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Wouldn't the Ubers potentially be cleaner? Who's cleaning the Waymo between rides?
by tapoxi 2y ago
Wouldn't the Ubers potentially be cleaner? Who's cleaning the Waymo between rides?
- sbuttgereit 2y agoPotentially. But, with each driver exercising quality control over their own vehicles, the actual result will likely vary from hitting as good or better a standard to being worse. The Waymo standards, thus far, are pretty high, so I would expect on average Uber/Lyft/Etc. would fair worse on average.
- kungito 2y agoI have no doubt that Google is waiting for more adoption before starting to cut costs everywhere and before you know it your puked out ride will direct you to www.waymo.hr/help to find an article which resolves your issue
- dventimi 2y agoWhy would that be any different from Uber? Doesn't Uber also want to cut costs?
- kungito 2y agoUber has partner drivers which have their own companies, their own rating, and can be punished for their behaviour. Once a company completely vertically integrates (like Google would like), meaning they have their own cars, they no longer want to punish themselves for bad behaviour/cars. Since they have to choose between short term cost of higher maintenance fee or long term cost of loss of quality of service their managers will start to optimize for quarterly results: cutting short term costs. What they want is to first entrench the market, push out competitors, introduce complex regulation and fees which prevents new competitors into the market and then start cutting costs everywhere they can and increase prices. Since you mention Uber, I can definitely see in my city how the quality of cars decreased and they started using almost inclusively cheap immigrants who realistically couldn't pass a drivers exam in my country and have on multiple occasions driven into wrong directions/ran red lights etc.
- dventimi 2y agoI didn't understand any of that.
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoWaymo is posiionting itself as a premium product. Defending that brand precludes letting the cars go to shit.
- dventimi 2y agoYup. Plus, if Waymo can clean its cars with greater efficiency at lower cost than Uber can, then all other things being equal, Waymo will have cleaner cars.
- lmm 2y agoThey may be trying to, but when has Google ever successfully positioned something as a premium product and defended that?
- dventimi 2y agoThere's always a first time.
- sulam 2y agoPixel phones? Nest? The Bayview hotel rooms are pretty nice. Hell even Gmail feels pretty premium to me, but I guess this word might be considered subjective. Also, Waymo isn't even Google. You might accuse me of overstating this, but truthfully they operate as a different company.
- lmm 2y agoPixel phones have less of a brand than Samsung, much less Apple (not talking about actual product quality, just brand positioning). Nest doesn't stand out, although I don't think any of the smart home things are really established enough to know which are good or bad. I've never heard of the Bayview hotel rooms. Gmail is good but it's not a "premium" feel.
- rurp 2y agoUber doesn't really have a way to increase profit through messier cars. But they can do things like increase prices after taking over a market, which they have not been at all shy about doing.
- dventimi 2y ago> Uber doesn't really have a way to increase profit through messier cars Don't they? Allowing messier, older, and less pleasant cars would increase the supply of drivers, allowing Uber to place lower bids on those drivers, lower their prices, increase volume and revenue, and increase profit.
- kungito 2y agoThey can definitely have more beat up cars which over time I can observe in my city. As for prices, luckily they have a lot stronger competition with bolt and local taxi apps as creating a local taxi app is really not that hard
- jfoster 2y agoThe standards might one day be a problem. As in, maybe, and one day. Not definitely, and not currently. Sometimes it's worth not worrying about problems too far in advance.
- rurp 2y agoI would be surprised if the Waymp cars weren't exceptionally nice in this phase, while they're trying hard to gain market share and trust. Google Search was a clean and delightful experience once upon a time. The aspect I'm more interested in is what the experience will be like if they ever become a dominant transport option.
- dventimi 2y agoI've taken 38 Waymo rides so far. Every one of them has been very clean, cleaner than the average Uber ride.
- cwillu 2y agoIs that a function of the limited population in the beta though?
- scarby2 2y agoi wonder if it's a function of a consistent cleaning schedule. Many uber drivers seem to wait far to long between interior cleans.
- dventimi 2y agoNo idea. I'm just reporting on what's already actually happened in the past (my ride experiences) instead of speculating on what might happen in the future.
- pb7 2y agoIt's a function of the filtered population. The cars are at full capacity day and night so the increased number of users won't affect a single car's cleanliness nearly as much as the type of people that will be riding in them.
- dventimi 2y agoWhat do you mean by the type of people who will be riding in them?
- fragmede 2y agoThat's a loaded question, but sure, let's go there. The problem with public transportation is that the public is allowed to use them, and the rules, legal and social, are not well defined or enforced. Assaulting other passengers is generally tolerated by the system, depending on the type of assault. Physical assault is considered too far and doesn't go unnoticed, but chemical and audio assault on fellow passengers usually goes unreported. The types of people are those who would assault others on some fashion. Whether this translates to Waymos smelling like meth or fentanyl when you get in them thanks to the previous rider remains to be seen. Or just needles, foil, or used condoms left behind. They record video, so Google could close the person's account so they won't be able to book Waymos with that account again, so we'll end up having to see how hard it is to create new accounts to use Waymo on to ban nuisance riders.
- xnx 2y agoWaymo's have cameras inside the car to make sure the vehicles are clean: https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819 https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- fragmede 2y agoYeah they probably pipe that video to an algorithm that does background subtraction so they're able to assert that the vehicle is clear of foreign objects, but those cameras don't detect smell. If someone defecates and wipes it somewhere the camera doesn't see, then what?
- xnx 2y agoThe rider reports an issue and Waymo sends a new car while they send the dirty one back to the depot back to be cleaned? Offending previous rider is charged a fee and then banned for life. Hard for me to imagine this being a widespread problem. Probably about as much problem as there is with something similar happening in the elevator of a private building.
- ganeshkrishnan 2y ago"the algorithm has decided that the subject has likely defecated with 63% probability and will be ejected in t-5 minutes. Subject has no recourse to appeal and is banned from life including his ancestors and spawns"
- bloodyplonker22 2y agoOne of the worst parts of the Uber experience is the smell of the driver. Especially those that put on heavy cologne or perfumes.
- loopdoend 2y agoThose who choose to drive around with air recirculation on all day...
- dotBen 2y agoNo one but they have to return to base to recharge pretty quickly, whereupon someone can clean and tidy them.