6 ms·

give me 3 good software developers and I can give you an Uber app maybe in 3-6 months? but what I can't give you is uber app being on every iPhone in the count

give me 3 good software developers and I can give you an Uber app maybe in 3-6 months? but what I can't give you is uber app being on every iPhone in the country.

JB_Dev 3y ago
If my ride-sharing app charges riders half the price, I think we’ll get quite a few riders in a short amount of time. Uber won’t be able to compete.
- shagie 3y ago
  Uber is losing money and is frequently accused of undervaluing the deprecation and maintenance of the drivers' vehicles. If Google was to enter a market at a loss in an effort to use its market dominance in Android to drive out a competitor that would potentially be something that would be considered anticompetitive and US regulators would likely be interested in it. I don't believe that Google can compete with Uber losing money as it is nor that Google has an appetite for purchasing the necessary vehicles and maintaining them outside of a few test cities for a technology demo. Having driverless taxis also means that they would need to do a better job with end user support (compare the urgency of "help, I'm locked out of my email" and their current resolution time to "help, I'm locked in a car and can't get out!").
sebzim4500 3y ago
No but if you're Google you can put it on literally every android phone quite quickly.
- newleaf 3y ago
  Not just that, but you can put it in front of every Google Maps user.
  - vasilipupkin 3y ago
    you can, but I am used to using uber app to call an uber.
    - mcny 3y ago
      > you can, but I am used to using uber app to call an uber. yes, waze had 100M+ users and still failed to have a successful launch with waze carpool. part of the problem is Google is too successful. If a business makes USD 10M a year and takes up a month worth of attention every year from the Alphabet CEO, they will probably shut it down before we can say Google Product Graveyard.
      - dweekly 3y ago
        When I worked at Google our team came up with a data product that would have been pure margin and $75m/yr with customers lined up -- and I couldn't find a VP interested in cashing the checks because it wasn't on their annual OKRs. Google is a great company but it has never been truly hungry because it has never faced an existential threat.
        stickyricky 3y ago
        What's the product? Asking for a friend...
        ghaff 3y ago
        It's not just OKRs. That $75m/year consumes attention all up and down and across Google. Lots of things that are slam dunks at a small or medium company are just more trouble than they're worth at most really large firms.
        hackernewds 3y ago
        $75m seems like small fish, because it's a really poor monetization $/user, and opportunity cost. Thousands of ideas could generate that at Google. Counterexample, Google Brain didn't make much money, but they still invested in it and spit out Transformers.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- noah_buddy 3y ago
  Hello, antitrust litigation! Before my time, but what you have just described is what got Microsoft in big trouble in the ‘90s.
  - hackernewds 3y ago
    Google photos? Google drive? Google Fi?
somsak2 3y ago
with those resources, you can give me the Uber app from 2010. consumer expectations are much higher than 13 years ago and that's not going to cut it.
- jfoster 3y ago
  What's an example of something for consumers that Uber 2023 does a lot better than Uber 2010, if the drivers behave entirely cooperatively? (since we're talking autonomous vehicles here)
  - STRiDEX 3y ago
    airport terminal maps and regulations for every major airport in the united states
    - jfoster 3y ago
      That's a good one. I remember lots of shenanigans about putting pins next to airports & then contacting the driver to get picked up at the airport on early Uber. Not sure this particular one would affect Waymo if they were going it alone, since their rollout to each service area would involve designation of pickup & drop off points at airports and collaboration with airports, which they'll have to do either way, but it's definitely a significant difference between Uber 2010 & 2023.
  - somsak2 3y ago
    route planning / fleet management i think is a huge optimization problem. perhaps you can cut it for MVP but it would require having a big multiple of drivers to provide the same service another big deal is gps accuracy in cities, which is a pretty non trivial problem but at this point a consumer expectation https://www.uber.com/blog/rethinking-gps/ https://www.uber.com/blog/rethinking-gps/
    - jfoster 3y ago
      Ahhh yep. I remember Uber 2010 unopinionatedly just setting the pin directly on whatever the reading was from GPS. Stale or inaccurate GPS readings led to so much confused communication between drivers & passengers.
Gunnerhead 3y ago
The good old “I can build that in a weekend”.
squokko 3y ago
>give me 3 good software developers and I can give you an Uber app maybe in 3-6 months LOLOLOL

give me 3 good software developers and I can give you an Uber app maybe in 3-6 months? but what I can't give you is uber app being on every iPhone in the country.

JB_Dev 3y ago

If my ride-sharing app charges riders half the price, I think we’ll get quite a few riders in a short amount of time. Uber won’t be able to compete.

shagie 3y ago
Uber is losing money and is frequently accused of undervaluing the deprecation and maintenance of the drivers' vehicles. If Google was to enter a market at a loss in an effort to use its market dominance in Android to drive out a competitor that would potentially be something that would be considered anticompetitive and US regulators would likely be interested in it. I don't believe that Google can compete with Uber losing money as it is nor that Google has an appetite for purchasing the necessary vehicles and maintaining them outside of a few test cities for a technology demo. Having driverless taxis also means that they would need to do a better job with end user support (compare the urgency of "help, I'm locked out of my email" and their current resolution time to "help, I'm locked in a car and can't get out!").

sebzim4500 3y ago

No but if you're Google you can put it on literally every android phone quite quickly.

newleaf 3y ago
Not just that, but you can put it in front of every Google Maps user.
- vasilipupkin 3y ago
  you can, but I am used to using uber app to call an uber.
  - mcny 3y ago
    > you can, but I am used to using uber app to call an uber. yes, waze had 100M+ users and still failed to have a successful launch with waze carpool. part of the problem is Google is too successful. If a business makes USD 10M a year and takes up a month worth of attention every year from the Alphabet CEO, they will probably shut it down before we can say Google Product Graveyard.
    - dweekly 3y ago
      When I worked at Google our team came up with a data product that would have been pure margin and $75m/yr with customers lined up -- and I couldn't find a VP interested in cashing the checks because it wasn't on their annual OKRs. Google is a great company but it has never been truly hungry because it has never faced an existential threat.
      - stickyricky 3y ago
        What's the product? Asking for a friend...
      - ghaff 3y ago
        It's not just OKRs. That $75m/year consumes attention all up and down and across Google. Lots of things that are slam dunks at a small or medium company are just more trouble than they're worth at most really large firms.
      - hackernewds 3y ago
        $75m seems like small fish, because it's a really poor monetization $/user, and opportunity cost. Thousands of ideas could generate that at Google. Counterexample, Google Brain didn't make much money, but they still invested in it and spit out Transformers.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
noah_buddy 3y ago
Hello, antitrust litigation! Before my time, but what you have just described is what got Microsoft in big trouble in the ‘90s.
- hackernewds 3y ago
  Google photos? Google drive? Google Fi?

somsak2 3y ago

with those resources, you can give me the Uber app from 2010. consumer expectations are much higher than 13 years ago and that's not going to cut it.

jfoster 3y ago
What's an example of something for consumers that Uber 2023 does a lot better than Uber 2010, if the drivers behave entirely cooperatively? (since we're talking autonomous vehicles here)
- STRiDEX 3y ago
  airport terminal maps and regulations for every major airport in the united states
  - jfoster 3y ago
    That's a good one. I remember lots of shenanigans about putting pins next to airports & then contacting the driver to get picked up at the airport on early Uber. Not sure this particular one would affect Waymo if they were going it alone, since their rollout to each service area would involve designation of pickup & drop off points at airports and collaboration with airports, which they'll have to do either way, but it's definitely a significant difference between Uber 2010 & 2023.
- somsak2 3y ago
  route planning / fleet management i think is a huge optimization problem. perhaps you can cut it for MVP but it would require having a big multiple of drivers to provide the same service another big deal is gps accuracy in cities, which is a pretty non trivial problem but at this point a consumer expectation https://www.uber.com/blog/rethinking-gps/ https://www.uber.com/blog/rethinking-gps/
  - jfoster 3y ago
    Ahhh yep. I remember Uber 2010 unopinionatedly just setting the pin directly on whatever the reading was from GPS. Stale or inaccurate GPS readings led to so much confused communication between drivers & passengers.

Gunnerhead 3y ago

The good old “I can build that in a weekend”.

squokko 3y ago

>give me 3 good software developers and I can give you an Uber app maybe in 3-6 months LOLOLOL