Uber Lawsuits, Driver Pay Drama & The Robot Takeover | Ep 296

A third grader opens our day with the most unhinged April Fools line imaginable, and somehow that’s still not the weirdest part of the night. We geek out over the NASA launch, then snap right back into the gig economy grind: weekend runs, a surprisingly good Lowe’s delivery, and the little moments that make DoorDash and rideshare life feel like a constant improv show.

Then the mood shifts to the stuff that actually matters for working drivers and riders. We break down Uber-backed efforts to make it harder to sue after crashes, why “sounds good” ballot language can hide ugly outcomes, and how rideshare insurance costs are now showing up right on receipts. We also talk about the real-world friction points that get drivers deactivated: the viral clip of a delivery driver walking behind the counter to grab an order, plus the simple “grease the wheels” approach that saves time without starting a fight.

And yes, we go full robot. From delivery robots getting flipped to one smashing through a glass bus shelter, plus a clip that raises a serious question: if a robot needs a human to press the crosswalk button, what happens when no one feels like helping? We tie that to DoorDash-linked autonomous delivery vehicles, the pace of automation, and why driver safety still comes first, especially after a club pickup turns into a front-seat standoff and a fight inside an Uber.

Subscribe for more real talk on Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, the gig economy, driver safety, and automation, then share this with a driver friend and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s the one gig work rule you never break?

Transcript

April Fools Bus Stop Story

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Hello, hello, podcast episode 296 with my sexy, beautiful, handsome, loving co-host Larry Duncan. How you doing, Larry? I see what you did there on April Fool's Day. Son of a bitch. Oh my God. Oh my God. Speaking of that, so I get a kid on my bus today, third grader, just cool kid, a little quirky, very smart. And he goes, Mr. Jason, I saw you you just hit a dog when you pulled up. And I was like, bro, no, no, I didn't. And he goes, Ah, April Fools. I'm like, dude, that's not an April fool. Like, it's supposed to be no, it's supposed to be a prank, not like, oh, you killed a dog with your bus.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

Cool. Man, yeah. He's still, yeah, he's this frontal lobe's still developing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

He's he's third grade, but uh he was trying.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

He's trying.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

So then he cackled all because him and I both started laughing. He's laughing all the way back to the uh to the seat there. So how's it going, Larry?

SPEAKER_03 1:27

It's going good. Yeah, looking forward to tonight. Always having uh get energized doing the podcast. Uh, I've been having fun nerding out watching the the rocket launch today. Um and then ready to head on vacation next week. So yeah.

NASA Launch Nerd Out

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Yeah, tonight we're not we're not talking weather, we're talking NASA.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

That's right. We're talking NASA.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I gave Larry a hard time because well, everybody, because I'm like, they're not even going to the moon, they're going around it.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

I'm like, Yeah, but they're gonna be the furthest away from Earth anyone has ever been.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Ever? Ever. Oh wow, yeah. So that's okay. I'll I'll I'll take that then. I'll take that as a as a pretty big win.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Now I mean it's it's obviously not landing on the moon, which is is is another level of you know difficulty and coolness and everything, but still, I mean it's been 50 years since we've seen anybody. Allegedly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Allegedly.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Oh, yeah. So yeah, I just think uh the space program's just always fascinating me. I always love watching. Um my son does too. When he was here, when he was here recuperating from his surgery for three weeks, like we'd be sitting there playing PlayStation and he'd be like, oh wait, and he'd pause it and he'd pull up YouTube and it'd be them shooting off a Falcon X rocket to put up, you know, Starlink satellites or something. Man, he's got it all come, you know, all pops up notifications on his phone and stuff. So cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

So that this was actually NASA though. This wasn't this was NASA.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Okay, yeah, this was NASA, not this was not a SpaceX deal. This was actually NASA.

Weekend Gig Work Recap

SPEAKER_02 2:56

All right, cool. Uh stories from the road. Anything for you? I I did I you promised that you were gonna be out, and did you work?

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Well, I was gonna work Sunday, and no, we spent it at all day at the ER, like I told you with my daughter.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Every you got too many kids, too many moving parts, everyone surgery on their ankles, watching rockets. I don't know, tell me. Okay, so I did go out, um, had a pretty decent day, did take one lift ride, uh, tried to, you know, get that dovetail. I did submit it, I did not get the confirmation yet, so I don't know if I fucked it up, but um, because usually by Wednesday they're like, okay, you did it right. Uh, didn't get that. Um, took a Lowe's order, and usually the Lowe's are paying low. They did there is no tip on those because I've actually used the service and it was$28. Uh, I did find out after the fact there was a$5 surge on that. I must have missed that got added, but it was mulch and a bunch of pots, and so I was like, oh my god, what's it gonna be like? Um, and I ended up going there, and it was only six bags of mulch and some big pots, so that wasn't too bad, and like seven miles for 28 bucks. I mean, I'll do that shit all day. Yeah, uh definitely maybe that's how I heard my back hurt my back, Larry. Maybe I was picking up those bags.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

I mean, they're they're not terribly heavy, but I mean, maybe it doesn't have to be heavy if you if you twist the wrong way or turn the wrong way, it doesn't have to be heavy at all.

Gas Incentives And Brain Glitches

SPEAKER_02 4:28

I know. And then I had gotten a cash tip. Does anyone in the chat or Larry remember what that was on? Because I don't know. I think it was just in the morning. I think it was just a cracker barrel or something. Um, yeah, I delivered it on DoorDash. Yeah, that's right. And they tipped me, and then they gave me five dollars cash, and like that's two uh weekends in a row. I maybe not in a row, but like the last two times I've worked, I've gotten cash tips. Maybe it's because of the fuel, the prices. Could be. Um, but they already tipped on the app, and it was, you know, obviously it was decent enough for me to take because I took it, you know what I mean. So I'm happy about that. But um, and then just wanted to talk real quick. I'm not gonna have a big thing about it, but as we got off the show last week, we were talking about the gas incentive. Uber was the first to, or no, was it DoorDash? No, it was DoorDash was the first to bust there. And um it definitely everyone else uh went falling. Like I think after the show, Uber, I we got a notification like maybe during the Patreon. Yeah, Uber's it's the same one, Lyft, same thing. They're all kind of you know, uh five dollars for 125 miles, so on and so forth for that. Um, so that's really not that exciting. Um, but what is exciting is if you join the Telegram group, you get some crazy messages. Now, I will have to say this wasn't in our group chat. I was actually talking about gig work to my other friends. So we're gonna play this. Literally, I don't know if I need to see a neurologist, and and and this is pretty bad. So um I will play this, and I it's a 20-second message, and you think I about died in it, but here we go.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

You know, cracker barrel is I'm outwork doing gig work this morning. Cracker bear, cracker. I have a fucking stroke.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Cracker barrel. People watching is almost as good as Walmart people watching. Okay, I want you to listen to the first part because it goes miss. I did I screwed up the first one too. Listen to the first one because it it I rolled it like I was I had marbles.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Okay, you know, cracker bell or I'm outworking bigger this morning. Cracker bell cracker. I have a fucking stroke. Oh goodness, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Uh I gotta God help me. I'm serious. I have that up a lot, like a couple times a week, and I'm like, is this normal for old age or am I like pre dementia? I mean, I don't know. I've never I haven't dared look it up online because I'm worried.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Yeah, you might have some part-timers going on.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I mean, part-timers? What's that? Instead of instead of all timers, just part-timers. Oh, yeah, okay, got you. Yeah, that that could be a possibility. I don't know. That that shit worries me every once in a while when that happens, but uh, I think I'm all good. Well, I'll probably happen tonight at some point.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

It happens, man. Me and my wife do the same thing. We'll talk to each other and we'll be like, I I really think I'm losing my mind.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

I I kind of wish I had video recorded that, although I could probably get it from my dash cam, but I'm trying to because when I watch people do that on TikTok, I'm dying. I'm rolling.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

They just their faces are just like they just be like I know what word I want to say, but my mind, my brain is not getting that word out. It's wild.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

It's so fucking funny when that show.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

It gives you, I guess maybe that's just like a little tiny taste of what it would be like to you know have uh like a speech impediment, a stutter or something.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

I don't even know if it's a speech because it's a it's a right, a brain, a brain thing. Although I guess that is speech. I don't know. We're not we're not language experts on this show either. So no.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

One of the many things we do not do.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah, well, we try them all because we stayed out of holiday and express. That's right. Do you still do you get that joke from those TV commercials? Oh yeah, oh yeah. God, I tried to do that with my kids and they look at me like I'm high because they probably they don't remember it. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

I remember those commercials.

Uber-Backed Lawsuit Limits

SPEAKER_02 8:40

All right. Um, I as I read through this article, uh sorry, Gig Economy in the news, jumping right in. Um Uber Black Uber Jesus Christ. Uberbacks. No, come on. It's UBB, Uberbacks Bills to make it harder to sue for them for crashes. So I think we talked a little bit about this. Um, but this is uh God, I don't even know. I looked for the date. You know, it always scares me when an article doesn't have a date on it. Um, but they're funneling tons of millions of dollars in California to make it harder for riders, pedestrians, and drivers to sue after in damages after car crashes. Uh Uber is backing head of a 1.25 billion plant. Oh no, that's sorry, I read that wrong. The California proposal dubbed the Protecting Automobile Accident Victims from Attorney Self-Dealing Act. Say that five times fast. Yeah. Didn't mess that up. Slayed for November midterm election. It would require crash victims to keep 75% of their total sediment, settlement awards, leaving lawyers and hospitals split the uh 25% left, which sounds great, but the problem is lawyers are gonna not take it because they're only getting 25% of the settlement, and then they gotta split that with you know who else, like all the attorneys that are working for them. So this is not great. Um, and I know that I hope it doesn't happen. Um it looks like in let's see, uh Nevada Uber spent five million backing a ballot similar to California's, but uh the state Supreme Court blocked the measure, which is good. Um so it's kind of a shit. It's kind of a shady thing, you know what I mean? It's it's one of those things where Yeah, it looks I think people that are that don't read the article are gonna say, oh, this is great for the victims, right? And not read the whole thing of where, you know, what attorney's gonna take that.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah, yeah. You just hear, you know, you just see the headline and you're like, oh, that's not that's that's great. That that should be like that, until you get into the details and you realize the implications that it's gonna uh cause probably a lot of people not to be able to get a lawyer to do.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

One thing that really frustrates me, and and I know you're gonna say, well, that's just business, is just these they don't care. No, they all they care about is their bottom dollar. And I get it. If you work for a company, you want to make them money, you want to make successful, but at what cost?

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Like there's got to be a moral clause somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Sure, and and you know, companies have shown that you can be a good company and still make money.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Of course, of course, and I I understand it's a litigious society, and I think maybe that okay, maybe they need to do a little bit more of something, like, but not like basically saying, you know, the only attorneys that are gonna take this are like newbies or bottom feeders and they're not gonna be successful, and then in turn the victim doesn't get taken care of. So it's just a frustrating thing. Um, so if you if that does come up in your ballot somewhere, like please vote no on that because I mean it's it's obviously happening in all the states. I think it had said something like uh shoot, I want to say Tennessee somewhere too. Done by you. I I feel like I read somewhere, but maybe not.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah, I don't see anything else in this one. It just covers California, New York, and uh Nevada.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

What's weird about this is there's one in New York has proposed an Uber backed proposed an Uber back plan to limit how much money crash victims could collect in lawsuits. Uber has dumped three million into a political action committee supporting her re-election campaign. Although this is a Democrat. Why would they be it? Usually the Democrats are like, yeah, let's let's stick it to the man, but um yeah, it's it sucks. But and remember we talked about in February a jury ordered Uber to pay 8.5 million to a victim after it found the company liable for its driver's sexual assault, which that's huge. I at least for that, at least we got that going for the yeah, and they're facing over 3,000 similar lawsuits. Oh yeah. Yeah, so they're kind of scrambling.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Um quick.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah, it just kind of sucks that uh that we have to come to this. Like we're not we're we're kind of fucking the victim and and uh yeah, just kind of sucks.

Delivery Driver Grabs Order

SPEAKER_03 13:08

So it does, yeah. Yep, we talk about it many times.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

All right, we got some great videos tonight. Yeah. And you want to set this one up a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Yeah, so this this is a uh uh probably DoorDash or food delivery.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Um could be any of them.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Person, yeah, any any of the apps, but he he's a delivery person and comes in and you know, sometimes you have to wait around for your order and he's just not having it. Just not having it. He's coming in, he's on a mission, he wants to get it and deliver it, so he just uh he just takes it. So yeah, we'll play it and then uh talk about it some more.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

I need six of order number 4017. Come on, man.

unknown 13:51

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, you'll start it.

SPEAKER_07 14:03

Oh, I stole it, I stole it.

SPEAKER_05 14:07

No, no, no, he has the last road, fuck you. Hey, movie, it's okay. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Oh, yeah. So yeah, he just he he he could tell he was not in a good mood. Uh I don't know how he knew which order was his. He just went and grabbed one and then he looked like he looked at it and and it appeared to be the right one.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah, uh so much to talk about that. One, he's wearing a suit suit go. I'm like, okay, you know, you get out of work and I mean and no judgment there, but okay, definitely dressed up more than your average food delivery person. I mean, I I gotta say it's I'm impressed with that because like he could be wearing pajamas, but yeah, um yeah, he checked the number, he thought it was his, and I I I do understand that it does get it does get annoying when you're not getting the attention. I understand. I'm always in a hurry too, and I try to be patient. I always put a big smile on my face and like hi, just like a nice wave just to sure not come across as like I'm even though I want to like throat punch them because they're taking too long. But I mean they got other shit to do too.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Um I don't understand. Like, this is you see the video like when it started recording. Did he actually ask them, hey, I'm looking for this order? Because that's on you as a dasher.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Yeah, and it's and thing so for the audio listeners, the the orders are are behind the counter, uh sitting on a shelf. And obviously his order is ready. It was sitting there, it was packaged up. So you know, maybe he saw them put it that put that order there and it was or maybe he was watching them pack it up and he was pretty sure that was his order. He saw the food going in, and he just walks you know through the opening in the counter where where the employees you know come in and out behind the counter. He just walks through and grabs it and then he's trying to show him his phone, and he slips with his phone, his phone goes flying across the room and lands. And then and then this lady sounded like she had maybe like an Indian accent, and she's she's jawing with him back and forth. And as he's leaving, he's she's like, Fuck you.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah, they were they're they're the the the problem is is that they're they're probably gonna report him, he's probably gonna get deactivated.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yeah, yeah, because then he was cussing her out, and then then the one guy that worked at McDonald's is like Maria, calm down, he's delivering food for a living, calm down. Oh, I missed that part. Yeah, listen to it again after the show.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Yeah, maybe, maybe he maybe they were giving him some shit. Maybe the manager was like kind of being a B and they finally started that person started recording. Obviously, I don't think they were affiliated with the Dash or whoever was recording. They probably like, oh, this is getting chippy. Let's start recording it.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yeah, um, yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Yeah, well, I don't recommend treating the McDonald's like you. I always this is what I always say grease the wheels, like be nice, kill them with kindness. Now, there's a time and a place to to dial it up a little bit, but I actually never even say I'm here for DoorDash. I just stand with my phone, try to make eye contact with somebody. If I get ignored, I give it a okay, I'm gonna give another 20, 30 seconds, and then I'll just say, Hey, I'm here for a DoorDash. Can you check on this for me? You know, just just be kind about it. Um, it's just it's not worth treating them like shit because guess what? You're gonna probably go back there. Chances are you're in an area where you live or work regularly, and you're gonna have to deal with that person. And and they could, I mean, they could do it again. They turn that shit around, they see you, they're gonna go to the back, they're gonna run the fryer. I mean, I don't know. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

Yeah, and usually that that works in your favor if you are nice because they do I'm sure they deal with so many people who are impatient and not nice to them. So to show them a little bit of kindness, you know, sometimes that don't really work in your favor. But as you said, it sometimes there does get to be a point you do have to be a little more aggressive about things.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Yeah, and to surprise all of you, I do I am generally nice. I'm not faking it when I do it. Now, if you piss me off, I'm gonna be it's not I'm not gonna be nice, but um, I just know that like if I'm nice, yeah, they'll be nice, I'll get my food, I'll go out the next time I come in, they'll remember that, so on and so forth, and that's how the world works.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

Exactly. Yeah, it it's you know, it's a circle. Yeah, if you're nice to them, and like I said, they they uh tend to remember that and they might you know help you out and make sure to get your food a little more promptly the next time. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

All right, uh, got a lot of robot delivering food. Uh it's you know, even the Waymo tonight is not a Waymo, so I can't remember what oh I yeah, I actually do remember what it is. But uh let's see, I don't remember which one this was. Let me check. Okay, I got it. Sorry. I even uh taking people's jobs, man. Shit, it's still playing. Yeah, well, why are you looking at that and saying it's fucking good? Hold on.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Where is it playing? I don't know where is it playing? Taking people's jobs, man. Fuck it's I don't even have the browser to open. Oh my goodness. Oh no. Taking people's jobs, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Oh fuck. There you go. It was like in a hidden browser. It was like I looked at Chrome. You know how you can hover over it and see what's open? So I just erased everything and then it popped up. It was right there. Yeah. I'm so sorry about that. I thought it happens. I wanted to test which one it was, and it just like it opened a browser, and that was the end of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

So you know, we're switching soft back to software. This software changed.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

I know. Uh, let's see. Okay, I think I got it's it's well, y'all heard it, so now now you now you get to see it. So here we go.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

Taking people's jobs, man. Stop taking people's fucking jobs.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Yeah, see, I I didn't hear it when the other oh you couldn't hear it? I did not. I could not.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Okay. It was like in a secret browser. I'm like, maybe it opened an edge or something. Like, I don't know. It it shouldn't have. I'm using Chrome, anyways. Yeah, weird thing. So a guy's just pissed. You you can hear he's going to uh flip the dot robots over, and I love it. I love the energy. Um and the other video we have under the Waymo uh is is kind of the same thing. Like uh I you know it's you're probably gonna get charged with something, right? Oh, probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yeah, they're not gonna be happy about that because I'm you know it's somebody's recording. Uh you're on camera somewhere. It but it reminds me too of the people that used to get so mad at uh the scooters and just like throw them off the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Oh yeah, they still that still happens. Obviously, yeah. Obviously, they still must be able to make money from them, even though people do that because they continue to factor all that in, you know, to the price of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

They know they're gonna lose so many, you know, and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Um, I was thinking to myself, those those the robots gotta have cameras on them, so they probably can take a picture of the guy doing it.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Like, you know, oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's recording everything.

Patreon Shoutouts And Aftershow

Robot Crashes Through Bus Shelter

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yeah. Um, yeah, what a douche canoe. Hey, I would love for you to join the Patreon if you go to patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. Uh, there you can support us at a three dollars a tier, uh, three dollar tier, a seven dollar tier, and and so on and so forth. You can do that for seven days free. Go to patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. I want to thank our Patreon members, Samson, Bud, Omar, Frank, Tom, Jim, Miguel, Linda, Jerry, Faith, Metal Kickass. Faith's in the chat right now. Anna, uh, appreciate you guys so much. Uh, yeah. Join the join the fun. We always podcast after every show at 8 10 p.m. Eastern time. All right, Larry, surveillance footage uh shows a robot crash. Another video.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

This is another video of uh we'll show uh uh another one of the little delivery robots um going down the sidewalk in Chicago, you know, just making his little merry way. And unfortunately, things just don't go well.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

I wanted to see it. Well, first of all, it hits the glass and then it goes, the eyes go.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Did it play for everybody? Yeah. Okay. Why did you show in my in my in our main screen? It was saying your browser failed to show the clip. It was playing in the smaller screen on the left, but I didn't see it.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Okay. Sue. Uh I could teach it again. Should I try it again? Try it again. Let's see. What's happening tonight? Shit balls. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_05 23:33

Blink, blink.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

So funny. Yeah, that was better. Um, I like the eyes that goes. Oh, that's exactly what I said. Yeah, it's almost like the big googly eyes, you know, and they just get like blinking, like, what happened? So, yeah, for our audio listeners, this uh delivery robot's going down the sidewalk in Chicago, and there's one of those little bus shelters, and it's got glass you know, walls, and so it's going down the sidewalk, and for some reason, uh, in the opening where you go in to sit out on the bench, it it veers in there and then it just crashes right through the sidewall of this bus shelter, and and then of course it stops and then it backs up, and its little eyes are blinking. Right. Like, what did I do? And it just kind of backs up. And I'd like to see the rest of the video, whenever it just took off and left.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Same. I was hoping that they would show the rest. I I'll I'll be honest with you. At the beginning of the video, video, it that glass is really transparent. I had a oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I couldn't tell if it was broke. I mean, other than not seeing the debris on the bottom, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

But it looked see-through at that moment, it did, yeah. It it somebody did a good job cleaning it, yeah, or something.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

But yeah, like here we go. This is this is this now. Would you ever see a driver run through that? Probably not. They'd probably kill somebody in the in the meantime doing that. But they and and it that happened twice in one week.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

I saw another video really thing. Yeah, different. It was very similar, but but different. Like hit the glass at a bus stop. Hit the glass at a bus stop, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Why are they putting glass at a bus stop anyways? Can we just put I mean, I guess when you're using that plexiglass, it gets a little nasty because people can scratch it and stuff like that. But um, it just seems I don't know, with it being so close to the road, putting like a bunch of glass there. I mean, I'm not defending the uh the robot by any means, but um it seem seems kind of crazy to do that.

Uber Receipt Insurance Pressure

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Yeah, yeah, it really does.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Um, all right, so over the I don't know, the weekend, I actually took an Uber. Um, I was working for the old folks and they bought another car and basically I had to move it to another uh campus, and then I had to get back to my car because it's Saturday and no one's there to help me. But I wanted to show this. I thought this was interesting, and I've never seen it before. But in December in 2025, this is on my receipt in Michigan. Roughly 21% of customers' fares went towards covering government mandated commercial insurance for rideshare TNC uh trips. Take action to bring the cost down. Now I didn't click on it. Um, I guess I could have, I probably should have. But I thought that was interesting that they're uh they're spamming the receipt of like trying to reduce, you know, because didn't we talk about was it California that just reduced it? They to quite a bit like the they reduced the m because it was a million, but I think they brought it down to like what like 150,000 or something, yeah. It was way, way down. Way down. So my guess is Michigan is really high, so it it they want to bring it down. I know Michigan has some of the highest insurance rates in the nation. It's uh it's no fault insurance, so I it it it costs so much. Um, but I just thought it was interesting they were uh spamming me in the uh yeah, in your receipt.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

Yeah, I don't remember getting anything like that before.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yeah, not when we were like, well, I well, I guess I just honestly, I recently just took one too when I went to that concert and I didn't I didn't get anything like that. So kind of strange.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

But yeah, they're trying to say, you know, hey, look, guys, we understand the prices are up, but we're we're not the bad guys, you know, a huge percentage of it's going toward this insurance.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Yeah, I mean 21% is quite a bit of the fare to go to just insurance. You know, that that that's right off the top. You make it, you know, a dollar and 69, you're only getting 69%, you know, and then you got to pay the driver, which they'll probably reduce, and then you pay then you pay the driver the one percent that he gets.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Exactly. Yeah. Man, y'all get one percent in Michigan. Man, yeah, I got it good. I know. I got it good. Richard. Yeah, just think about it if uh in your own own car. If like every time you're going somewhere, you had to pay that much in insurance.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Yeah. I mean, I get it, um, but you know, we've all been paying a lot for insurance forever. So I guess it's kind of your turn, you know what I mean. So uh Babasue, what does it say? I missed it.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

She said that yeah, she had that on her.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Oh, so it's as well. Maybe they're maybe they're making a push with all the states or whatever one that's most expensive for them.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing that.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

God, all this all this lobbying they're doing, they're in the the lawsuits, they're in the insurance, they're in just everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

They are, yeah. It's hard to even imagine how many lobbyists they're paying and lawyers and yeah, yeah, marketing people for all this stuff.

Uber Buys Blacklane Chauffeurs

SPEAKER_02 28:37

I'd hate to see their payroll, god dang. All right, moving on, Uber acquiring back lane, bringing chauffeur service to rideshare giant. Is this different from what we talked about last week?

SPEAKER_03 28:48

It is. Yeah, so they were getting into the um kind of the the what we call it, super, like I'm super black or higher than black. Yeah, elite. I think they called it elite. Elite, yeah. So um in in this story, they actually uh are buying a company called Black Lane, which is a global chauffeur service company. Okay. Uh it started over in Germany in 2011. So Black Lane, um, kind of like Uber, they say they're not uh a transportation company, they're a tech company. It doesn't have its own cars, uh, it doesn't directly hire drivers or anyway. So they kind of used uh they they kind of operate like Uber, but just for chauffeur trips. And I think um this is something that Uber's looking into growing. They said it's one of their fastest growing segments of their business. Um there's a like there's just been a strong demand for planned rides and premium cars. Um so they said pre-booked Uber reserve trips in particular have become one of the fastest growing parts of Uber's business. Okay. Yeah, they're still, you know, uh say they're acquiring Black Lane, it's just expected to kind of grow their uh chauffeur sector with along with the Uber elite.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

You know, there are a lot of driving things for for faith says for tiger. Yeah, that motherfucker. There's speculation that it was um like painkillers because he didn't he yeah, he didn't have no alcohol.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Yeah, and he had opioids in his pocket, apparently.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Oh, did he? I didn't hear that part of it.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

He said he was yeah, it's supposed to be Blue Zero, but that's what it was last time. It wasn't alcohol, I don't think last time. I think it was when it prescription drugs last time he flipped the zero.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

I don't know. Um but it does uh bode the question. I s um Uber's, you know, that's what a business does. It it looks for a need, right, and then tries to to to fill it. Like that's why inventions happen and so on and so forth. I think another need that they need to work on, and I'm sure we've talked about it, but like I see people like, oh, we're looking for a um like a party bus, but a party bus around here is like$1,500,$2,000 for like four hours. Like it's really an insane amount of money. And so I don't know if it's because the insurance is high, but like there doesn't seem to be any middle ground for that, you know what I mean? Um and I don't know why Uber hasn't jumped on that. Maybe it's not profitable, but like, yeah, the companies around here, there's like two or three big companies, and they just yeah, it's it's it's insanely expensive.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Yeah, they the author of this article talked about it. Um she had just uh wrote about her experience with Black Lane uh recently, where the company charged$190 for a 15-minute trip.

SPEAKER_05 31:40

Woo!

SPEAKER_03 31:41

It said it and they didn't even bring the car seat that was correctly requested. Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

So not not a great experience, not for her, yeah. Um so yeah, I mean the advantage of this is what you have a show, like I guess what's different from like an Uber Elite. Like is this person?

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Well, yeah, I mean this this yeah, I don't know. Um that's a good good question. What differentiation? I may maybe this just they're just kind of buying their client list their drivers, you know, they're they're acquiring them instead of trying to uh hire or find a bunch of new drivers uh with these really super premium new cars. That this is already a network that's there, so they're just kind of buying that to grow the elite business.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

I guess. I mean, honestly, getting a chauffeur's license is no big deal. It doesn't make them any professional, like it's a 15 question test at the fucking DMV. Like it's it's not like the hat.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Get out of the hat.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Oh, yeah. Well, once you get the hat, you're you're straight. Yeah, yeah. But I just wonder what the advantage of having a chauffeur, especially a hundred. I mean, I guess it could be a nicer car. Um, maybe they help you bring your groceries in. I don't know, but like 15 a 15-minute trip,$190, like Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

Yeah, that's that's pretty steep, man.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

I mean that I mean again, what is it different? I mean, I'd I'd rather take an Uber shit box for 15 minutes than$190. I mean, yeah, of course, the guy's probably smoking weed while you're driving down the road, but I mean, I'm not spending$190. Like, fuck that. It's way too much.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Yeah, yeah. You know anything fancy. Anything that's different. Yeah. I mean, you do you do use an app to call, you know, oh god.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Oh, never mind. Charge us$500 a minute. No one has an app out there.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

No, I'm just saying, you know, it's it's not it's an app-based company. I said they're they call themselves a technology company as well. Oh, do they?

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Um well, let's sign up for it. Probably not in our area. Can I do that?

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Yeah, so they have plan trips and they have, you know, you can you can s order a a chauffeur like immediately, just like you would an Uber. So it doesn't necessarily have to be like a plan trip.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Yeah, it sounds like I guess with most chauffeurs you couldn't do that. What does it say about the cars though? Like, I'm wondering if yeah, is it a limousine or is it just like uh Hyundai?

SPEAKER_03 34:20

I don't think so. A Jetta. Let's see. Uh okay, so there's there's there's different classes. Uh business class is like Mercedes E class, BMW 5, Audi first class is like a Mercedes S class, BMW 7, Audi 8 are similar. Then there's a business van, which is like a Mercedes uh V class, Chevy Suburban, had like Escalade or Denali. Um yeah, I guess that's their three different classes.

Robot Needs Help Crossing Street

SPEAKER_02 34:49

I mean, I guess those are nice cars, but like again, I'm not paying that much. Yeah. Like that's stupid. All right, let's move on. I'm tired of rich people spending money that I don't have. Yeah, there you go. Um, okay, so let's see. Uh which one is this? You know, it's funny. Okay, here we go. All right. Um, this is I'm not gonna play the sounder because it's not technically Waymo in the news, but uh this is another scooter thing. Uh the guy won't help the robot cross the street. Apparently, it asked him to press the button, and this guy said uh no way.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Huh? Hello, what do you want? What do you want? You want me to press the button for you? You want me to press the button for you, make the fuck you? Press the human skill and you want me to press the button for you. It's not my problem. What the fuck have you ever done for me? Mingo is just fucking stuck. It got the green light, but it can't go because it doesn't have the walk signal. Not my problem. Not my problem.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Oh my god. He's he's uh fired up about it. What would be hilarious if that thing just like back up and then just like rammed oh right in the ankle?

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Yes. Um yeah, he sounded sounded like he was from Boston. He had kind of a little uh east east coast uh accent a little bit, but like that would be northern attitude, right? Like that would be me. That would be me like cursing at it, like nah, fuck you. No, I'd probably press it. I I I probably would. You probably would, but that that brings up a good point. I don't know what um what company that was. It it wasn't Doordash, it wasn't Uber.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Um I didn't I hadn't seen one that color before.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

No, me either. But um is if that's really the case that you have to have a human press that button for you to cross, like that's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Yeah, and and I don't understand how that could be true because there's gonna be intersections that don't have buttons, you know, that don't have a crosswalk light. What is it gonna do there?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

Um, maybe it's gotta be able to watch, you know, determine by the traffic and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

Yeah. Uh Faith says that's my fave of the week if it's real. I think it's my fave of the month. I mean, it it beats some of those Waymo's. Like the whole theme this show has been like, fuck the robots, fuck you, do it yourself. I don't think I would flip one over. I don't want to get charged with something, but yeah, make you pay for it.

SPEAKER_03 37:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

I think probably costs 50 grand, if not more. Um, but yeah, if it if it really has to push the button, like again, it could be a bit. He had a watermark on there, so I always worry about that a little bit. But um, yeah, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Cause I I just don't think every intersection's gonna have a crossline.

Uber Pickup Turns Into Fight

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Well, remember, I mean, they're probably only driven or delivering in a couple mile radius from a downtown. So my guess is if it's busy enough, they're all gonna have one. But yeah, you get a maybe 10-15 blocks out of the city, probably not, but um, yeah. Uh, all right. This is a uh Uber, a fight inside the Uber. Did you watch this whole video, Larry? Uh yes, I think so. Okay, I didn't watch it, I just watched the beginning of it. It says two minutes and thirteen, so we'll play it and see. I believe it's not fighting the driver. I think two people, one in the back, one in the front, are fighting.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Well, here I if you only I'll set it up for you. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. Yeah, so um, so the driver's picking up from a club, and the guy just gets in his front seat. You know, rookie mistake, don't leave the doors uh unlocked. So this guy gets in there, is like, take me home. And the guy's like, no, I'm here to pick up one of the dancers here. Oh and so then eventually he's like berating the guy, and then eventually the dancer gets in and uh and him and and the guy, unwanted passenger, get into it, and the driver gets involved a little bit, but not really by choice.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Okay. Is that good?

SPEAKER_07 39:25

Yeah. Hey, hey, a fight over an Uber that one passenger wasn't even supposed to be in.

SPEAKER_06 39:37

This guy just decided to come with my car and sit in my car and started demanding me to drive him, and I was like, hey, bro, you gotta like get out of my car.

SPEAKER_07 39:47

But the unwelcome passenger did not exit Thomas Rodriguez's Uber. The part-time driver says the situation escalated when one of the dancers at Splash Nightclub, who was supposed to be in the car, stepped inside. That's when the unwelcome passenger started berating the dancer and the driver.

SPEAKER_06 40:04

I'm picking up the dancers. Hey, well, shut up. Shut the f up. Stupid.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

You're stupid. Hey, hey, hey.

SPEAKER_06 40:13

When he did that, I first I was like, wow, well, this is actually happening. But you know, I had to defend myself too because it was not just my passengers, it was, you know, me there as well.

SPEAKER_07 40:26

Rodriguez says in the thousands of rides he's driven, he's never had an encounter like this. That's just one out of more than 11,000 people there that I've driven, you know. Rodriguez says he and other drivers are always aware of the threats that come with their job. On Thanksgiving of last year, an Uber driver was shot in the back of the head by their passenger.

SPEAKER_06 40:46

That's actually the second time I've known about this. It happened a couple years ago. More more like about five or six years ago, it did happen. So, I mean, there is that danger, but I mean, we all have to find a way to around it.

SPEAKER_07 41:02

Still, he won't be discouraged by one bad interaction, armed with dash cams. This one's the back. There we are, right?

SPEAKER_06 41:08

This is the front, and then this is us here in the cabin, as as you see, and and as you saw the video that we posted.

SPEAKER_07 41:16

And a mandatory pin for passengers, Rodriguez says he'll keep on driving, putting his best foot forward on the gas pedal. As for the unwanted passenger event promoter Ray Kenga, who uploaded the viral video, had this to say control your drinking, and if you're not someone that ends up good when you drink, you probably shouldn't be out. In Fresno for Eurocentral Valley.com. I'm Marco Rosas.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Yeah, I mean, I feel like the guy in the back, he kind of egged it.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

I I mean, oh yeah, he he he was like from zero to 60. I mean, he was just he was ready to fight.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Yeah, and well, what's funny is like he's sober, like he's he he he got done working, whatever, and like that other guy's drunk as fuck.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

And then he was in good shape, you know. He was a dancer, yeah. But he was he was yeah, he was in good shape. He was gonna get the better part of that.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

There was a couple pounds like on the back of his head. I'm like, bro, you better get out, you're gonna get a head injury at this point. Yes. Um, every time we watch these, it always makes me nervous to go do ride share again. You know what I mean? It's just like sure.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

Because it can happen. I mean, you know, it it can happen to any of us at any time when you're going ride share. It can. You just you I mean, you no nobody ever expects that to happen. And uh, but yeah, definitely definitely should have had his doors locked and confirmed the passenger before you let him in, especially if you could tell he was that drunk.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

Yeah, that's a rookie mistake. If it if it's if it's late at night, those doors are locked, you crack the window.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

Yeah, confirm confirm the passenger before you let him in. Yeah, especially at a club, man, where people are always trying to get in your car. Yeah, oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

And if he's picking up a dancer, it was probably late too, like two in the morning. Yeah, I'm sure it was. Oh man, dude. Just y'all be careful. Although, like I said, they talked about that person getting shot in the backhead. There's literally you can't defend that. I mean, you just you're really a sitting duck. Yep. Which is that's where I go, God, should I be doing this?

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Like, you know, I think we've all had those thoughts before, you know, especially when you read something like this or see a you know, see a video. And you can we we you know, we we don't put many of these on the show anymore just because we we could do it every week. There's there's stuff every week when we search for news, uh there's you know new stuff, a couple of them usually every week that we could put on here. And we don't want that show just to be about that, and we don't want to you know look at the dark side all the time, but it's good to have it every now and then just as a reminder hey, be safe out there, be smart, you know, be aware of your surroundings, what's going on, keep your doors locked, you know, be smart about things as much as you can.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Yeah, I mean that's the that's the biggest takeaway. He should have had his doors locked. Make sure if you're driving in. I mean, really, mine are I think mine are set up like once I hit park, though, they do unlock, but then I immediately Lock them. You know what I mean? I'm sure I can.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

I'll pull up and I won't put my car in the park.

Illinois Rideshare Union Bill

SPEAKER_02 44:04

I'll pull up and oh, foot on the brake. Yeah, keep foot on the brake, usually. Yeah, it's not a bad, that's not a bad way to go too. I mean that way if you need to take off too, man, you can go. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Um, yeah. So just be smart with that. Uh all right, Larry. We're talking unions. I don't know why we do because every time it's always I hope it's more than 12. Remember the last one we talked about with the Amazon one? It was a few or 12.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

I forgot about that. I forgot about that. Yeah. So yeah, this is uh a bill that's been introduced in Illinois, you know, to allow rideshare drivers uh to unionize. So it's supposed to advance out of the um House Committee Thursday. Uh, I guess that'd be tomorrow from when we're recording. So it's gonna allow contract drivers to organize and negotiate with the rideshare companies and remain independent contractors. Um, you know, the supporters of the bill said that it would give drivers more of a voice on wages and working conditions without changing their employment status, you know, if they want to keep that independent contractor status. And what's good about it says the bill sets a low threshold to begin organizing, just 10% of active drivers would be required to and negotiations can begin once 30% sign a union authorization card. So uh that's so low. That is pretty low.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Holy cow.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Yeah, um, yeah. Um let's see. Says uh, you know, the people who support the bill acknowledge that that's kind of a low number, but it says it kind of reflects the structure of the industry, in which roughly 86% of rides are completed by about 20% of drivers. So it also is going to impose a new 20% fee on every ride taken in Illinois. Um this is gonna go to, I guess, help with the uh union administration fee and awarding grants to unions and it regulates. So okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:59

Well, I mean, with those low numbers of what you have to get, I mean it could be possible. I just don't know how you get like I mean, I guess it can be state to state, but you can get these hodgepodge of pockets of like well, these drivers get a union and these don't, and so on and so forth. Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

It just seems like a nightmare to kind of We should ask Tom what his opinion is on it. Tom who? From Illinois. Our Patreon.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, Tom. Yeah, Tom from uh McHenry, Illinois. Yeah, I don't know. I I would say he probably doesn't want it, I would guess. And you know, that's fair. I mean, it's not for everybody. Um I I think it works where I work. I don't think it would work in the gig economy space. I don't think I would honestly, I don't even think I would vote for it. I would be like, nah, this isn't gonna work. This is gonna be just a fucking disaster, and let's just keep it the way it is. It's gonna muddy the waters. It's gonna muddy the waters, yeah. And it's uh it's let's just move on. Let's just keep it going until I don't know, until something crazier happens that you really need to do. But like we've all gotten into this job knowing it's a gig job, it it it it it varies. Uh there's so many variables. Sure. Um you know, if you don't like it, go get a W-2.

unknown 47:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

Or another gig.

Rivian Spinoff Builds Delivery AVs

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Another gig, another that treats you better, or something like that. So um, all right. Let's real quick, Rivian. Uh is it Rivian or Rivian? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Uh I don't know. Riv Rivian, I think how you read it. Yeah, I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Uh so Rivian spinoff also, this is a business of Rivian, will build autonomous delivery vehicles for Doordash. So here we go. I mean, fuck. Um so it doesn't actually, the article doesn't talk a lot about the DoorDash portion of it. Um it said uh Doordash took a part in also's. I say it's also's, I don't even know. That's just I'm that's how it's written. ALSO. I think so. Uh 200 million Series C funding round, which was led uh by a previous investor. Green Oaks Capital DoorDash is getting a seat on also's board of directors, too. So that's huge. Um, so they're in, you know. Um it's interesting. Amazon, which is a major investor and partner with Rivian, placed an order for a thousand of the vehicles that also is creating. Also has said these can carry more than 400 pounds of package while still being small enough to fit in the bike lane.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

Yeah, I'm looking at the picture of it. Yeah, well, I feel like I need to see the back. Yeah, you need to see uh the it like a 360-degree yeah, uh width uh of it. Um yeah, yeah, it said they they've ordered thousands of them, not just a thousand, but thousands of them. Didn't say how many thousands, but but but and then and and then here's the thing too.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

If this is autonomous, or is this like I guess I don't know I don't get the autonomous delivery of like or maybe the Amazon one isn't autonomous, like maybe that's someone drives it, because obviously it does have some handles and stuff in a seat. Because how do you deliver packages autonomously with robots? Okay, you bring up the fucking robots. There's not gonna be a robot sitting in the seat getting out. We're not there yet.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

Well, no, but we're getting there, man. But not that we're all getting there. I I think we are, I think we're getting close. Yeah, I think we are. No, man, I I don't think I've seen I've seen videos of uh uh robots that I mean we're we're all used to seeing the real clunky moving ones and stuff like that, but they're getting man, it's just uh it's getting better so much faster.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

I I do I do agree with you, but like the only robots I see on I mean I'm basing all my research and you know on TikTok for God's sake. So like I'm not like googling robots. I'm sure I could take a deep vi dive, but I my brain can't handle all that. Um but I just you know you see a lot of the Waymo stuff, but you don't see robots. I mean, I don't know. God help me. I d I hope I'm dead before that happens.

SPEAKER_03 50:26

Here I just sent you one on shit. I I sent you one in uh telegram.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

Well, I can't I can't share it because um let me see. Oh, I did see this one.

unknown 50:43

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 50:44

I want to see him try to tackle it. Yeah. Yeah, some of the kids do grab them. Well, they do grab them and bump them a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

Interesting. Yeah, I I definitely did see that. So funny. I forgot about that, but as soon as I saw the picture or the video, I was like, yeah, I don't know. It just I guess I'm fine with autonomous cars, but the robot thing, like Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

It's it's a little freakier, you know, for some reason. Uh it just is.

SPEAKER_02 51:15

Well, especially because, like, okay, you think about the the AI, the sci-fi movies. What is it? The Terminator is that one that you know, you just you worry that they're they're gonna be strong, right? I mean, they're metal. They're they're like if they gave you a hug and they just go, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 51:31

It's like yeah, they glitch and kill you.

SPEAKER_02 51:33

Yeah, I mean, would I love a robot that could do like regular errands around the house? I would absolutely love it. And they have those, but I wouldn't want like a head on it. I would want it to be like look so robotic that Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:48

You don't want it to look like a humanoid, like some of them like put humanoid, you know, human face on it, and yeah, like that. That that'd be weird. But yeah, I mean they've got them now. It can fold laundry and do you know, do lots of stuff around the house.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

Yeah, I'm not a fan.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

No, no, it it'll be a like the uh just like autonomous vehicles, it'll be uh, you know, take a generation or two before it just becomes commonplace.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

Well, I mean, yeah, I I guess it boils down to like how much control do you have? If you have that robot, can you hit a button at any point and it shuts down, or does the company have control over it?

SPEAKER_03 52:23

No, I think you would have to have it. You'd have to have it because it can, you know, they do there's another video I watched last week is one at a like at a restaurant and it was serving serving food or something, and something glitched and it started dancing, and then like they were trying to grab it and hold it. You're not gonna do it flailing around, you know.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Yeah, that's the that's the scary part when it glitches out because you you know, we talk about oh, all this amazing technology. It's 2026. I think three shows ago is Larry's computer took a shit after it updated, it didn't boot right, and he had to get another computer. I'm like, what is happening? Like, I know it's just a basic computer, but like we haven't mastered like once we update, we're cool. Like, oh I I fixed it. I didn't have to get it. Well, no, no, no, you did that night. You had to use your spawn. I had to use it to use yeah, because I didn't have time to because it happened right before. Well, that's my point.

SPEAKER_03 53:16

Yeah, right for the show.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

Yeah, it's 2026. Why is this having like do you want your robot doing that? It's like carrying your little one down the stairs and it decides to throw it like a football.

SPEAKER_03 53:26

We're gonna let our car do it because we're both said we're gonna try out the autonomous car.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

But at least in the car, there's airbags in it. So when it crashes, I have a chance of living. If a robot's holding my one-year-old and spikes it like a football, that kid's dead.

SPEAKER_03 53:40

If that Thomas car pulls through those railroad gates like it did last week, yank them airbags ain't gonna do much good.

SPEAKER_02 53:45

That's true. Waymo in a train, the train's gonna win every single time.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

A little bit, yeah. A little bit.

SPEAKER_02 53:53

God, all right. Sorry, I got a little worked up about robots.

SPEAKER_03 53:56

It's okay. Yeah, no, it's it's fun to have these discussions because uh it it it would really be cool to look back in like you know, a year, two years, three years, four years, whatever. Yeah. Look back and see, see where we're at, you know. Hopefully it's not robots. It is changing the you know, and don't get me started on quantum computing because you don't want to know about it. It's too hard.

Dasher Suspended Over TikTok Threat

SPEAKER_02 54:19

All right. Uh last article. Uh I should have put this one up front because this one kind of pisses me off about a little bit, but go ahead on that.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

Okay, so uh let me see. So this DoorDash driver, DoorDash driver uh got suspended because he um he had a TikTok video that showed him threatening to throw out any food orders that belong to Trump supporters from his car window. He's in the video, he said, I just want you to know if I see a MAGA sign in front of your house, I'm gonna take the utmost care to make sure that when I deliver your order, I throw it out the effing window.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

I like how you censored yourself because it censored it in the article. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

Not that you say the F word a lot, but um, yeah, Ron Burgundy, just reading what it says.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

That's me, man. That is me 100%.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Yeah, so you know, the video went viral, uh, which prompted Doordash to announce they suspended him pending an investigation. Um, you know, any Dasher who throws food out the window would immediately lose access to the platform. And then in a follow-up video, the driver appeared. He he was not did not seem to be upset about the suspension, calling the ordeal hilarious and claiming DoorDash to be a MAGA supporter.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

Well, I didn't read the article, of course, because you know, clickbait is gets uh old man Jason every time, but I thought it was the Trump part. No, it's throwing the fucking food out the window. That's what he got suspended. So even the even the guys calling the DoorDash supports Mac Mag MAGA, uh it's not it has nothing to do with being political. It's you recorded a video.

SPEAKER_03 55:54

Saying you're gonna throw people's food out.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Although, honestly, though, it's just a video and he didn't do it. Like, I do feel it's a little harsh to uh I mean, did he get suspended? Oh, they suspend it while they investigate. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:09

I mean, and you know, be maybe that maybe it'll be a suspension like the Black Hawk helicopter pilots, you know.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 56:17

Well, the kid rock's house.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

Oh my god. Do you know that his house is a like a small-scale replica of the White House? I watched the video.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

It's got he's got a sign that says Southern White House.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

Yeah, he is the biggest redneck there is, and he grew up rich from Detroit. So don't ever let you think he tell him he was a poor boy from Detroit. He was no MM. He grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth.

SPEAKER_03 56:39

Hey, speaking, speaking of being from Michigan, did you know that the uh the uh female astronaut that took off today, she's from Grand Rapids. From Grand Rapids? Grand Rapids.

SPEAKER_02 56:50

Oh shit. I knew it was uh I knew it was an astronaut from Michigan, but I didn't know she was from Grand Rapids.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

That's what it said on on the broadcast. Well, that's that she's from Grand Rapids. I like, yeah, that's pretty cool. You may have given her a ride.

SPEAKER_02 57:00

I I may have, I doubt it. I mean, she's probably been in in uh was it Cape Carnaval or Houston or wherever the fuck NASA is now for a lot of years, but uh that's cool. I did not know that. I'll have to look her up, see if uh see where in Grand Rapids she was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 57:17

Yeah, I I definitely I admit wholeheartedly I geek out over the space program.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

I I actually I do like space as much shit as I gave you. I mean, I'm not watching it for uh since 11 a.m. I'd watch it right before the launch. I like the SpaceX stuff, honestly, because the way the rockets come down or the boosters and shit. That it's wild, man.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

Crazy. You grew up watching them splash down in the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Yeah, and and it's crazier when they go down and they miss and then they explode. Yeah, that's a little dangerous. We're not gonna be putting that down in a neighborhood just in case it, you know, we have a bad landing.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

That is correct. Big wide open desert to land.

SPEAKER_02 57:55

Yeah, but I mean how great they they're saving money. Like they bring it back down, they can reuse it. I mean, I guess that they can reuse the ones, or do they sink them in the ocean?

SPEAKER_03 58:06

No, they don't sink them.

SPEAKER_02 58:07

They go collect them, yeah. Yeah, but I bet they don't reuse them. I know. I've hey good answer. Why not? I need an answer for that. S Claude. S Claude. Is that where you're using now?

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Yeah, for yeah, I've been I've been looking toward that.

SPEAKER_02 58:26

I have not tried anything. You know, it's like the Kleenex Chat GPT of the first one that came out. I've literally tried nothing else. I probably should open my horizons because I'm getting to the point, honestly, I'm almost ready to buy the the 20. I was working on something today on something on my website, yeah, and it locked me out about posting pictures because I wanted to send in a screenshot and like it's still I still haven't solved the problem. So I've been working on it all day. But they offered me a free month. I just got a free month. I got the same email too.

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Yeah, just got it today.

Schedule Updates And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_02 58:57

But it's like I already have enough subscriptions, I can't add another one. So oh yeah, we got a we got a spammer, but we're signing off anyways. But anyways, all right, nine minutes away on the Patreon, patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. If you want to join, free seven-day trial. We'd love to have you. Yes. Um, I have no idea what we're gonna talk about tonight. Um, but I'm sure we'll find something. It's always it always goes off the rails. So hopefully Faith can uh come in and bring us some content. So there you go. Uh uh just uh FYI for scheduling next week. Larry's on vacation. I'm not leaving, but it's my spring break and uh vacation. It's vacation. So we are not recording next week Wednesday, so we'll be back on shit. Let's check the date. Hang on. We'll be back on the 15th, and Gabe will be joining us that night. And then um, I forgot to tell you on the 29th, I'm off. So you and Gabe will be doing on the 29th. So uh Gabe next week with us three, us two, and then 22nd will be us me and you, and then the 29th will be you and Gabe. So there you go. All right, uh, as always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. And we'll see you on the road. All right, have a good night.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

Hey, good night, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.