cpprototypes

Lyft and Uber have wasted so much time and money. This is the problem with VC money focused on growth. There's no pressure to build anything sustainable, no pressure to build competitive advantages. Arbitrary point to point level 5 self driving is decades away. And even if it came tomorrow, what competitive advantage do these apps have? They are a single Google Maps update from being wiped out. They should've spent past few years using network effects in the same way as Facebook to protect themselves. They should've built loyalty programs like frequent miles. But they completely wasted their opportunity.

This is a lot lower than I expected. I wish governments would just add this as a tax directly. But seems almost impossible in the current political climate.

A lot of gas stations here ask "Do you want a car wash for $x.xx" directly on the gas pump after you slide your card. If gas stations just added "Do you want carbon neutral for $x.xx" I think many would push yes in the right markets and a reasonable $x.xx value.

This was true years ago, but I think times are different now. Theres a feeling of near panic among many as the effects of climate change become more obvious and the new Trump environmental policies. I think theres strong desire to do something and this could tap into that.

Also by being high end, theres opportunity to be very different. These stations shouldn't even look like traditional stations. They could provide services that appeal to affluent markets and provide good profit margin. This will be necessary at first because raising gas price alone won't be enough to cover costs.

I often wonder what is the natural market price of these services? Basically, without massive VC money distorting everything, how much would a Lyft or Uber ride really cost? I have a feeling it would be much higher than now. Despite all the hype, true level 5 self driving is decades away. When the VC money stops, what are these companies going to do?

I think the only viable option for them is Lyft Line/Uber Pool. It benefits from network effects (more using the service, better it gets) which also prevents newcomers. It could become a monopoly like Facebook. They should be pushing this harder than unrealistic dreams of level 5 self driving.

I think organics food shows this isn't true. These gas stations would first target the affluent liberal markets. The marketing could be, don't feel bad about buying that luxury BMW gas guzzler, come to Neutral gas station. The station should feel high end, like the Apple store of gas stations.

This is how organic food started with Whole Foods. And the same strategy could work here.

I wish some billionaire would start a chain of carbon neutral gas stations. I wouldn't mind paying more for gas if I knew it was carbon neutral. There are several ways the gas could be carbon neutral, either through production (solar/wind into fuel creation) or offsets (plant trees or carbon sequestration). Instead of slowly trying to change our transportation infrastructure to EV, which will take decades, this could have immediate impact now.

The "smartwatch" from Apple and Android is not a good idea. Fitbit and Pebble are closer to the right direction. Apple/Android keep trying to make watch-sized smartphones. But they will never compete with actual smartphones, they will just always be annoying inferior smartphones on your wrist.

The key factor is to consider which senses are optimal UI for each device. Smartphones dominate the visual and audio senses. Smartwatch simply can't compete there. So smartwatch should have a very simple very low power display like the Fitbit and Pebble and maybe a simple speaker/mic.

So what sense is the smartwatch good for? It's touch. There is a lot of potential of using vibrations/touch as a UI. For example, I think the Apple watch vibrates for turns when you do a Maps route. That's a good start. They need to focus more on things like this. There's a lot you can communicate with vibration, kind of like morse code (such as two quick vibrates, a long vibrate, etc.)

And now Apple has a very advanced touch sensor (the new one in iphone 7). Get rid of that silly big screen on Apple watch. Put the touch sensor there. Why not just allow thumbprint scan, wave my watch at a Apple Pay terminal, and buy things? Way less effort than taking out my phone.

These kind of pure touch and vibration UI is a huge open field. And I think Apple somewhat understands this. But they need to make the big step of dropping that screen. Because that's not where the smartwatch is strong. And it would also allow long battery life which is more important for smartwatch. People are used to daily charge for phones. But much less tolerant of that for watches.

The software field really needs to stop associating "top engineer" with Google interview process. The Google interview process has nothing to do with "top engineer". The only thing it measures is how much time you spent studying DS and algorithm books. It's just like the SATs for college, study and you do well, but has nothing to do with actual college work. There is only one correlation and it's as a measure of work ethic. If you study hard for SAT, you will probably study hard in college. Same thing for the Google interview.

It's actually not a bad system for fresh graduates. If they studied hard in college, all that DS and algorithm knowledge should still be fresh. And it's away to see who studied in college and who didn't. But it's only useful here because there's nothing else to look at for fresh graduates, they have no experience.

However, it's a very bad process for senior engineers. Google should have a different process for seniors, but they probably don't care enough to change.

The plan in the article is complementary, not against public transit. It has the potential to fix the "first and last mile" problem for trains. If successful, it would greatly increase use of rail public transit.

I looked at ebikes a few months ago and it's still too expensive. Even the kits for converting a regular bike was almost the price of an ebike. Is it this expensive in the rest of thr world? If not, why is it so expensive here, why isn't someone just importing it and selling it for much cheaper?

I don't understand why Toyota is not the leader in plugin hybrids. They had such a big lead in hybrid tech and the next natural step was plugin hybrid. Imagine a RAV4 or Highlander plugin hybrid with 50 mile range. The demand would be incredible. The marketing would be so easy, "Drive your SUV to get groceries with zero gas! Save money, help the environment, and drive a big car! win-win-win for everyone!" A SUV like this would fit so well with the suburban lifestyle in the US. Instead they are wasting time and money on the hydrogen fuel-cell nonsense. How can their management have enough vision to create the Prius and hybrid tech and yet so ignorant of this next obvious step?

And this is why software today is in such a sad state. Managers think it would be great to have an army of young engineers who don't question and just do what they're told. But any leader surrounded by sycophants will eventually fail. Management often doesn't realize that they really need the senior engineer who has the experience and confidence to say "NO". Because that engineer is the one who will prevent the project from collapsing under the weight of scope creep and tech debt.

Recently I got an email about a job that seemed interesting. It's a well known company that used to be a startup but is now a mature company. I went to the job description page: 8+ years experience, tech stack I'm familiar with, mostly backend work, seems ok so far.

Then I get to the last line. Open office, has video games, happy hours, other typical things designed to attract those in their 20s. It's all a hidden message screaming, if you're old, don't apply. And they want someone with 8+ years experience! It's ridiculous.

FTA:

LA Metro opened up the Expo Line, a light rail between downtown LA and Santa Monica, in May as part of its effort to wean people off car ownership. When it began running, Uber ran a promotion for $5 off Pool rides to or from Expo line stations. For ride-hail companies, partnering with public transportation agencies to market themselves as companion services can increase mutual ridership. Kan, Lyft’s LA general manager, said three of the top 10 destinations for Lyft rides are metro stations.

If this trend continues and becomes more common, it has potential to really change transportation in LA. LA Metro is working on expanding the rail lines but there's always the "last mile" problem (not literally 1 mile, but usually last few miles to get/from rail station to destination). UberPool/Lyft Line can be the solution for this and the more people use it, the better solution it becomes.