How on earth are they going to do it for "half price"? These are already very competitive industries where the pricing is largely based on time (and estimation

How on earth are they going to do it for "half price"? These are already very competitive industries where the pricing is largely based on time (and estimations thereof). And the estimating is based on stuff that's going to be hard to capture in an algorithm that doesn't involve a physical person going to $wherever and punching in a bunch of estimates of various things into a web form for processing. At which point your algorithm isn't a tremendous advantage since the trip cost is what dominates the equation, not if it takes the estimator 5 minutes or 15 minutes to come up with a price. The only way it might succeed is if Google or Amazon can squeeze people harder than Homejoy or whoever already does. And that's a recipe for disaster, no matter if they're employees or independent contractors. If people can't make a living through your service, they simply won't participate.