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I have kids and don't like Taxis, but I'm not sure I entirely agree with your take. The idea of a humanless Taxi showing up to my house sounds way more appeali

I have kids and don't like Taxis, but I'm not sure I entirely agree with your take. The idea of a humanless Taxi showing up to my house sounds way more appealing to me. I can take my time to get car seats in and kids buckled, without feeling the pressure to hurry from the human driver. I don't have to feel like my kids misbehaving are going to annoy a human driver, or get me a bad review in Uber/Lyft. I don't have to worry about tipping, or the driver taking a longer route to charge me more. I don't have to worry about small-talk, or awkwardly sitting in silence when I normally would be talking with those I'm driving with. Obviously this doesn't cover all use cases for a car (pretty sure you can't load a kayak onto a Waymo because you'd block sensors), but it seems WAY better to me as someone who doesn't like to deal with the people aspect of Taxis.

codetrotter 2y ago
> I don't have to worry about tipping I can almost guarantee that if they don’t already, the robo-taxis will eventually start asking for tips. This is already the case at self-checkout in some stores for example. As long as the companies can get away with it, they will tack on any number of extra fees and charges even if those fees and charges really don’t make any sense. Hell, even tipping people does not really make sense the way it works in some places. A person working for a company should receive enough pay from the company itself that they don’t have to actually rely on tips in order to make enough money to survive. Tips should be a nice extra that customers willingly add because of good service. Not a forced extra percentage that they have to pay on every transaction just so that the company can pay less to their employees.
- dventimi 2y ago
  I do not accept your guarantee.
  - bigfudge 2y ago
    There will be bullshit booking charges etc though. The thrust of their point is largely correct. I really wish people were more sensitive to being stiffed like we are by these sorts of stupid charges … that they arent means there is often no alternative.
    - Denvercoder9 2y ago
      I'll take bullshit charges that I can know about upfront over being nagged for tips every day.
      - bigfudge 2y ago
        The point of bullshit charges is often to obscure total cost upfront. We are absolutely rotten with them in the UK. Not sure the US is better but I think they are really anticompetitive because they create a cost to discovering the true cost of goods. I have a personal policy of not buying if I discover stupid charges at the end of a sales pipeline but it’s sometimes incredibly inconvenient.
  - inlined 2y ago
    I actually wonder if “tip the development team” makes sense (assuming tipping is gratuity and not because an employer pays below-living wages). Weirdly it might even lead to quality improvement because low tip areas could be detected and debugged.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    They won't be tips as such, but the average amount of the tip will be baked into the price. If people are willing to pay base charge + tip for an Uber, then that is what robo-taxies will charge too. Especially if one company is allowed to keep a monopoly on the technology.
- asda_ 2y ago
  Autonomous systems can ask for tips but humans would feel much more comfortable not tipping.
thih9 2y ago
> I don't have to worry about tipping, or the driver taking a longer route to charge me more. I don't have to worry about small-talk, or awkwardly sitting in silence when I normally would be talking with those I'm driving with. This or an equivalent will arrive to a robo taxi near you when the service inevitably gets enshittified to hell and back. Ads, trips shared with other humans, pay extra for heated seats, etc.
jajko 2y ago
If you have smaller kids, most taxi rides are completely illegal in any western country and very dangerous for kids. Ever saw a taxi with 2 spare child seats or at least boosters? They are required by law for very good reasons, and those reasons are kids dying or ending up crippled even in relatively mild crashes. That's just one tiny example out of sea of examples.
- resolutebat 2y ago
  In many countries, taxis are often specifically exempted from child seat mandates. Doesn't make them any safer, but it's not necessarily illegal.
- xandrius 2y ago
  A quick search online shows that your statement is misinformation, taxis can be exempted in many "western" countries. Before making such bold claims, you've got to know a little tiny bit of the topic or at least look it up to make sure.
- asoneth 2y ago
  I've taken taxis with infants and small children several dozen times. It doesn't take me more than about twenty seconds to pop the car seat out of the stroller and latch it into the back seat of a taxi, for slightly older kids we have a few lightweight folding booster seats, and personally I've found that a car seat vest is particularly handy and lightweight.
paganel 2y ago
How do you make sure there isn’t human semen or worse on the seats on which you and your children will sit? At least with taxis driven by humans you knew that there was someone making sure that won’t happen that often, but with driverless taxis all bets are off.
- mavhc 2y ago
  Do you think that Waymo doesn't have cameras inside the car?
- saagarjha 2y ago
  Waymos have been far cleaner than the Ubers I've ridden in. I think they are cleaned daily?
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    I wonder how this affects the price. Is the price you're paying now the real price, or a subsidised price?
- pyrale 2y ago
  Well, how will taxi-sex enjoyers make sure that no toddler vomited on the seat they intend to frolic on?
- leoedin 2y ago
  Is that not just a general issue in public? Park bench? Back of the bus? There could be human semen everywhere! It's why I always insist on wrapping my kids in plastic before letting them leave the house.
- nl 2y ago
  Surely they have cameras? I’d trust that a lot more than a taxi driver keeping their cab clean.
  - paganel 2y ago
    When has that stopped anyone?
JeremyNT 2y ago
> Obviously this doesn't cover all use cases for a car (pretty sure you can't load a kayak onto a Waymo because you'd block sensors), but it seems WAY better to me as someone who doesn't like to deal with the people aspect of Taxis. In a world where waymo works as a taxi, it also works to deliver a human-drivable rental car right to your door (and send it on to the next customer when you're done with it). So now the short term car rental user experience should be dramatically better, even if the robotaxi isn't appropriate for all the tasks.

codetrotter 2y ago

> I don't have to worry about tipping I can almost guarantee that if they don’t already, the robo-taxis will eventually start asking for tips. This is already the case at self-checkout in some stores for example. As long as the companies can get away with it, they will tack on any number of extra fees and charges even if those fees and charges really don’t make any sense. Hell, even tipping people does not really make sense the way it works in some places. A person working for a company should receive enough pay from the company itself that they don’t have to actually rely on tips in order to make enough money to survive. Tips should be a nice extra that customers willingly add because of good service. Not a forced extra percentage that they have to pay on every transaction just so that the company can pay less to their employees.

dventimi 2y ago
I do not accept your guarantee.
- bigfudge 2y ago
  There will be bullshit booking charges etc though. The thrust of their point is largely correct. I really wish people were more sensitive to being stiffed like we are by these sorts of stupid charges … that they arent means there is often no alternative.
  - Denvercoder9 2y ago
    I'll take bullshit charges that I can know about upfront over being nagged for tips every day.
    - bigfudge 2y ago
      The point of bullshit charges is often to obscure total cost upfront. We are absolutely rotten with them in the UK. Not sure the US is better but I think they are really anticompetitive because they create a cost to discovering the true cost of goods. I have a personal policy of not buying if I discover stupid charges at the end of a sales pipeline but it’s sometimes incredibly inconvenient.
- inlined 2y ago
  I actually wonder if “tip the development team” makes sense (assuming tipping is gratuity and not because an employer pays below-living wages). Weirdly it might even lead to quality improvement because low tip areas could be detected and debugged.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  They won't be tips as such, but the average amount of the tip will be baked into the price. If people are willing to pay base charge + tip for an Uber, then that is what robo-taxies will charge too. Especially if one company is allowed to keep a monopoly on the technology.
asda_ 2y ago
Autonomous systems can ask for tips but humans would feel much more comfortable not tipping.

thih9 2y ago

> I don't have to worry about tipping, or the driver taking a longer route to charge me more. I don't have to worry about small-talk, or awkwardly sitting in silence when I normally would be talking with those I'm driving with. This or an equivalent will arrive to a robo taxi near you when the service inevitably gets enshittified to hell and back. Ads, trips shared with other humans, pay extra for heated seats, etc.

jajko 2y ago

If you have smaller kids, most taxi rides are completely illegal in any western country and very dangerous for kids. Ever saw a taxi with 2 spare child seats or at least boosters? They are required by law for very good reasons, and those reasons are kids dying or ending up crippled even in relatively mild crashes. That's just one tiny example out of sea of examples.

resolutebat 2y ago
In many countries, taxis are often specifically exempted from child seat mandates. Doesn't make them any safer, but it's not necessarily illegal.
xandrius 2y ago
A quick search online shows that your statement is misinformation, taxis can be exempted in many "western" countries. Before making such bold claims, you've got to know a little tiny bit of the topic or at least look it up to make sure.
asoneth 2y ago
I've taken taxis with infants and small children several dozen times. It doesn't take me more than about twenty seconds to pop the car seat out of the stroller and latch it into the back seat of a taxi, for slightly older kids we have a few lightweight folding booster seats, and personally I've found that a car seat vest is particularly handy and lightweight.

paganel 2y ago

How do you make sure there isn’t human semen or worse on the seats on which you and your children will sit? At least with taxis driven by humans you knew that there was someone making sure that won’t happen that often, but with driverless taxis all bets are off.

mavhc 2y ago
Do you think that Waymo doesn't have cameras inside the car?
saagarjha 2y ago
Waymos have been far cleaner than the Ubers I've ridden in. I think they are cleaned daily?
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  I wonder how this affects the price. Is the price you're paying now the real price, or a subsidised price?
pyrale 2y ago
Well, how will taxi-sex enjoyers make sure that no toddler vomited on the seat they intend to frolic on?
leoedin 2y ago
Is that not just a general issue in public? Park bench? Back of the bus? There could be human semen everywhere! It's why I always insist on wrapping my kids in plastic before letting them leave the house.
nl 2y ago
Surely they have cameras? I’d trust that a lot more than a taxi driver keeping their cab clean.
- paganel 2y ago
  When has that stopped anyone?

JeremyNT 2y ago

> Obviously this doesn't cover all use cases for a car (pretty sure you can't load a kayak onto a Waymo because you'd block sensors), but it seems WAY better to me as someone who doesn't like to deal with the people aspect of Taxis. In a world where waymo works as a taxi, it also works to deliver a human-drivable rental car right to your door (and send it on to the next customer when you're done with it). So now the short term car rental user experience should be dramatically better, even if the robotaxi isn't appropriate for all the tasks.