# Self-Driving Taxis Could Have a Vomit Problem



## Jo3030 (Jan 2, 2016)

*Self-Driving Taxis Could Have a Vomit Problem*

*https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social*

It didn't take long for Pritam Singh to learn a key lesson about working for Lyft. People are disgusting. They have a nasty habit of throwing up in moving vehicles.

Rideshare drivers are acutely aware that customers tend to do that, along with slightly less annoying things like wiping hamburger-greasy fingers on armrests and turning floor mats into swamps of slush. Singh, who ferries passengers for Lyft Inc. in Manhattan several evenings a week, drops about $200 a month cleaning -- really, sometimes it feels like sanitizing -- his Toyota Camry.

For General Motors Co., Uber Technologies Inc. and others mulling a foray into robotaxis, the bill could be in the tens of millions of dollars annually. When you add things like insurance, inventory storage and the steadily shrinking value of beat-up cars? Billions.

That casts a pall on the idea, held dear by the likes of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, that the advent of self-driving will swiftly make ridesharing so cheap that most Americans won't bother to own their own vehicles.

How to deal with vomit represents one of many great unanswered questions about the mythic business model that Kalanick once summed up as, basically, getting rid of "the other dude in the car." In the future he and Lyft co-founder John Zimmer have described, apps and bots do the work, consumers save big time and investors just rake it in. But number-crunchers at GM and companies including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo are adding up a lot of costs that will get in the way of robotaxis being cash cows.

Apple and Waymo have turned to Avis Budget Group Inc. and Hertz Global Holdings Inc. for help in managing driverless fleets. Even big rental companies, though, have struggled to contain their own costs in taking care of cars and trucks used by the great unwashed public.

"It is a really big issue and no one has figured it out," said Mark Wakefield, co-head of the global automotive practice at the consulting firm AlixPartners. "No one is even betting on the outcome."

That's not to say the no-driver prize won't eventually be worth a lot, which is why so many are jockeying for position, and doing their homework.

GM's Maven unit, which competes with Avis's Zipcar in the hourly rental business and leases vehicles to Uber and Lyft drivers, has studied how much abuse rideshare vehicles take. In addition to the damage inflicted and filth deposited by customers, the costs for insurance and parking -- pricey in cities like New York and San Francisco, where ride hailing is popular -- will be substantial, said Peter Kosak, GM's executive director of urban mobility.

Ready or not, robotaxis are being prepared for the roads. GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said last month that the automaker is expanding its fleet of self-driving, all-electric Chevrolet Bolts from 50 to 180. Lyft plans to test the Bolt as a robotaxi in San Francisco, with a human babysitting the steering wheel. GM will also run trials in Detroit and Scottsdale, Arizona.

*Robotaxis' Potential*
The robotaxi, without any human to compensate for navigating traffic, might indeed be a gold mine. Its arrival could be one of those big economy-altering events, freeing up acres of parking space in cities, eliminating the need for garages in homes and handing people thousands of dollars a year in new disposable income. AlixPartners' Wakefield said it could fundamentally change how many people view and buy transportation.

Lyft's Zimmer recently described a personal vehicle as "a ball and chain that gets dragged through our daily life" and predicted that by 2025, private car ownership will "all but end" in major U.S. cities.

That will happen only if companies like GM can figure out how to make all the costs makes sense. "Lyft and Uber don't care about managing the fleet," said GM's Kosak. "Down the road, you'll need to dictate who does all of that."

It probably won't be Lyft, according to Brian Hsu, the company's vice president of supply. "We stay asset light," Hsu said. "We realized very early on that fleet management is like real estate management. That's a capability that is very different from what we do."

*Rental Expertise*
Hsu said rental-car companies could be an answer because they have expertise, along with vast lots in cities all over the U.S. Hertz has a deal to manage a small fleet of self-driving Lexus RX 450h sport utility vehicles for Apple, and Avis has inked a similar arrangement with 600 self-driving Chrysler minivans for Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo autonomous technology division.

What might the rental companies charge? They typically deal with depreciation of more than $300 per car every month; Hertz has $10 billion in vehicles on its books and depreciates them to the tune of $2 billion a year. Add in cleaning and maintenance, and the total may be $400 to $600 per a month, Wakefield said.

And when a robotaxi is past its prime? Hertz has been taking a beating reselling into a declining used-car market. Buying too many passenger cars and not enough SUVs has played a big role in Hertz losing more than $600 million in the last two quarters. Billionaire Carl Icahn has seen close to $1 billion in paper losses on his $1.3 billion investment in Hertz largely because it had so much trouble selling its flagging vehicles into a soft market for used-car values.

*Fleet Managers*
That kind of risk is why companies pursuing robotaxis are starting to work with different players to manage fleets. Cox Automotive Inc., which owns the used-car auction house Manheim, has deals with Uber and Maven; Cox also helps Tesla Inc. sell off-lease cars.

Cox created an app called Flexdrive, which lets auto dealers offer subscriptions to cars as an alternative to buying or leasing. Since Cox already has facilities to house, clean and manage cars, the company is primed to deal with robotaxis, said Janet Barnard, president of Cox's inventory solutions group.

Rideshare drivers can offer the future robotaxi industry all kinds of advice. Stay off the roads after the bars close. Refuse to pick up anyone carrying a sack from a fast-food joint. And Singh, the Lyft driver in Manhattan, advises stashing barf bags in plain sight. He vacuums and scrubs the interior of his Camry daily, always stocking bottles of water.

Singh vividly recalls the first time a client upchucked. "I was lucky -- I was at a light, and he opened the door and threw up outside," he said. "That's why I started to carry the bags."


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

The author is either incompetent, an idiot, or more interested in a fake headline that will attract readers. The SDC vomit problem was solved long ago, once vomit detected, route car to maintenance facility for cleaning, and charge a fee to the passenger who vomited. The rest of the article is stolen from similar stories that have been reported elsewhere.


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## Ca$h4 (Aug 12, 2015)

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## WeirdBob (Jan 2, 2016)

Maven said:


> The author is either incompetent, an idiot, or more interested in a fake headline that will attract readers. The SDC vomit problem was solved long ago, once vomit detected, route car to maintenance facility for cleaning, and charge a fee to the passenger who vomited. The rest of the article is stolen from similar stories that have been reported elsewhere.


I'm having trouble finding information on automated vomit detection systems via Google. Got any links? Academic papers, or the names of companies working on it? Perhaps there is some money to be made in that vertical.


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## d0n (Oct 16, 2016)

Wait until they crap on them for shits and giggles.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

d0n said:


> Wait until they crap on them for shits and giggles.


Same solution as a little urine, maintenance clean then bill the crapper. The more disturbing problem, ignored by the article, is hacking the car, with or without a passenger, for theft, kidnapping, or to be used as a weapon.


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## d0n (Oct 16, 2016)

Maven said:


> Same solution as a little urine, maintenance clean then bill the crapper. The more disturbing problem, ignored by the article, is hacking the car, with or without a passenger, for theft, kidnapping, or to be used as a weapon.


So, are they are going to pay someone to look at videos? Because quite frankly, there is no technology in visual recognition that can differ vomit from sweat or water, if they plan to clean up after everything going on in a car, they are in for the biggest pax loss of all time this is if they plan to use something accurate like ultra violet light, also, what if i poop and kick it under the sit?

Anyone saying they can solve all those problems is nothing but a snake oil salesman.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

d0n said:


> So, are they are going to pay someone to look at videos? Because quite frankly, there is no technology in visual recognition that can differ vomit from sweat or water, if they plan to clean up after everything going on in a car, they are in for the biggest pax loss of all time this is if they plan to use something accurate like ultra violet light, also, what if i poop and kick it under the sit? Anyone saying they can solve all those problems is nothing but a snake oil salesman.


There are far more difficult SDCs technical issues that need to be solved. Current technology already does urine detection and feces detection. If you want to get creative then surreptitiously deposit a tear-gas canister in the SDC, set to release 5 minutes after the first passenger enters, at least two hours after you leave the SDC. That way its origin is more difficult to determine. Hope you didn't leave any fingerprints or DNA on the canister.


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## d0n (Oct 16, 2016)

Maven said:


> There are far more difficult SDCs technical issues that need to be solved. Current technology already does urine detection and feces detection.


Come on man...

I know you are a hardcore advocate for self driving but you need to be realistic and read what you are linking.

One is a magnet to measure weight caused to diapers by liquid, the other senses plain wetness.

The feces link is anything but what you are looking to support your claim.

I already know what they will use for recognition but it still cannot recognize because it lacks odor detection and if they somehow installed it, you would have problems with body odor and stink bombs left as a prank.

You need visual, scent and substance recognition.

Impussibru.


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## WeirdBob (Jan 2, 2016)

Maven said:


> Current technology already does urine detection and feces detection.


Can an SDC urine detector tell the difference between urine and butt sweat? Or, is the simple answer that people who sweat should avoid SDCs to keep from getting charged?

Houston, Texas in the summertime. Gonna be a lot of downtime when cars have to go back for seat cleaning after each passenger. And a lot of pax mad about paying extra.

I suppose the answer there is BYO plastic seat covers.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

d0n said:


> Come on man...
> I know you are a hardcore advocate for self driving but you need to be realistic and read what you are linking.
> One is a magnet to measure weight caused to diapers by liquid, the other senses plain wetness.
> The feces link is anything but what you are looking to support your claim.
> ...


If you really insist on getting technical, back during the Vietnam War, US Army had equipment to "sniff" out biochemical markers unique to humans including urine, feces and sweat. It's O-L-D technology.


WeirdBob said:


> Can an SDC urine detector tell the difference between urine and butt sweat? Or, is the simple answer that people who sweat should avoid SDCs to keep from getting charged? Houston, Texas in the summertime. Gonna be a lot of downtime when cars have to go back for seat cleaning after each passenger. And a lot of pax mad about paying extra. I suppose the answer there is BYO plastic seat covers.


Butt-sweat is an interesting problem. We may need to resort to something really revolutionary .. like .. maybe .. air conditioning.  If that does not work the people may just have to deal. I've been in taxis that were pretty rank.


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## d0n (Oct 16, 2016)

Maven said:


> f you want to get creative then surreptitiously deposit a tear-gas canister in the SDC, set to release 5 minutes after the first passenger enters, at least two hours after you leave the SDC. That way its origin is more difficult to determine. Hope you didn't leave any fingerprints or DNA on the canister.


See, now you are getting the idea.

The human mind is very creative, terrorists leaving mustard gas? what?



Maven said:


> If you really insist on getting technical, back during the Vietnam War, US Army had equipment to "sniff" out biochemical markers unique to humans including urine, feces and sweat.


Of course they did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_sniffer

Done by humans.

And to top it all, the compounds used for reaction to detect such cases are acidic, made to be carefully handled by humans, imagine an automated system using such things on a sit, you are going to put chaps on people's pants and maybe cause irritation not to mention the sit will have holes.

Coming up with a detection system accurate enough is going to cost them half of what they are spending on self driving research.

I guess they could use materials that are acid resistant and once found taken to the cleaning facility, just be careful with sweat and odor, still you can't catch someone squatting behind the front sit, taking a crap and kicking it under the sit.

I would imagine an entire system that sprays the entire backside, a big glass stopping the spray from entering the front (watch out for the tech on the drivers sit) but what happens if someone sits on the front sit?

I can't imagine the cost of that after every ride, they are better off paying people to clean the car after every ride.

No wait, I retract what I said, doing that every single ride will be a laughable waste of money.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

d0n said:


> ...Of course they did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_sniffer
> Done by humans. And to top it all, the compounds used for reaction to detect such cases are acidic, made to be carefully handled by humans, imagine an automated system using such things on a sit, you are going to put chaps on people's pants and maybe cause irritation not to mention the sit will have holes. Coming up with a detection system accurate enough is going to cost them half of what they are spending on self driving research... No wait, I retract what I said, doing that every single ride will be a laughable waste of money.


You may have noticed that Urine, Feces, and Sweat tend to SMELL because of biochemical markers in the AIR that can be easily detected. Remember, this detection tech existed 50-YEARS ago. I'm not going to research it, but common sense tells me that equivalent functionality is much cheaper and much more compact today then it was half a century ago. A tiny addition compared to the overall cost of an SDC.


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## d0n (Oct 16, 2016)

Maven said:


> You may have noticed that Urine, Feces, and Sweat tend to SMELL because of biochemical markers in the AIR that can be easily detected. Remember, this detection tech existed 50-YEARS ago. I'm not going to research it, but common sense tells me that equivalent functionality is much cheaper and much more compact today then it was half a century ago. A tiny addition compared to the overall cost of an SDC.


That detection is not based on smell, it's based on chemical reactions (colors) produced by mixing acid and alkaloids.


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## Yozee (Jun 7, 2017)

I can not wait for uber serve driving cars!!! Revenge of the ants.


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## Ca$h4 (Aug 12, 2015)

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## Strange Fruit (Aug 10, 2016)

Ca$h4 said:


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That was awesome. I almost thought the sound was faked until I saw the corroborating visual.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

lol people in cities will just give up cars? What are the boat/atv owners going to do when the weekend rolls around and they want to use their toys? 

What about the millions of people in cities who go on extended car/camping trips with their canoe or kayak or bike or paddle board? 

Think about the almost unimaginable other uses that people use cars for other than just getting from a to b? 

The idea that people are going to give up vehicle ownership is so absurd I can't believe they can make these silly predictions with a straight face.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

heynow321 said:


> lol people in cities will just give up cars? What are the boat/atv owners going to do when the weekend rolls around and they want to use their toys?
> 
> What about the millions of people in cities who go on extended car/camping trips with their canoe or kayak or bike or paddle board?
> 
> ...


lol, people giving up trusted network news for Cable-TV comedy infotainment like the "Daily Show" or "Last Week tonight"
lol, people giving up newspapers and books for blogs and videos.
lol, people giving up phone calls for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, text messages, and social media.
lol, people giving up their privacy by posting everything about their daily lives online.
lol, Sears, Kmart JC Penny, Macy's and other retail industry leaders for decades now failing.
lol, President Trump, two words more than half the country never expected to see together.
Maybe giving up cars in a decade or two is not as crazy as it seems to you today.


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## Ca$h4 (Aug 12, 2015)

heynow321 said:


> lol people in cities will just give up cars? What are the boat/atv owners going to do when the weekend rolls around and they want to use their toys?
> 
> What about the millions of people in cities who go on extended car/camping trips with their canoe or kayak or bike or paddle board?
> 
> ...


Agree. How many things can you do in a day with a car? Without one? Bicycles and red bulls isn't the same as having a car.



Strange Fruit said:


> That was awesome. I almost thought the sound was faked until I saw the corroborating visual.


The sound is my Uber ringtone. And i use it if someone is eating in my car.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

Maven said:


> lol, people giving up trusted network news for Cable-TV comedy infotainment like the "Daily Show" or "Last Week tonight"
> lol, people giving up newspapers and books for blogs and videos.
> lol, people giving up phone calls for Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, text messages, and social media.
> lol, people giving up their privacy by posting everything about their daily lives online.
> ...


 Pretty weak examples bro. Millions of people still watch network news . Millions of people still buy books which is why Amazon has had to open brick and mortar bookstores. Apparently not everybody wants to read on an electronic reader with a finite battery life. Millions voted for trump and tons more including myself were not surprised that he won whatsoever . Anybody with half a brain could see that more than half this country is fed up with being ripped off by the career politicians . History is just repeating itself. When economies fail it gives rise to political extremism . want to guess what the next step will be in the cycle?

Of course you didn't address The point I brought up like all you little tech fanboys do. Are we going to have self driving trucks or SUVs with boat trailers attached? Is the network and coverage of these cars going to be so great that anybody who is camping remote in the woods or any other part of nature will be able to request a car and get one in a reasonable time ? Sounds like it would be pretty costly to have cars sitting out there in nature to be ready to provide service to these people who apparently are just going to give up their cars just like that .

What about all the guys who own Ferraris and Porsches and BMW m cars and high-end Mercedes and every other car enthusiast under the sun? What about horse trailers? Will self driving trucks be able to pick up and load horses or back a boat into a thin ramp into the water?

This shit is so asinine and such an obvious ploy to keep bilking dumbass investors out of money to keep their failing business model going .


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Maven said:


> The author is either incompetent, an idiot, or more interested in a fake headline that will attract readers. The SDC vomit problem was solved long ago, once vomit detected, route car to maintenance facility for cleaning, and charge a fee to the passenger who vomited. The rest of the article is stolen from similar stories that have been reported elsewhere.


$800.00 a month.
BEFORE FUEL AND MAINTENENCE.

ROLLING GARBAGE CANS



Maven said:


> You may have noticed that Urine, Feces, and Sweat tend to SMELL because of biochemical markers in the AIR that can be easily detected. Remember, this detection tech existed 50-YEARS ago. I'm not going to research it, but common sense tells me that equivalent functionality is much cheaper and much more compact today then it was half a century ago. A tiny addition compared to the overall cost of an SDC.


Urine
Feces 
Sweat
The smell of Uber Robo Cars !


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## CarterPeerless (Feb 10, 2016)

Ever ride the monorail at Disneyland? That thing is all plastic and still smells like a baby's diaper. What are the interior surfaces of these cars going to be? Certainly not cloth, but pleather and plastic? 

I recommend porcelain, perhaps with a rush of water that comes from the roof.


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## lesh11 (Jan 4, 2017)

Ever been in a phone booth? I get the idea.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

lol we tried 'automated' toilets years ago in Seattle that had self cleaning features and even hobos stopped using them b/c they became too disgusting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/us/17toilets.html

In the end, the restrooms, installed in early 2004, had become so filthy, so overrun with drug abusers and prostitutes, that although use was free of charge, even some of the city's most destitute people refused to step inside them.

The dismal outcome coincides with plans by New York, Los Angeles and Boston, among other cities, to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for expansion this fall in their installation of automated toilets - stand-alone structures with metal doors that open at the press of a button and stay closed for up to 20 minutes. The units clean themselves after each use, disinfecting the seats and power-washing the floors.


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## UberLaLa (Sep 6, 2015)

EzPz solution~


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## Cynergie (Apr 10, 2017)

Lol. Wondered when someone was going to post a thread on this obvious topic since the **** sapienless drivemobile came out.

Taking Occam's Razor to this topic with a Machiavellian twist of seasoning....

Imagine this prankster accidentally forgetting their accessory (aka a flaming bag of poo) in the robot car. Just waiting for you -- oh bitter ex LyfUber driver -- to get back at the Man. And exploit that golden opportunity for a 5 fingered discount. The LyfUber driverless experience in the hood will never be the same....


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

heynow321 said:


> Pretty weak examples bro. Millions of people still watch network news . Millions of people still buy books which is why Amazon has had to open brick and mortar bookstores. Apparently not everybody wants to read on an electronic reader with a finite battery life. Millions voted for trump and tons more including myself were not surprised that he won whatsoever . Anybody with half a brain could see that more than half this country is fed up with being ripped off by the career politicians . History is just repeating itself. When economies fail it gives rise to political extremism . want to guess what the next step will be in the cycle?
> 
> Of course you didn't address The point I brought up like all you little tech fanboys do. Are we going to have self driving trucks or SUVs with boat trailers attached? Is the network and coverage of these cars going to be so great that anybody who is camping remote in the woods or any other part of nature will be able to request a car and get one in a reasonable time ? Sounds like it would be pretty costly to have cars sitting out there in nature to be ready to provide service to these people who apparently are just going to give up their cars just like that .
> 
> ...


Not surprising that you missed the point entirely, change is constant. What seemed so permanent in yesteryear is now failing. Of course, newspapers, major national network news, and street corner pay phones still exist, by their numbers are decreasing every year.

Since you voted for Trump and still support him you probably have not noticed how many of his campaign promises have been ignored or trashed. Have you noticed how little of the conservative agenda has been enacted into law because of inexperience and the administration's total focus on scandals?

As to your points about SDCs, it's pretty obvious that nothing I can say can convince you how simple it is to address all your concerns. I do not feel like repeating the many solutions already posted by myself and others. Feel free to go back and review them for yourself.

Surprisingly, I agree with you about "dumbass investors". See
https://uberpeople.net/threads/sdc-corporate-bloodbaths.183396/


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

I'm not digging through the mountains of your asinine posts. Show me where the issues of boat trailers and horse trailers and big bulky camping gear is addressed ?


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

heynow321 said:


> I'm not digging through the mountains of your asinine posts. Show me where the issues of boat trailers and horse trailers and big bulky camping gear is addressed ?


Will not provide information to anyone using abusive language. If you will not look for yourself then stay ignorant.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

Maven said:


> Will not provide information to anyone using abusive language. If you will not look for yourself then stay ignorant.


lol nice dodge there. as usual, you and ramz come up short.


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## westsidebum (Feb 7, 2015)

Vomit is way better than masked ludites with bats and sledge hammers jacking autonomous cars on dark deserted streets while they sit at trffic light or they just block them with a baby carriage so they cant drive away


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## Howie428Uber (Mar 4, 2016)

The poop and urine detection system is already in place... it's called the next passenger!

Passengers would be expected to report a car as being unrideable. This is exactly what Uber does now, since they rely on passengers to report car and driver faults.

Add to that the fact that the surveillance on these cars will be total -- Who doesn't think that many of the monitoring devices will be pointed inwards? If a car arrives at the next pickup with puke all over it they will get footage of the perp and ding that rider with a $400 clean up fee. I say $400 dollars because you can bet that when the cars are system owned there will be a clean up fee and a lost time on the road fee.

The maintenance and cost problem is real enough. The big competition for this system will be against individuals who can operate at what they view as a low cost level. Allowing for federal expenses there is a case to be made that many of us are operating at a negative cost, if our time cost is ignored. Ultimately political power will step in and subsidize/rig the system for the big players, but it will take them a while to force that through.


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## UberSneaky (May 25, 2017)

what if some one scratches the shut off of that kar?

Plus, would pax really like no human interactions and being monitored 24/7 for everything? raises concerns for privacy.



Howie428Uber said:


> The poop and urine detection system is already in place... it's called the next passenger!
> 
> Passengers would be expected to report a car as being unrideable. This is exactly what Uber does now, since they rely on passengers to report car and driver faults.
> 
> ...


Looks like people have to be more careful in finding the correct spot where they want to use these bathrooms on wheels.


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## The Mollusk (Feb 13, 2016)

Howie428Uber said:


> The poop and urine detection system is already in place... it's called the next passenger!
> 
> Passengers would be expected to report a car as being unrideable. This is exactly what Uber does now, since they rely on passengers to report car and driver faults.
> 
> ...


A cleanup fee won't affect the unwashed masses; they don't have enough $$ on their Walmart-Uber card.

All available evidence points to public utilities being disgusting as its natural state.


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## nutzareus (Oct 28, 2014)

The Mollusk said:


> A cleanup fee won't affect the unwashed masses; they don't have enough $$ on their Walmart-Uber card.
> 
> All available evidence points to public utilities being disgusting as its natural state.


Self cleaning bathrooms didn't work out for Seattle, of all the liberal and progressive cities in the world. It will be a train wreck for cars.


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## UberSneaky (May 25, 2017)

!FillerUp! said:


> seattle didnt have complete identification of end users and their credit card numbers as with an SDC
> 
> if u walk in a room and a camera is recording your movements & audio and the sophisticated IT system behind the camera
> knows Who U are, Where U Live and CC Info, How likely are u to to act in a social deviant manner?
> ...


How are they going to lower the price when now, it's literally an automated taxi service? Plus I would never let a company monitor me and what I've said in the cab for a dollar or 2 cheaper.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

!FillerUp! said:


> seattle didnt have complete identification of end users and their credit card numbers as with an SDC


it's extremely easy to get a prepaid visa with a small limit on it. I took a ride the other day with an expired card in the system. It's so easy to do that to defraud boober. get a new card, new email, and bam now you have a new account.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

WeirdBob said:


> I'm having trouble finding information on automated vomit detection systems via Google. Got any links? Academic papers, or the names of companies working on it? Perhaps there is some money to be made in that vertical.


It's simple. The car takes interior shots before and after the ride and compares them. If it detects a mess of any kind it goes to be cleaned and the passenger is charged.

If this were to fail, the next passenger can be required to sign off on car cleanliness. Same results.

Mess makers will become a profit source, not an issue.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

WeirdBob said:


> Houston, Texas in the summertime. Gonna be a lot of downtime when cars have to go back for seat cleaning after each passenger. And a lot of pax mad about paying extra.


So Uber drivers in Houston today have to clean their cars after every ride? Or is this an exaggeration?



heynow321 said:


> lol people in cities will just give up cars? What are the boat/atv owners going to do when the weekend rolls around and they want to use their toys?
> 
> What about the millions of people in cities who go on extended car/camping trips with their canoe or kayak or bike or paddle board?
> 
> ...


Millennial car ownership is in decline.

What you're doing here is using outliers as examples. The fact that you can't tow a boat, as if that's an actual issue in cities, doesn't mean the other 99.9% of the rides won't be given. So, yes, at first SDCs won't tow boats.

When TNCs become far cheaper than car ownership, safer, and far more convenient, people will give up their cars in droves.



heynow321 said:


> Of course you didn't address The point I brought up like all you little tech fanboys do. Are we going to have self driving trucks or SUVs with boat trailers attached? Is the network and coverage of these cars going to be so great that anybody who is camping remote in the woods or any other part of nature will be able to request a car and get one in a reasonable time ? Sounds like it would be pretty costly to have cars sitting out there in nature to be ready to provide service to these people who apparently are just going to give up their cars just like that .


I've never once seen a boat being towed downtown. Never. I know this is just a wild guess, but I don't see this as being a real issue.

You don't need to worry about level 5, drive anywhere a human can, your job will be replaced by level 4, drive anywhere in a geo-fenced area like a metropolitan area. Level 5 isn't profitable like level 4 so it's a long way off.

No worries though, you will still be able to pick up those droves of boat towing campers.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

Does not matter if we think up dozens, maybe hundreds of things that are difficult or impossible for SDCs. An amazingly profitable market will be served by SDCs that initially operate in highly mapped, controlled, Geo-fenced areas. They will be used the 50%-90% of the time that does not involve any of those difficult or impossible situations.

My favorite was driving the giant, 8-million-pound, Saturn-V rocket engine 3.5 miles from the maintenance/engineering hanger to the launch pad. Took about 3-days. Done by a robot overseen by a team of humans.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

RamzFanz said:


> So Uber drivers in Houston today have to clean their cars after every ride? Or is this an exaggeration?
> 
> Millennial car ownership is in decline.
> 
> ...


that's odd, we see boats all over seattle. you still haven't addressed the millions of people who use their cars for camping/long distance traveling purposes as usual.

It's exciting thinking about how this crap is going to flame out so badly once tech bubble 2.0 falls apart.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

heynow321 said:


> that's odd, we see boats all over seattle. you still haven't addressed the millions of people who use their cars for camping/long distance traveling purposes as usual.
> 
> It's exciting thinking about how this crap is going to flame out so badly once tech bubble 2.0 falls apart.


I don't think you understand the market and goal. The vast majority of the rides in this market are short, boat-less, a to b rides in metropolitan areas.

The millions of people, who apparently drive around all the time towing boats, will keep their vehicles for the foreseeable future. However, seeing as SDCs are already used in combat, have climbed pikes peak, can long distance truck drive, and cross deserts, don't be too shocked when they are towing boats and driving long distances sooner than you think.

I wouldn't hang your hat on towing boats as your SDC poison pill.


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## The Mollusk (Feb 13, 2016)

You guys are definitely underestimating how rotten society is. SDC taxis will smell like Butt in under a week. Some people just glisten a ....musk oil....that will stick to the car and have it smell like pork for the rest of its life. Having someone pay for it is noy even the issue either, you can't bleed a turnip.

I remember a story at base where a driver found maggots climbing up his steering wheel in the middle of his shift. A pax had left a rottisierie chicken under his chair and it took a week to find it....

A truly mass market SDC is at least 20 years away, if ever.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

The Mollusk said:


> You guys are definitely underestimating how rotten society is. SDC taxis will smell like Butt in under a week. Some people just glisten a ....musk oil....that will stick to the car and have it smell like pork for the rest of its life. Having someone pay for it is noy even the issue either, you can't bleed a turnip.
> 
> I remember a story at base where a driver found maggots climbing up his steering wheel in the middle of his shift. A pax had left a rottisierie chicken under his chair and it took a week to find it....
> 
> A truly mass market SDC is at least 20 years away, if ever.


There are no actual roadblocks to this becoming a reality in the next 1-3 years.

The "roadblocks" people throw up are real but only as minor inconveniences. If someone makes a mess, they clean it and charge the passenger who did it. It's really that simple. It's a profit center, not a show stopper.

The cars could be inspected and wiped down several times a day when they go for a battery change or charge in off-peak hours. So, no, there's no reason they would smell "in under a week."

If they design the cars well, they could automate a cleaning process. Car pulls up, interior is pushed into an automated cleaning machine, clean interior is loaded, off they go. 2 minutes. They could do this several times a day or as needed.

I clean my car once a day and have no scent or cleanliness issues. I also look under my seats for garbage and rotisserie chickens.

People are simply not as bad as the nay-sayers want to make them out to be and the bad ones will be charged and eventually removed from the platform.


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## llort (Oct 7, 2016)

I recieved what I consider to be an inappropriate PM from LAuberX on August 9, 2017.
Because of that PM, this comment is currently under edit.
The owner of uberpeople.net should be aware of this over-reach from LAuberX,
as this edit of my content contribution is the direct result of the PM I recieved.
Check back soon for edit updates while this content is updated.


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