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Waymo's market share in San Francisco exceeds Lyft's
- gonzalohm 1y agoThe other day I decided to compare Uber and Waymo. I ordered a Waymo and it was slightly annoyed because it took 5 minutes to do a left turn and almost went into the wrong way. On the way back I ordered an Uber, one driver cancelled the drive, the other started driving in the other direction, possibly using multiple car sharing apps and finishing another ride. I ended up cancelling and requesting a Waymo. It may not be perfect but at least it comes when requested
- iwontberude 1y agoSeveral times I have ordered Uber Black early in the morning and watched as the driver clearly was leaving their house and walking out to their vehicle taking a nice 5+ minutes -- somewhat frustrating. You can't even spend your way out of the problem on Uber.
- jjice 1y agoI'm in the North East, so I've never used a Waymo, but I swear the last two or so years of ride share of sucked. I mostly take it to and from the airport, but I have about a 50% likelihood of my Uber drive getting either racist, preachy about religion, or taking a wrong turn that ends up tacking on another ten minutes. Usually those come in sets. I used to really like some pleasant small talk or a silent ride (whatever the driver leaned towards), but it's awful in my city now. Just a month ago my Lyft driver said that God was telling him that the girl he was seeing was a whore because she said he should seek alcohol counseling. Like six months ago my Uber driver (out of nowhere) said that the driver next to us on the highway (an Audi driving completely normally) must sell drugs to be able to afford a car that nice. The Audi driver was a black man. When I'm out of town, that rate feels like it decreases though. That all said, I'd take a Waymo in a heartbeat.
- baxtr 1y ago> I’d take a Waymo in a heartbeat. On a personal level I fully understand that. On a societal level I’d say, maybe it’s helpful not to be completely segregated from a certain social class that seems to exist in your town and to be exposed to them, albeit briefly during a cab ride.
- rangestransform 1y agoOn a societal level, I think more “normal people” would take public transit if they could guarantee the removal of homeless people and people behaving antisocially
- autobodie 1y agoThat would require everyone having a stable job. Something to think about.
- lostlogin 1y agoAnd function social welfare with healthcare, mental health care, housing and education provision.
- hexis 1y agoNo, it would require removing homeless or antisocial people from public transportation.
- autobodie 1y agoHow do you suggest authorities test people for homelessness on public transportation? Are you proposing any specific laws to manage antisocial behavior? In the end, I'm certain that the better idea is to simply give people jobs.
- jerlam 1y agoAntisocial probably isn't the right word. It implies minor actions like talking loudly are the problem. Actions like smoking/vaping, busking, drug use, littering, and peddling are usually already illegal in public transit, but widespread and difficult to enforce.
- sieabahlpark 1y ago[dead]
- standardUser 1y ago> But on an economic level, a subset of blue-collar workers (which numbers in the tens of thousands in San Francisco) would find themselves either regionally displaced or outright vocationally exterminated by a branch of artificial intelligence. A lot to unpack there, but it does act as a reminder that most people have been highly critical of the rideshare business model, considering these jobs to be profoundly unfair an unsustainable for drivers. So it comes off as disingenuous to hear claims that we're going to lose an important working class profession. No, we're going to lose a profession that, outside of the densest cities, never made economic sense in the 21st century. It's a profession we want to see disappear. Not that it entirely matters considering that consumers are inevitably going to choose the cheaper, safer option regardless of which jobs may be at stake.
- readthenotes1 1y agoIt is also a profession that doesn't make sense in the densest of cities. There's too much car traffic, and too many square meters allocated to undersupply it.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> a profession that doesn't make sense in the densest of cities. There's too much car traffic, and too many square meters allocated to undersupply it Street-side parking in downtown areas is far more wasteful than ridesharing cars.
- robocat 1y ago> Street-side parking in downtown areas is far more wasteful Be careful: removing parking and making your city centre bicycle and pedestrian friendly does remove cars. But it also removes the people going into town in those cars. I'm in Christchurch (NZ) and the city centre feels car-phobic and so the city centre seems to be dying. Not sure what is cause and effect - it might have been dying first.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
- emilsedgh 1y agoWhy is Uber's price not affected by Waymo is a puzzle to me. I use Waymo's all the time. There are still some quirks they need to figure out and polish the experience, but it really is happening and it appears that Uber's head is in the sands or I'm missing something here.
- standardUser 1y agoWaymo and Uber have partnerships in some cities, like Phoenix, where you can only order a Waymo through the Uber app. So they don't view each other only as competitors, though I have no clue what Uber's thinking long-term.
- emilsedgh 1y agoI've heard this argument again but just because you can hail a Waymo through Uber doesn't mean Uber can continue as-is. In a world where Uber is just the app, Uber's margins would be extremely thin and it wouldn't justify the market price it has now. Also, why would Waymo, in the long term, use Uber for this? They have the car, the driver, the app/software. They are not gonna share a big chunk of the profit with Uber in long term. The current partnership is probably just a tactical thing for both, not a strategic one.
- iwontberude 1y agoMaybe winning a finders fee is more profitable, Uber isn't high margin to begin with.
- brookst 1y agoPerhaps. Or it may be that Uber sees its long term future as lead gen and management for people/goods transportation, and Waymo sees itself as fulfillment of those. Uber has tremendous brand recognition and marketing in ways that Google has never been good at. I don’t think it’s the most likely outcome, but I would not be shocked to see Uber take an minority ownership stake in Waymo, use it as the preferred self-driving option, and phase out human drivers in many areas over the next 10 years.
- jaredhallen 1y agoI was in SF yesterday and wanted to try out a Waymo, but apparently they're not operating right now.
- azinman2 1y agoWow, must be because of the protests. It’s so bad that people take out their aggression for the president on Waymo of all things.
- decremental 1y ago[dead]
- roncesvalles 1y agoI don't think the people setting cars on fire have any opinion whatsover about the president.
- Zigurd 1y agoIf you search for burning police cars, you will find that it's a whole photography sub genre. Placed diagonally across the center of an intersection, an old police car is on fire, typically an old crown Vic. Respect the art form, even as it adapts to new technology.
- ryandrake 1y agoI wanted to try out Waymo, but their app won't run on my phone which is limited to iOS 15.
- muglug 1y agoLyft seems to have suffered more (proportionately) from Waymo than Uber in SF. I bet that’s a reflection of a large “anyone-but-Uber” contingent stemming from the Travis Kalanick days.
- culopatin 1y agoBecause Lyft is an afterthought. Uber is a verb
- iwontberude 1y agoUber is a prefixal adjective or adverb
- vntok 1y agoLanguages evolve. People have been using it as a verb a lot, so it's become a verb.
- iwontberude 1y agoSo why don't you catch up with the evolution for a moment? Just like language evolved in Silicon Valley to use uber as a verb during the mid 2010s, it has quickly devolved out of it especially as uber the company has become irrelevant. I dont know anyone using it as a verb. I hear "im calling/ordering/taking an waymo/uber/lyft/taxi" in 2025.
- vntok 1y agoNonsense. Here, you should be able to convince yourself pretty easily browsing Google Trends. Even simpler: just Google "uber home" -uberhome and you'll pretty recent examples of people writing about ubering home.
- Uehreka 1y agoI don’t know about that. Me and everyone I know use Uber as a verb but then always order from Lyft. I used to do it for the political reasons, but at this point it’s mostly just muscle memory. When I do open the Uber app the prices are usually equivalent.
- moomoo11 1y agoWaymo is the first tech product/service I’ve used in the last decade that actually blew my mind. The last time was when I could take photos on my phone that were as good enough as lugging around a Dslr. There have been good products and services in between don’t get me wrong. But none of them instantly blew me away like those.
- roncesvalles 1y agoThere is still no phone on which photos are as good as on a DSLR. I think people have just forgotten how good DSLR photos can be.
- moomoo11 1y ago* as good enough is what I said.
- steelframe 1y agoThe last time I was in SF I used Waymo to get around town and Uber to get to the airport. The Waymo rides were near-perfect. At one point when a delivery truck was blocking 3 lanes, the vehicle assertively merged over into the free lane to get around. A couple of people on e-bikes were all over the place, but at no point did I feel that the vehicle put them in any kind of danger. Starts, stops, and turns were all smooth. End-to-end time was good, the ride itself was comfortable, and the price was reasonable. On the other hand the Uber driver picked me up in a Tesla that had regen cranked up. They continually accelerated and decelerated the entire way to the airport, rocking the car back and forth the whole time, as if it were a nervous habit to continually press and release the accelerator or something. I felt sick by the time we got to my terminal. For me at this point, technology like Waymo can't carpet every metropolitan area quickly enough. One caveat: I should be able to use it (and, hence, pay for it) anonymously.
- majormajor 1y agoWhen Uber came out you often got nicer cars in nicer condition than cabs for less money. Funny that the condition thing has turned on them. I don't have a strong opinion yet on the long-term viability of Waymo (or any other competitor) because I think we need to see two things: * what will the cars look like in 3 years? 5? * will autonomous tech and supporting infra (like cheap automated parking in sparse parts of cities for cars to stay when not in use) make its way into consumer products at a low enough price point, leading to heavy Waymo users turning into vehicle owners instead? This was one of the issues with the scooter/e-bike rental market.
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoRelated: Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft and people are paying anyway https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44258139 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44258139
- lvl155 1y agoWait till people start getting into accidents in these robotaxis. It’s already a complete disaster for Uber. Do you know what it takes to get coverage as a passenger if your Uber driver is an idiot? With current administration going the wild wild west route to complete deregulation, robotaxis will be very rough.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Do you know what it takes to get coverage as a passenger if your Uber driver is an idiot? Coverage as a passenger? For what?
- lvl155 1y ago> accidents
- JumpCrisscross 1y agoWhy do you think Waymo works differently from all other cases of physical injury liability?
- Spivak 1y agoIf you are riding in a Lyft and get hurt (and the Lyft is at fault), it's Lyft's medical insurance company that pays out for your medical care. Same as it is for all other auto insurance. It's a pretty delayed process because unless the Lyft hit a tree there's usually at least two vehicles involved in the crash and the insurance companies have to fight over fault. But they do eventually pay out. Source: Got into an accident in a Lyft. They even paid my salary for the few days I was off work.
- lvl155 1y agoThat’s what people assume. It’s not.
- aeronaut80 1y ago
- ENGNR 1y agoAs a non US resident - not having to think about tipping the driver makes me excited and significantly more likely to visit. Tipping culture is just exhausting! If someone could automate wheeling the food a few dozen metres from a restaurant kitchen to a table next it would be perfect :)
- garbawarb 1y agoYou don't need to tip Uber/Lyft drivers. It's always been optional.