The GIG Economy Podcast
Talks about our Gig Economy adventures and breaking down the Gig Economy News
The GIG Economy Podcast
Lyft Removes Tipping Feature, Drivers Furious | Waymo Chaos & AI Police Cars | Ep 273
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Two hosts dig into a volatile week for gig workers: Lyft’s tipping transparency test and retreat, baffling low-pay offers, Waymo crowding, and a pilot for AI police patrols. We trade driver stories, weigh the ethics of automation, and share what actually helps you earn.
Gig News Ep 273
• Lyft testing tip history visibility and quick reversal
• tipping culture fatigue and generational differences
• extremely low-paying delivery requests and driver strategies
• Waymo traffic jam stunt and AV behavior on crowded streets
• AI police cruiser pilot in Miami and surveillance concerns
• Uber driver faces felony after baby mix-up and shared responsibility
• heat maps, surges, and practical driver tools that matter
• Robocar ownership model via Lyft and Tensor partnership
• community support on Telegram and weekly Patreon aftershow
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Hello, hello, welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast, episode 273. We're talking about lift uh removing the tipping feature, driver's furious. Don't click baby. Let's don't clickbaity. I mean, it's kind of uh way Waymo Chaos as usual in an AI police car, because that's what we need in the world, an AI police car. Right? Go to any or sorry, go to gigconomy show.com for anything podcast related. I want to mention our Patreon members who we can't thank enough. Samson's from Grand Rapids, Bud Dickman from North Carolina, Omar from Detroit, Delivery Cats from Michigan, Frank from Philly, Tom from Volo, Illinois, Jim from Connecticut, Miguel from GR, Linda from Tampa, Jerry, Gillette from Kentucky, Faith from Las Vegas, Metal Cookass from Louisiana, and Anna from New York City via Ann Arbor, Michigan. No, I don't need to read the story. I read it last week. I can take that off. I almost read it like Ron Burgundy, like, hey, there you go. So yeah, if you want to join the Patreon, go to patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. There you can sign up for uh several different tiers. We get you ad-free episodes, uh the Patreon um podcast that we do every day at 8 10 p.m. after the show. Um every day. Every week. Yeah, every week. Not every day. After well, every day we do the show. Right. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Making sure they want people showing up every day, like where the hell are they? Right, for sure.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, no. Every day we do the show, which is Wednesday at 8 p.m. or 7 p.m. Eastern. So the podc or the Patreon will be at 18 8 10 p.m. 8 10 p.m. Eastern. There we go. There we go. I even said to my slow down. I still didn't get it right. Uh Larry, talk about the telegram group. Uh, we don't have a clip of the week yet. Uh, I failed on that. Although we do have Mary uh in the group, and I think she might be Bubba Sue in the accent.
SPEAKER_04:All right. Well, I don't know. I love the poll. We need to do a telegram poll.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, there you go. There you go.
SPEAKER_04:All right, yeah. So our telegram group, uh, that's how we communicate. Uh, we have gig workers all over the country, and we use this app called Telegram. It's like a texting app, but you can also do video and voice messages. So when you're out driving, it's kind of hard to text. You want to be texting and driving, but it's really easy to just hit the button and then do a voice message. Um, you can you know talk with us, you can talk with everybody in the group. We talk about uh any new apps that are coming out, any new gig, you know, gig apps, talk about what's hot, you know, we talk about what's going in the dumper, which is most of what it seems like these days. Um, but a lot of times we just talk about life too. We share tips and tricks and what's going on in our life, and you really get to know people and not feel so alone when you're out there doing gig work. It's really easy to kind of feel like you're a lone wolf out there when you're doing gig work, and this helps with that. So, yeah, join our telegram group. We're always looking for new people and we'd love to meet you. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_06:Uh, all everything we talk about, all the uh stuff is in the description. You can click on the link and then uh yeah, join it. We'd love to have you. Uh, one more thing about the Patreon. I forgot to mention it's a seven-day free trial, so you can try it out either the sections you want. Uh, listen to there's a lot of stuff on there. There's a lot of content on there. Um, and uh so yeah, just if that interests you, check it out.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, join the Patreon, and you might even during the Patreon, we you might even be able to get on the show.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, the in fact the link is in the Patreon posts, or you can come on the show and chat with us and rant to us uh how however you want.
SPEAKER_04:That's right. It's your money.
SPEAKER_06:Uh yeah, exactly. I'll even let you insult Larry if you can't insult me.
SPEAKER_04:Bring it on, bring it on. I'm just a tool, man. Just a tool. Here for the people.
SPEAKER_06:Stories from the road. Uh, for me, no gig work. Um, recently I added some extra work during the week for my bus route, and so um more gig work should be coming because it's very convoluted, but I can't take a lot of field trips now because I bit into overtime of my weekly hours, so that will kind of free up some of my weekends. So, but the next two weekends this weekend, I'm going out of town, and next weekend's my anniversary weekend. So it's it will be November probably before you I will be doing some gig work. So gotcha. Gotcha. Um, so what about you, Larry? Any stories?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no story is slow. Um, Western Kentucky University did not have a football game this weekend. They had their game last night on a Tuesday. I don't know why that's that's so weird. It is so weird, but I tell you what, it was uh I think it was last Tuesday, I believe I read this on Sports Center or our ESPN news or something. They're like, for the next 43 days, there's football every night, college or pro football. Wow. Every night for the next 43 days. So I told my wife, like, well, I'm gonna be busy for next year. Yeah, right. Do you like college ball? Like, I mean, is that oh I do I like watching it's it's uh you know, it's just the atmosphere. Um, same thing with basketball. Like, I don't think I I've never watched a entire pro basketball game in my life, but I love watching college basketball.
SPEAKER_06:Well interesting. I see I prefer pro. I don't know why. I I I I don't know why. I don't know. Maybe it's just I don't know. I actually don't have a good reason. I just not been a huge fan of it. Yeah, you don't have to have good reasons, yeah. Strokes, different folks, man.
SPEAKER_04:It's all good.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_04:No hate from here.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Uh so slow weekend.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, didn't do much. Uh worked a little bit during the day, didn't go out that night um just because it was kind of slow. And uh we were just spending time with uh with our um youngest daughter. It's her birthday yesterday, so we celebrated this weekend with her. Uh she was going out with friends last night. So yeah, that's a good family time.
SPEAKER_06:And then you got this awesome request at some point on the weekend.
SPEAKER_04:Like this is actually out of our local Facebook group. I didn't get it.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, this was uh it just you know, it just goes to show we talk about it all the time, but it's it's why I talk about it. I I dread even turning on Uber Eats it because it seems like this is the stuff that pops up. So for the audio listeners, it's uh it's uh it's a Uber Eats um delivery for five dollars. Says estimating 39 minutes and 21 and a half miles total for five dollars. That's that includes the expected tip, right? So yeah, I you know who who takes the stuff.
SPEAKER_06:I know, and honestly, I've probably seen it worse for that for just like two dollars for the base pay of like 21 miles. And do you think you know, and I I think I know the answer, but I don't think people take these, I think they they bundle them.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they'll add them on, yeah. They'll they'll stick them on, you know, to some other trip that is a little better, and people, you know, you it's hard to figure it all out in the heat of the moment, and you somebody will end up taking that bundle trip and getting it, and maybe they're going in that general you know vicinity or something, but yeah, I mean yeah general. Like I said, that's with the tip that you know, it was probably was two or three bucks, yeah, before chip general vicinity of 21 miles.
SPEAKER_06:Like, who the fuck is gonna drive that far for for even for like I mean, even if you do go by the dollar a mile philosophy, like it you know, even if it's eighteen dollars, I'm not taking that. Even if it is a dollar a mile, it's gonna pull me so far out of my area.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and see that's the thing. Uh I know when you do food delivery, you tend to stay, you know, in your in your area pretty straight. Here, you know, we're we're we're we're the only, you know, one once you leave outside bowling green, you're in you're in, you know, you're in the you're in the country, you're in farm country. Right. So like I deliver stuff out into the sticks, man. These people order pizza, because you know, they've never been able to get food delivery before. And uh, you know, used to not even be able to get pizza or anything out out there so far. And now, yeah, I'll get I'll get stuff that's you know 25, 30 miles out into nowhere. And you like you said, you're not getting anything to get back, so you gotta double that mileage in that time, what it's gonna take you.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and then I'm wondering, like, are people at are they are they ordering like as the customer? Are you just like, is it a hope and a prayer that someone's gonna take it, or are they regularly getting food delivered to them?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I guess they'll figure it out eventually if they order it and you know it doesn't get there or you know gets there three hours later or something like that, you know, eventually they'll figure it out. But yeah, yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_06:It's yeah, it's just crazy. No thanks at all. I'll pass. Um, all right, gig economy in the news. Larry new lift feature uh uh talks about how it enrages. No, I I I flipped this around. I wanted to do oh no, I guess I didn't. Yeah, you got you got I got it right. So uh the new feature shows how often riders tip and it rate is enraging the customers.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, so they've been testing a new feature, and I think we talked about it a week or two ago.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Uh you know, talk about you know, most of the time we have some uh variables that we look at when as a driver when a ride pops up, you know, how how much it pays, where it's going, you know, where it's dropping off with the rider rating, maybe, you know, things like that. But in just a uh a pretty small market, it seems like they had a little banner across the bottom of the screen for lift that shows the percentage of rides for which the passenger would provide a tip, along with you know how often they're um the driver has to wait for them after you know the normal period. Yeah. And so yeah, so this, you know, obviously as drivers, that's great. Oh but for for for passengers, apparently that you know that it just flipped their lid. They the people were were writing in about this, about how you know how awful this is. You know, some of the comments are why should I or anyone else tip? Isn't their job driving somebody from point A to point B? You know, another one, why there should be a tip involved. If the driver did something more than get me to my destination, then maybe screw those entitled drivers. You know, wow. We're such entitled drivers.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, so uh lift you know, Lyft has about 30% of the ride share market in the United States, and they they said they were just testing it in a very limited number uh of with a very limited number of drivers, not even in a very limited area, just a very limited number of drivers, but didn't take long for social media to get a hold of this. Um there's a graphic on here that shows an example of it down at the bottom of the screen. It says rider tipped on 88% of the rides, and the rider is usually ready at pickup. And you know, some of the our other arguments uh from the passengers um said, you know, what about uh, you know, I've I've always given my driver a cash tip because I've heard they prefer cash tips, you know. That that's not gonna show up in there. I'm getting screwed because of this. Yeah. And another one said, Well, now passengers are just gonna tip 1% just so they can, you know, bypass. So it just showed that they well.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, hey, shit, I'll take it. I don't care. It's better than nothing, right? Right, exactly. So yeah. And so now on to our next story, which is yeah, so lift uh scraps the feature that let drivers see how often riders tip. Uh they say, well, this experiment showed early signs of improving the marketplace and helping riders to get where they need to go on time. We heard our customers and cancel the experiment. Um, obviously, it drew criticisms on social media. I mean, duh, right? Did what did they think was gonna happen? I mean, we didn't actually talk about that that would have happened at the time we talked about it because I think we were so excited of like having that extra information.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think we mentioned it maybe very briefly. Did we? Okay, very briefly. Yeah, because I mean it's not hard to figure out what drive passengers are gonna think. Yeah, that's if you're somebody that that tips 100% of the time and they're always on time, they're probably gonna love it. But yeah, as we know, most people are not that way.
SPEAKER_06:Um, most people do not tip, and a lot of them are not on time. Uh, so a recent survey said that 41% of Americans think tipping culture has got out of control, up a up six percentage points from 2024. Still 43 respondents says they always tip taxi and rideshare drivers, though that share drops to 23% among Gen Z. Um, which is interesting because I have noticed um so at the ballpark, we're we're paid uh hourly rate of minimum wage plus tips, and I have noticed Gen Z does not tip. Really? No, they don't. It's the older people that come to the ballpark. So I I think to myself, and and I'll probably be done with that job at that point, but 10, 15, 20 years when all these you know older people have moved on, or I what I say call recycled, yeah um you know, what is that gonna look like for those kind of jobs out there?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it definitely can make a difference. But a lot of I think a lot of people probably change their attitude toward tipping as they get older. Oh, I see. Not 100%, but I think some will. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's one of those things. You know, there there's certainly cultures where tipping is not acceptable or not expected, or even you know, it's an insult in some cultures. Um and you know, if that's the way we want to go, then then companies just need to start paying a living wage.
SPEAKER_06:No, I agree. It's so weird with with with rideshare because it's like so take the restaurant thing, like, you know, yeah, they're getting paid a low wage, right? So then the tipping helps. Um, not that we're getting paid a high wage, but you have to put in the caveat that we're using our own equipment, like that server's not using any of their own stuff.
SPEAKER_08:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:You know what I mean? So it's like, but yeah, people get so fussy if they, you know, if if we complain about not getting tipped. I'm I'm using my car and my own gas.
SPEAKER_04:You know, my insurance, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, exactly. And so, and then I know it all comes back to well, the employer should be paying a living wage. Well, it's just like it's it's never gonna happen.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_06:It's never gonna happen. They they would rather fold than do that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so I agree.
SPEAKER_06:I don't know. Um, again, I I really would have loved this feature. I mean, god, if DoorDash did that or any of them, like I mean, that would be a game changer, but yeah, I can see how the customer would be pissed. Um so yeah. Short-lived.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you know, that's why they test things out. They want to see how you know what's gonna stick and what's not gonna be.
SPEAKER_06:But that was short, sure. I mean, we only talked about it a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_04:That was a couple weeks ago, yeah. That was pretty short. You know, some of them they'll they'll test for months, it seems like, but yeah, I think I think they got so much hate on that. Yeah. Uh, and it was it was pretty, it was pretty straightforward what they thought about it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, exactly. All right, Larry, some tech pranksters create self-driving chap traffic jam. Jeez. Yes, I can't wait to hear about this one.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so uh, as we all know, you know, San Francisco is the you know technology hub. Uh, that's where you know Google and and and a lot of these tech companies are out there, and Waymo are apparently are everywhere out there. Yeah, um, you see them everywhere. Waymo's and homeless. Yeah, it's a great combination. So um you know they've been uh the company actually started in 2009, which is way earlier than a lot of people would think. Um but there's a group of these they call themselves technology disruptors, and one of them's kind of known that I can't was the head of this, he's kind of known as a prankster. He's he's done a few things before that's got him in a little bit of trouble.
SPEAKER_08:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Uh he had he had done an app uh earlier that uh would show like where the uh traffic meter enforcement people were. That's amazing. City shut him down pretty quick. Really? Yeah. So anyway, he he gathered some of his friends and um all at the same time they went to the end of this dead end street. Uh it's San Francisco's longest dead end street. So they all went down there and they all ordered Waymo's at the same time. So 50 Waymo's start, you know, start coming. Uh, and you know, as you know what's gonna happen, it's gonna create a traffic jam.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And so they get there, and the the guys said they didn't actually get in the cars after about 10 after 10 minutes, the Waymo's charge a five dollar no-show fee and they they leave. Um guys said that we weren't really, you know, we weren't really trying to cause any trouble or anything. We just wanted to see we really they talk about how cool they think the technology is, the Waymo cars, and like we did this on a night where it wasn't gonna cause a problem for Waymo. There weren't any other big events that you know people were not gonna get their cars, and maybe this data will help them in the future um, you know, be able to figure out how to handle this better because you know, stuff like concerts and things like that, ball games and stuff when they get out, this kind of situation is gonna happen absolutely a huge number of cars, so they've got to be able to handle it. But in a one-way street, that's gonna cause a big problem.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I did it say how many guys they had like how were 50. 50 people were just bad. Okay, so each so there was enough to call one car. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:50 simultaneous rides, yeah, on a random July night.
SPEAKER_06:So I wonder, you know, uh them being able to assess, like, hey, what is going on? Like they did.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, it talks about that in the story here. Uh it says that eventually, um uh so yeah, Waymo Spurks spokesperson said that they're uh they're designed to autonomously detect and limit the number of pickups and drop-offs to any given area. As a result, it was able to prevent additional pickups from the location in the you know where the guys were at at the end of that one-way street. Uh they shut it down, I guess, until the next morning. Uh, but they said, you know, it's not unusual to have to handle you know dozens of simultaneous requests uh for events such as concerts or um you know tourist destinations, things like that. Um so yeah, that's something they've got to factor in. You know, you don't know how they handle that. How you're gonna tell if it's a prank or if it's not. But I imagine once the car started getting there, you'd think they would know that it's a one-way street and there's 50 cars, you know, but I guess that's something they hadn't I guess hadn't coded in.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I also think, you know, maybe look at the area, I'm like, there's no event over here, like you know, and and maybe that's something where a real person would be like, okay, this is fucked up. Right. Um, but yeah, so they so they're they must have been like having trouble turning around and then it's just right, right.
SPEAKER_04:And they're all they're all backed up into this one-way street, you know. There's uh I'm sure it's just kind of a mess. But you know, the guy said, you know, 100% look up to the Waymo team and everything that they built. This was just a fun thing for us to see so many cars, and you know, maybe Waymo is now able to adjust their systems to prevent a similar yeah, but you know, maybe actually, you know, if somebody was doing this malicious later, they would be able to figure this out. We were careful we did this in order not to disrupt people.
SPEAKER_06:So well, and then especially being in a dead end, you know, yeah, you know, that's I mean, not that it's not uncom like unheard of somebody would need to be picked up on a dead end, but 50 people, yeah. Yeah, I imagine that was quite a sight. Oh god, did they record it at all or not?
SPEAKER_04:Uh if they there's pictures, okay. There's a lot of pictures.
SPEAKER_06:There's probably video somewhere on it. I'm sure there is a lot of things. If you're gonna do it, you gotta record it, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'm sure they did.
SPEAKER_06:But if it's not on the internet, did it really happen?
SPEAKER_04:You know it. So yeah, they called this if you've heard of a uh a DOS, it's called denial service. It's a like an attack on a company. So um, it's a common attack. So, like, say somebody wanted to mess with Google or whatever, they have what they call distributed denial of service, where somebody who has put out a bunch of viruses on say thousands of computers that can throw what they call botnet. So, say I have 5,000 computers or 10,000, however many, you know, 50,000 computers, and I have them all go to this website at one time. Yeah, and you can overwhelm it and take it down. Yeah, so they're that's what they were calling this a distributed denial of service really with cars, but I mean, not really.
SPEAKER_06:It's 50 not really.
SPEAKER_04:They're just trying, they're just related to something that these techies don't know. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_06:Fair, fair. Well, that's kind of fun, at least. At least no one got hurt.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's not it's not any any big, you know, any big thing. It wasn't like I said, it didn't sound like they were trying to be malicious. At least they're not, you know, at least they didn't call 50 cars in there and then put a blockade behind them and then start destroying the cars.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. I mean, you that that's such a good point, though, because that easily could have been done because those cars aren't gonna run through the blockades.
SPEAKER_04:No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_06:Because they're they're programmed not to do that.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, you just park a car beside them or you know, across that road, and yeah, yeah, they're not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that would that would have been that would have been a lot worse. Yeah. So uh moving on, this Uber driver is I don't know, it's kind of weird, but he uh he he got a felony arrest because he took this baby and the felony arrest seems weird after you hear the story. Yeah. Uh according to Palm Police Palm Springs Police Department, this 26-year-old was arrested and charged with false imprisonment after he left a parking lot at the Palm Beach Preschool with the infant secured in a car seat. Uh, she had gone to this daycare to pick up her other child. Uh, she had placed her baby in the back seat of the white uh Tesla Uber and left the door open while she went to get her daughter. Within minutes, a daycare employee noticed the car leaving and called 911. The driver later returned to the preschool after receiving a phone call from Evan, said he did not realize the baby was in the car seat and believed he was simply delivering the seat to the address listed in the Uber app. I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_04:Did he think he was making a he was making a stop to drop her off and then going to the other donor the next location, the final location to drop off this car seat? Oh okay.
SPEAKER_06:So you think that she added a stop? Oh, okay. Thank you for clarifying that. He admitted seeing the car seat, acknowledged it was a mistake not to check for the child. The baby was evaluated and everything was fine. But yeah, he was taken into custody and charged with false imprisonment. So it's weird that so she left the door open, so he must have gotten out and shut the door. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_04:You would think so. And let I mean, you know, you depend on which door, if it's a right door, if you just make a left, you know, you make a turn that direction, you can shut that door for physics.
SPEAKER_06:I've done it before. Yeah, no, I get it. But yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_04:But if there's a car seat, man, I'm making dang sure there's nothing in there.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I mean, I kind of I kind of throw it a little bit on the the mother, it'd be like, Hey, FY, my little baby's here. I mean, again, you shouldn't leave it in the car. But if you're going to, if you're going to let's communicate with the driver, yeah. Um, but yeah, him getting arrested.
SPEAKER_04:I hope they drop those charges because it's like yeah, I don't I think that's way over the top. I didn't sound like I mean if you if you had any bad intention, I think you know he would have not come back when they called. Or uh, you know, that this yeah, I think that's just a little overkill. But yeah, I think they're both at fault here. Definitely as a driver, you should yeah, I don't know why you just think, okay, I'm supposed to take this car something like that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that's such a shocking it. Yeah, that's that's an odd thing. Like, no one communicated that. Like that, I think he's kind of lying. I think he's kind of like, you know, just saying that to try to get out of it.
SPEAKER_04:So what was he doing then? What was he gonna do with the bigger? The ride was over, and he was out of there.
SPEAKER_06:I I guess, or he was just gonna drive to the next. I mean, maybe he it was at, you know, we're thinking it's longer minutes, but maybe it happened like so quick that he was just like, fuck this bitch, and hadn't quite you know, sure ended the ride or whatever. Yeah, that's what I think.
SPEAKER_04:It could be, yeah, very well could be. It's hard it's hard not when you don't have you know more details, it's it's so hard to figure out what exactly happened, but it sounds like overkill on the on the felony charge.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I mean, let's let's you know take a deep breath.
SPEAKER_04:And I would hate, I would hate to think that if I've something, you know, heaven forbid one of us drove off and there having to be a because I told you, I almost drove off one time with a kid in my car. I you know, I wouldn't that would just be horrible to get charged with a felony because of that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I mean, you gotta, you know, in a court of law, like you know, by a reasonable doubt or whatever they say, like I don't think that would happen. But yeah, um, yeah, be careful. This just check your back seats. I mean, we're all guilty of it. Uh it makes me think of the times where you're taking the long trips and then you forget somebody's in the back of your car and they cough and you're like, geez.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, yeah. What was that? What am I doing? Yeah, uh yeah, you get in that little driving trance and yeah, yeah, you forget somebody's there.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, I have I haven't done it this year, but last year there were a couple of times I blew past a stop for one of my kids. Because you just get into like, yeah, you know, they're yelling and you're just like you know, like, oh shit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Well, Timmy's got to run run up there today. Sorry.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, right. And it's not like I can just do a UE, so it's a big deal having to track back that way. But for sure. Uh all right, Larry. Larry was so excited about these heat maps, y'all.
SPEAKER_04:Like, it's just I was not so excited. It was just I know, and they've been they've been everywhere else, I think, for years, because we've talked about it. And I I know I've seen this in you know, posts online in unless they tweaked them a little bit.
SPEAKER_06:It says it's their smartest map yet.
SPEAKER_04:So, yeah, maybe. So, yeah, anyway, it's it's got you know, picture the heat map says wait less and earn more with the rides heat map. Soon you'll be able to see where it's busy and what wait times to expect in areas where you could earn an extra with easy to read, warm colors. This is also our smartest map yet. The map shows estimated wait times and rider demand based on trips accepted in the last 30 minutes. It updates every 10 minutes so you can hit the road with confidence.
SPEAKER_06:So yeah, I mean we've we've had heat maps with lift here, but never really maps here with it's been around in our area for a long time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, though we've had the surge maps, but not heat maps. I don't think they've changed stuff so many times over the time we've been doing this. They could have had this three times here.
SPEAKER_06:That's true. Uh, there's a chatter on TikTok, I don't know how to pronounce his name, Jamenko. He said he's stopped doing ride chairs seven or eight years ago, and he goes, Thank you for the badge. I'm still learning TikTok, so forgive me. Well, if you want so are we, yeah. So are we if you want the full effect of the show, go to YouTube uh and just search the Gig Economy podcast. We'll be live right now, and you can see the pictures and videos.
SPEAKER_04:Please follow us on TikTok and please tell your friends to follow us so we can get a thousand followers so we can incorporate it into the regular uh camera. Yeah, it's so weird.
SPEAKER_06:Like you have to have a thousand to be able to like do it through StreamYard, which is kind of like I'm gonna have to create like 200 fake accounts to follow. Yeah, I think we're at like 780 or something like that, or 760. I don't know. I I I apologize. I've been MIA on that. I I just uh um just went in there today to stream, and there was like 74 notifications. I'm like, oh shit, I need to get back into the game.
SPEAKER_04:Uh you've been busy, man.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but yeah, that's no excuse though. Um, so yeah, Larry's excited about heat maps again. It maybe their tweaks a little bit more, but we've had heat maps here for food and for for rides for a long time.
SPEAKER_04:So um Yeah, it seems like maybe I remember them here at Windows.
SPEAKER_06:Is that from you though? Is that actually from your inbox? Yes. Okay, so I know a lot of times you say you don't get anything from Uber, but well, this is in the app.
SPEAKER_04:There's little messages you get in the in app. You know, he has that little email part or message part where you know it pops up and they're sending you the stuff about you know you have to take riders with service animals and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, not an email.
SPEAKER_06:Gotcha. All right. This next uh the this next video is about a driver. Some people say he doesn't care. We'll play it and then talk about it. Discuss. Uh it's a delivery. Listeners. And I've had this happen. Amazon will deliver these pack or ship these packages in these envelopes. You know, the plastic ones, you know, you've gotten them before. Sure. And um they are so light. I mean, if it's like a little SD card, you know, like oh yeah, you know, one of these, and maybe a little plastic gets gonna blow. And I don't know how do you how you solve that, other than like putting it inside the door. But the video shows him throwing it down. I didn't see him take a picture either, which was kind of weird. But then it blows away. And then it was very windy.
SPEAKER_04:See the trees in the background back there. It was a windy, windy day. Yeah, he I don't think it even got to the ground. He went to lay it down, and as soon as he as soon as he went to lay it down, like poof, it was gone.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and he just looks at it and just walks away.
SPEAKER_04:Not today.
SPEAKER_06:But I think if you I think it just it's just obvious, obviously common sense. If it is windy, try to you know cram it into something. I don't know if it's Amazon.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, put a put put something a rock on it or yeah, put it under a mat or something.
SPEAKER_06:I don't know, man. It's so funny though. I'm I I'll admit I'm so lazy with flex because I'm like, I'm I'm gonna do this. I mean, I don't speed, but I'm like, I'm gonna do this as much less work as possible.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, quickly as possible, you know. Least effort.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, if now if you're working for a company, you kind of look at it different because you're like, you know, you wanna, I don't know. Sure, I don't know what it is, but if I'm working for myself, I'm like, so if it's a lot of steps, I'm not going up there. I'm gonna put it at the bottom steps and take a picture. I'm I'm sorry. Um, I feel unless it like specifically says in the note that they're elderly or uh having some trouble, I will walk it up for that. But if it doesn't, and you got a lot of steps, fuck you for buying that house. Like figure something out because I'm not walking up there. You and you gotta walk up there to go home every day, so you can pick it up from the bottom and bring it up.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, they probably come in through the garage, man.
SPEAKER_06:Well, then I'll put it in front of the garage next time. Then you can run it over. Dear God. Oh, when man, we are flying through this stuff tonight. I just realized it might be a short show night.
SPEAKER_04:And Larry doesn't feel good either, so yeah, so I'd be okay with that.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, no customers, no business. That's that's that's the guy from uh from TikTok. Well, thank you. You can subscribe here too. I appreciate that. Appreciate it, man. Appreciate you listening in. Uh, all right, so whoops, for I almost forgot this.
SPEAKER_05:Waymo in the news.
SPEAKER_06:All right, Waymo in the news. Where is the video? This is in no okay. That was it. Yeah, that was it. I know you're you're more professional. You know, remember when I said I was gonna have you run the show like every other week? Fuck. Next week, here's your notice. Here is your notice. You are running the show next week. I was just gonna say, because Larry labels all these, so and then and typically I put them in order, which it is in order, Jason, because you just played the frickin' flex one. Okay, back to regular programming. Uh, so yeah, this Waymo is in a hurry, apparently.
SPEAKER_00:It's nice, it's a nice card, it's a Jaguar.
SPEAKER_02:Between an ass Waymo.
SPEAKER_04:And done. Okay. So I'm curious to hear your take on this.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so for the audio listeners, um you got a car and a Waymo, and then the Waymo goes into the right lane, and there's space in front of the other car. There's like one car space, passes that car, and then immediately cuts in. Um I don't know why it did that.
SPEAKER_04:Well, there was somebody trying to turn in, turn in front of that Waymo. Oh he was blocking an entrance.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, well, let's watch this again.
SPEAKER_00:It's nice, it's a nice car, it's a Jaguar.
SPEAKER_01:What's the doing? What's it doing?
SPEAKER_06:I don't think so. That car wasn't up there yet. There's no it there's no way it analyzed that data that quick. You it if if he would have waited there for like two or three seconds and then did it, I'd be okay with it. But yeah, um, I don't know. They kept saying the Waymo's being an asshole. But I guess logically, your yours makes sense. Because why would he by be why would he be jockey, I mean, we you know, for one space.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, I don't know. I mean, it read in some of the comments that had that they um they were on that page, they were talking about, hey, some of the the writers were saying, yeah, Waymo must have done a code adjustment or something because my Waymo's have been way more aggressive. And if if there's a space, they'll they're moving into it. My one guy was talking about his Waymo was going into the emergency lane to come around. But I don't know how they I don't know how they can see in front of that car to see how much space they're in.
SPEAKER_06:It's really well, we can kind of see, right? I mean, depending on how close you are, like as you're rolling up, you can see it. But I mean, I wouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_04:Like, I wouldn't have been like no, no, no, there's there was there was not a huge space, it was definitely just a car, pretty much uh you know a little over a car link.
SPEAKER_06:And you need a little bit more than a car link to maneuver in pull in, so yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, I I don't think most drivers would have would have done that.
SPEAKER_06:No, and I mean that is interesting though. It makes me think if if they're uh doing that, maybe they're thinking about New York City where it's run and gun and they have to be a little bit more aggressive.
SPEAKER_04:You gotta have the you know, drive like an asshole code, those way mows.
SPEAKER_06:Because those those those other drivers aren't gonna give a fuck. No, those taxi drivers, man, they'll run you over in a harbeat. You better get ready for scraping paint. Because that's what they do in New York City. Like Chicago, New York City. No one has a nice, you know, don't it's all dent up and shit from like just these little bumps, and no one pulls over for that shit. They're just like, all right, unless it's like uh airbag deployments. Yeah, unless unless there's something major.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's just part of it.
SPEAKER_06:So maybe they're then maybe they are maybe they are doing that to be a little bit although that just seems that's not more aggressive, it just seems stupid. Um but I I actually do like your answer. Maybe it was able to assess it sooner.
SPEAKER_04:You couldn't really see. Maybe I yeah, I my thoughts, maybe you had his blinker on and he was coming down that lane to turn, and the Waymo saw that and was like, I there's room for me to move out of the way. I mean, that's that's giving the Waymo a lot of credit.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, if it's that if yeah, if it if they did that, that's amazing. Because I don't even think my brain could process it that fast. I'm not saying that we're faster, but we've seen instances where our logic would have been way smarter than what the Waymo did or didn't do in that situation. So uh hey Steve. Hey Steve. Um, all right. Octopus tablet. If you are a ride share driver, I know our new friend, no customers, no business, is not because he said he quit seven, eight years ago. Come on, do it again. It's good for you. Uh, octopus tablet is a tablet you can get for free. Uh the tablet, the mount, the charger, all the everything. It has trivia games for your uh riders in the back. They love doing it, they love competing with their friends. Uh, and you earn a little bit of money each time they play and when the ads play. And uh so it it is good for them to interact with the tablet and and play it. So just to mention that. Uh, but yeah, check it out. The link is in the description. Everyone loves it um except the guy in the passenger seat in the front seat.
SPEAKER_04:They don't love it because they have no idea what's going on when people are shouting these random words.
SPEAKER_06:You know, it's funny. They um and I think we've talked about this, they nuked their Facebook account, which I thought was crazy. You you know that, right? Octopus tablet did have you been on the app? Is there is that where the community is now? I I know that they were gonna move it there. I I'm not part of it anymore because I'm not driving. Right.
SPEAKER_04:I haven't I haven't done much on the app except cash out.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, okay, that's fine. Um, but people would always say, Is it possible could we can get another tablet? They always talked about like putting one one on each side. I'm like, you know what? It's let's not overthink this, guys. They're in the car for three minutes, you know what I mean? Like, I mean it'll be okay. It it'll be okay, but yeah, check the link in the description. Uh, and uh yeah, get that shit. If you're if you're freaking uh if you're driving, it's it's dumb. I mean, if you're a full-time driver, you can make a hundred bucks a month, easy, and that's a couple of tanks of gas. And if you're and you really don't have to do anything, which says no for sure. Uh all right, Larry, TikTok. Here's our AI. I I'm this is interesting to me.
SPEAKER_04:This is interesting. This is Robocop, man. This is an that we'll play the video with it. Yeah, it's basically it's an AI police car.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, here we go. One uh one minute 19 seconds.
SPEAKER_07:This is insane. AI-powered self-driving police cars are officially here. Miami just rolled out the first ever autonomous patrol vehicle in the United States, and it doesn't even need a cop behind the wheel. It's called the PUG, short for Police Unmanned Ground Patrol Partner, a Ford Explorer-based robot police cruiser built by Policing Lab and Perron Robotics. This thing can patrol high crime areas, it can scan license plates, it can detect stolen cars, and even launch a drone into the sky, all while feeding real-time data back to command centers. It's packed with thermal imaging, 360-degree cameras, and an AI that can recognize patterns, identify suspicious activity, and alert human officers when backup is needed. Officials call it a force multiplier, designed to enhance officer safety and free deputies from repetitive patrol work so that they can focus on human interaction. Now, for now, it's part of a one-year pilot program in Miami Dade, where it'll appear at public events as police gather community feedback. Now, some see this as the future of law enforcement, others as a step toward sort of Robocop territory. But one thing is for sure Miami's newest recruit doesn't eat donuts, doesn't take breaks, and never blinks. The age of AI policing has officially begun.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so yeah, for the uh audio listeners, I mean you heard the story. But they one thing we we too we always talked about not not too long ago in the show, uh, why can't they build these on regular cars? And this is built on a Ford Explorer, it says Yeah, I was thinking that same thing.
SPEAKER_06:Not that that's a cheap car, but it's cheaper than 200,000. Yeah, yeah, quite a bit cheaper than 200,000.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting. It's gonna bring up a lot of concerns with people.
SPEAKER_06:I I I'm for it. Yeah. I I think you know, I think a lot of a lot of police work goes is just bullshit. Like they spend so much time on bullshit. Yeah. Um I think with with them being able to like I think the biggest problem I think people have is the recording and blah blah blah. But bro, walk down your street. Yeah, you're getting on the city. You're getting on every ring cam as you walk by. Like, I walked my dogs tonight for an hour. I was probably on a hundred ring cams around the neighborhood. Like, yeah, I don't have a problem with it. I think it's good. I think it will I really do. I think it'll free up uh police uh for regular patrols, and you know, if they if they spot something, they're not gonna do anything, they're gonna report back to dispatch and they'll send a robot in there that gets out and it'll see somebody not yet. No, I mean I I honestly I don't I mean maybe that'll happen. I think the world will blow up before that'll happen. But I like I like the the pattern recognition that is huge in police work, like especially in drug houses and stuff like that. You know, it's driving by, it's easy the same cars, you know, whatever. Um I would actually prefer this over those stupid flock cameras that they have all over now.
SPEAKER_04:Over the what?
SPEAKER_06:So they're called flock cameras, at least by us. And they're cameras they put on all over the area, and it takes a picture of every single license plate.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I'm sure you got them down in Kentucky. They might be called something different.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean we've got license plate readers.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but that's what it is. So I mean, you know, I I don't know. I just feel like that's uh is it really doing police work? I mean, it okay, you see a stolen car. I mean, I guess it does the same thing, it's establishing patterns, I guess. Um, but man, you're fucked if you commit a crime and uh you know, you know what I'm saying? Like I don't know, maybe it's the same thing, maybe I'm talking out both sides of my mouth.
SPEAKER_04:And I mean, I think it just takes some of the some of the manual work out of it because it can still be done. I when I was working for the um for the city several years ago, there's a guy who um there's a there's a shop on one of our streets, it's called 31 W Bypass, and he had a shop where he did a lot of holistic medicine, things like that. Apparently he was treating a lady she had cancer. Uh you know, who knows? According to the husband, he he said he could heal her, she ended up dying. The husband comes in unhappy and murders murders the guy.
SPEAKER_02:What?
SPEAKER_04:But I was you know, we we had enough cameras, just like intersection cameras and cameras on city buildings that I was able to track him for the police. Okay. Um for for the time they needed to know where he was at. Okay. But that was manual. That took me. That took me a while. That's a lot of labor. Like something like this could be done instantly.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:With when you're putting it running through computer and and AI and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_06:So yeah, I never really get really scared of like invasion. I don't know why. Maybe I don't know what it is. I'm like, as long as they're not coming in the house, although you know, I got cameras in my house too. I'm sure someone could hack them and do whatever, but uh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:I just feel like yeah, if they want to bad enough now, they can. Yeah, that there's equipment out there that they can sit and they can point, they can read what you're typing on your phone just by the the energy.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. I don't know. I think it's cool, not just the tech. I just like you know, it's tough enough being a cop. It is, especially in 2025, bro. Like it's tough, and you know, who knows? It maybe could sniff out some fucking cops that are being dirty too. You never know. If it all of a sudden it starts, you know, depending on who's that seeing that data, but yeah, you know, I mean, seeing these patterns of different things and stuff. So I I'm I'm not like running for it, but I I I would I'm I'm a wait and see on that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I I I I agree. I think it's I think it's pretty interesting. Uh it doesn't bother me or worry me in any way. Like I said, there's not a robot in there that's gonna jump out and apprehend somebody. It's mostly collecting data and surveillance and things like that. And if you can do that without having to have a body there, like I said, frees up people to do more important things.
SPEAKER_06:Well, and just having a frickin' cruiser driving around, I mean, that's gonna tice people's butts.
SPEAKER_04:They'll use dummy cars, they'll they'll park a police car somewhere for uh you know two weeks, and whether that helps with speed, you know, people's down or oh, there's a cop here in the area, you know, yeah. Hopefully it'll hang keep things you know quiet on a quiet, especially on your street, because that's wild down there. It's wild, man. No idea.
SPEAKER_06:All right. Uh so this guy, this video got pulled, but I I did get it. So um this is on Reddit. This guy breaks a bench uh while delivering. Um, let's see. It is oh, so I did I did have a motto order.
SPEAKER_04:It's a good thing you grabbed all your stories because it seems like they get pulled quite a bit.
SPEAKER_06:Well, so interesting enough, I I didn't I just pulled this video today. It was deleted, and somehow my little Reddit poller pulled it. Yeah, I don't know if there's some like data in the background, but yeah, it was able to pull it.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, because half the time by the time I go look at the show, yeah, like it's deleted. This has been deleted.
SPEAKER_06:And I don't know why people remove it. I don't once it's up there, it's like yeah, I can find it, but here we go.
SPEAKER_08:Oh, I thought I could see there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'm so sorry I heard my phone and I thought I sit there and it didn't work. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_06:He's rubbing his back.
SPEAKER_03:No problem. No problem. Are you okay?
SPEAKER_02:I gotta take a picture still.
SPEAKER_03:It's okay. I'll I'll uh let my boss something like that happen and see if they cover it. I don't know. I'll cut some new you okay. Do you need some water? Oh my god, drink a bunch of water. It's just arthritis in my hill.
SPEAKER_06:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So compare how dedicated he is to the other guy with the packages.
SPEAKER_06:So for the uh for the audio listeners, he goes to deliver a package. He seems he's have a little bit like if you notice at the beginning of the video, he looks like he's struggling a little bit, sure. Tired, and he sits down on this stone bench and it just falls, it cracks, and he falls down.
SPEAKER_04:And the lady's like, he's a good size boy, he's a big boy.
SPEAKER_06:He probably knew for Amazon because he's gonna lose that weight when uh when you give it a couple months. You don't see very many heavy set Amazon drivers. Yeah. Um, so he falls down, he's wailing. The lady comes out, she's rubbing his back. Like she was super nice about it. Like everyone in this whole video was super nice.
SPEAKER_04:They were, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Everybody was super, super nice.
SPEAKER_04:He said they were so worried about him.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, they said he still had to get a picture, so he's not like I think he's really new. Um, and then like he's gonna let his boss know and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04:So see if they could pay for it. And she's like, Oh, don't worry, I just want to make sure you're okay. Right. He was like, Yeah, we'll see if they can pay for it, maybe.
SPEAKER_06:Or you do run, you do wonder, like, oh god, you know, who's who's liable for that? Like, should you know, the commenting on you shouldn't have sat on the bench and blah blah blah. It's a fucking bench. That's yeah, that's I mean, that's what it's I mean, that's what it's there for. I mean, he didn't know, I mean, he's a big boy, but it didn't look broken right in the moment. I mean, the whole porch looked a little rough, but not like like totally bad.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, not like it was getting to fall apart.
SPEAKER_06:Right, and so um, you know, I don't know. I mean, they I think they should replace it just because that's what you do. Yeah, you fuck up, you do it, and yeah, you know, he'll probably get written up for sitting on personal property, but he was just taking a little breather because Amazon doesn't care about you, unfortunately. I hate to say it out there. Oh man, shatter my dreams. Yeah, you were thinking about it.
SPEAKER_04:I just yeah, I thought they had my back, man.
SPEAKER_06:But they they don't, they don't, just like the ride care companies. I cannot wait. I don't know if we'll be alive for it, but I just cannot wait for the technology of like there's gonna be no dry, like you're literally it's gonna spit it out a frickin' conveyor belt out of a van or something. Like you're there ain't gonna I mean I think not in our lifetime, but I think in my my younger kids' lifetime, they'll be it's gonna be all AI automated and uh yeah, AI has just it has exploded.
SPEAKER_04:It has. I can't even also been reading some stories where they're starting to pull back on it a little bit. Are they on the expectations and and things like that? So you know we'll we'll we'll see. Give it in another two years, I want to see where it's at.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I mean it is going it's so fast that I just was sitting here and just having a moment and like I can't keep up with it. Like, usually, yeah, I can like okay, the phones come out and so on and so forth, but now I'm just like this is too much.
SPEAKER_04:It can't keep going at the pace it is, or none of us will have any clean water to drink, right? So yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, is that what it is because the amount of water they're using to cool it?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, it's you it's used electricity and the water, yeah. It's it's humongous.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, damn.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's part of it. That's part of it. And then you know, a lot of it thinks a lot, you know, people think so. A lot of it's been overhyped, which surely nobody would do that. Never, right?
SPEAKER_06:Never, no one's ever done that.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, I think I think I've you know seen some places that have pulled back on a little bit and just kind of articles that people are starting to question, okay, uh are things have we had we gone out too far too fast. Some of these companies tried to get ahead of the curve, but yeah, you know, you're when you get on that bleeding edge of technology, it's always a risk. Yeah. Because you never know if it's gonna pan out the way you think it's going to or not. And you know, there could be a huge AI bubble, just like there is the big tech bubble.
SPEAKER_06:I tell you what, though, if if you're if you got some money to invest, not this is not advice at all. But yeah, we're not investment professionals, so start pumping it into that stuff, companies that are into that, because you could you lose it all, but it also could be like Apple shit. And then if we would have had a hundred shares of Apple, we could you know retire or something like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and just podcast full time.
SPEAKER_06:That's right, every day. Oh god. Uh last article of the day, and then there's one more we're gonna do save at the Patreon, and it's and it's Travis, our our boy Travis on the late night. Boy Travis, and it's it's embarrassing. So check out the Patreon if you want to see that. But Larry Lyft and Tensor partnered to make Robocar. It was an AI show, bro.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it really is. So, yeah, so Lyft made an announcement that they've uh partnered with this company called Tensor, uh, who's uh a pioneer in personal autonomous vehicles. So they've you know put together this collaboration, and I would I would you know just urge everybody to go to Tensor's website and look at their they have some really cool videos, informational videos, and it's just it's pretty interesting. Uh so what they're aiming to do through this collaboration, they want this robocar, is what they're naming it. Robocar, they want it to become the first personally owned autonomous vehicle uh to become Lyft ready directly from the manufacturer. So uh Lyft has also uh through its affiliates has reserved hundreds of Tensor Robocars to purchase for its own fleet operations. So Tensor was founded back in 2016. Uh it's it's distinguished itself as the first company to develop a level four AV design for personal ownership uh over the next few years. Tensor Robocars, which are equipped with NVIDIA powered onboard supercomputers, are going to row out L4 driving capabilities across Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, starting with major metropolitan areas. So Lyft and Tensor are uh they plan to complete an integration that will allow for Tensor Robocars to become immediately onboard Lyft's platform and let owners have instant access to monetize their vehicles. So that's amazing. In the past, in the past, we've you know, uh grown up, we've all bought our vehicles. And what and how often, if we if we really looked at it, how often are do we drive our vehicles? Never, very, very small percentage of the time. Right. I get up, I drive mine to work, I drive at home pretty much. Yeah, and and then you know, obviously, when we're doing ride share, we drive more than than most people. Well, that's new.
SPEAKER_06:That's new, like back in the 90s. You didn't do that.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. You do not do that. So um, so they're thinking, you know, this is this is them moving towards a fundamental shift in how people think about vehicle ownership. Um, you know, traditional car ownership means that a vehicle sits idle and loses value uh most of the time. So tensor robocars are gonna make it where you can buy this car and immediately put it on the Lyft platform and send it out to work. You can also uh they're also gonna make available to uh partner with Lyft's Fleet Management. Uh their subsidiary is called Flex Driver, and they have a complete suite of services which includes keeping vehicles clean, charged, and maintained. So you can partner with with them so you don't have to worry about all that stuff that you know we were we always think about. We're like, oh, hey, I send my car out. I'm at work. What if somebody throws up in the car?
SPEAKER_06:Well, yeah, but yeah, I I think about that. That sounds great, but what are you making on anyways, Anna? Is it gonna be right, right, right?
SPEAKER_04:You have to factor all that all in, yeah. It has to all be factoring in. It's obviously gonna it's like having a property manager for if you rental houses, you know, it's gonna take a bite out of your profits. But yeah, is it gonna is it gonna be worth it or not? Yeah, but you know, it's just neat to see something that's a little different than uh, you know, a Waymo or the Robo Taxi, yeah, or things like that.
SPEAKER_06:I'm excited that they've talked about it, they have a plan. Like that's that's it's you know, uh did they say when that's gonna be ready? I mean, obviously we can't afford the cars because they're probably like 200,000.
SPEAKER_04:They're two they're 200,000. Yeah, I looked it up. Uh let's see. Um I don't know if I'm ever seeing a date or nothing.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I mean, obviously it has to be active in a city that allows it.
SPEAKER_04:Right. And yeah, that's true. That's why they're you know gonna only start out in the metropolitan cities that already are gonna be using uh the autonomous vehicles because they're obviously not gonna be everywhere.
SPEAKER_06:Can you imagine all those in New York? And just no one in the car, and they're just everyone's all beeping at each other.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god, just 100,000 horns just beeping.
SPEAKER_06:Baba Sue says Josh is gonna buy her one. Wow. You guys, man.
SPEAKER_04:Man, that's a sugar daddy. I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_06:That sounds great.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's pretty cool. Says they have uh over 100 cutting edge sensors, including 37 cameras, five LIDARs, 11 radars, uh, 53 gigabytes of sensor data per second. Wow, which is roughly a thousand times faster than typical home internet all within a single robocar.
SPEAKER_06:Can you imagine like oh, one of the cameras broke? That's gonna be sixty thousand dollars to fix it. Is that is that gonna be cash or card?
SPEAKER_04:Really? Just put it on my tab.
SPEAKER_06:God damn.
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna be an indentured servant to live forever. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, we'll just we'll just deduct it from your account. So for the next 10 years, you work for us for free.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're yeah, that's what they're gonna do. You're just not gonna pay us anymore. We're just gonna get Lyft credit, so it'll go toward fixing our car.
SPEAKER_06:God. Like Larry and I, I think we talked about in the pre-ramble about like they, you know, put it on a$20,000,$30,000 car. Like, you can still put that on that kind of car. Like, they're gonna have to dumb it down for like real life stuff.
SPEAKER_04:I mean yeah, I mean, like the like the Ford Explorer. I mean, that's not a$20,000 car, but it's not a$200,000 car.
SPEAKER_06:No, no, and is it$200,000 car because of all the equipment on it, or is it just that's what that car costs? Because I don't know very many two hundred thousand dollar cars. Yeah, but then you know, like even those Jaguars that Waymo used, those things aren't those are like 70 grand, right? Right.
SPEAKER_04:I'm sure it's I'm sure it's uh that's gotta be with all the expected to cost$200,000. So that's including that's everything. Oh it's planned for a 2026 launch.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, geez.
SPEAKER_04:I mean it's gonna be built uh by Vietnamese automaker VinFast.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, nice. Yeah, it's coming. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about it in 2026. And that's not very far away, I'm afraid. No, it's a couple months for sure. Uh all right, Larry. Anything going on this weekend other than being on the toilet?
SPEAKER_04:Uh, hopefully not. Hopefully, I'll be feeling better and uh and we'll be out doing some rides here. Uh again, Western has another Tuesday football game and it's an away game next week. Okay. Um, but yeah, should be uh oh, wait a minute. Forgot Friday, from Friday night to Saturday night. I'll actually be at uh men's retreat with my church. Okay. So uh I'll be doing that. So maybe I'll um maybe I can get out either tomorrow night or on Sunday.
SPEAKER_06:All right. Yeah, no gig or for me. I'll be up north uh closing down the cabin and uh working basically. And it's gonna be cold and a little rainy, so I'm really looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we're talking about a bunch of rain coming in here Saturday, too.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, we got a lot, not a lot, but it rained pretty good. Was it this morning? Either this morning or yesterday morning, but anyways. Alright, 8 10 p.m. for the Patreon. Come join us so we can talk about Travis, and then as always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. See you on the road. All right, good night. Good night, everybody.
SPEAKER_05:This podcast is pretty. Produced and edited by Hey Guys Media Group. Want to start a podcast? Check out Hey Guys Media Group dot com.
