (e.g. even Tesla cannot currently drive autonomously even on technically "simple streets" like highways) and especially only as long as no active offensive social behaviours start to emerge (e.g. gang menbers standing in the middle of the street to stop a SDC to rob/kidnap the occupant and/or destroy the car etc...)?
- jboy55 8y ago
  I agree its very far away, except for interstate driving. I can see an SDC-only lane, with a faster top speed. Residential, taxi-cab driving is so far away. Hey, if I step in front of this car, I don't get to sue a fairly poor driver, I get to sue a mega-corp for a tonne of money cause the algorithm should have stopped.
  - zepearl 8y ago
    > Hey, if I step in front of this car, I don't get to sue a fairly poor driver, I get to sue a mega-corp for a tonne of money cause the algorithm should have stopped Haha, that's an interesting grey zone I didn't think about (I'm swiss and usually non-direct/non-physical damages cannot be claimed here if they cannot be demonstrated/proven/tested). Hat off :)
- kickopotomus 8y ago
  Tesla is years behind Waymo. The predominant issue facing SDCs currently is inclement weather. Lidar (which Tesla does not use) and cameras have a hard time with heavy rain and snow.

by jboy55 8y ago

fossuser 8y ago

I take Taxis from airports and from hotels for that reason (often faster than waiting for the uber to get through traffic). The exception is SFO where Taxis cost 2x what an UberX costs. The Taxi experience is still bad though - just yesterday in DC I had to listen to my driver 'joke' about why the Taliban should be able to fight for their country while also repeatedly pointing out and talking about women on the street.

lapinot 8y ago
So you prefer being serviced by a machine that records everything you say, do, think, than bearing an interaction with a living human being which may or may not be quite different and interest, question, amuse or revolt you? I must say i don't agree with that, anytime i would prefer a place where people authentically and actually speak their mind and act spontaneously (not considering whether or not i actually think their behavior is stupid, alienated or impolite), instead of being corporate zombies, their soul already exhausted by the system, silent and jaded, having lost faith in any kind of joy in the productive part of life we call "work". > Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them. Epictetus
- a_t48 8y ago
  Don't worry, many of the taxi\uber drivers record inside their car, too.
- p1esk 8y ago
  So you prefer being serviced by a machine Yes
- mcbits 8y ago
  Uber drivers are also recording everything I say and do (not think, but that was hyperbole), so the question is whether I want to ride in such a machine with or without some human trying to interact with me. It depends on whether the human is cool or not. In general, no.
jboy55 8y ago
I've had plenty of poor but not shocking Uber/Lyft rides. Its nice you can rate them and get them out of the ecosystem. However, as time goes on, the bar on Uber/Lyft's drivers will lower, the cars will get dirtier and less maintained and the costs will get higher. The stabilization point is probably close to taxi service. I think that Uber/Lyft really solve for SF's taxi problem mostly.
- fossuser 8y ago
  I think the rating system is key and means the lower bound on drivers will be higher than taxis.

zepearl 8y ago

> I always felt SDC is the death of Uber. But aren't SDCs currently something veeery remote (e.g. even Tesla cannot currently drive autonomously even on technically "simple streets" like highways) and especially only as long as no active offensive social behaviours start to emerge (e.g. gang menbers standing in the middle of the street to stop a SDC to rob/kidnap the occupant and/or destroy the car etc...)?

jboy55 8y ago
I agree its very far away, except for interstate driving. I can see an SDC-only lane, with a faster top speed. Residential, taxi-cab driving is so far away. Hey, if I step in front of this car, I don't get to sue a fairly poor driver, I get to sue a mega-corp for a tonne of money cause the algorithm should have stopped.
- zepearl 8y ago
  > Hey, if I step in front of this car, I don't get to sue a fairly poor driver, I get to sue a mega-corp for a tonne of money cause the algorithm should have stopped Haha, that's an interesting grey zone I didn't think about (I'm swiss and usually non-direct/non-physical damages cannot be claimed here if they cannot be demonstrated/proven/tested). Hat off :)
kickopotomus 8y ago
Tesla is years behind Waymo. The predominant issue facing SDCs currently is inclement weather. Lidar (which Tesla does not use) and cameras have a hard time with heavy rain and snow.