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The GIG Economy Podcast
Uber Wants AI To Run The Ride While Drivers Take The Risk | Ep 300
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Uber’s newest AI features promise easier booking and more add-ons, but we keep asking how it changes driver pay, rider behaviour, and accountability when things go wrong. We also compare side hustles like BabyQuip and laundry apps by running the numbers and calling out the hidden costs that don’t show up in the ads.
• weekend rideshare stories, drunk passengers, hourly targets and what “good money” looks like
• BabyQuip explained, startup fee, store setup, delivery fees as the real profit centre
• Jesper’s update, family, travel, work-from-home programming and internet marketing
• Uber voice booking, speed and accuracy, accessibility upside, new ways riders add stops
• coffee and snacks for Uber Black, what it could mean for UberX and eating in cars
• Uber and Expedia hotel booking, discount claims, why direct booking can be safer
• Hertz and Uber partnerships, fleets, Lucid and autonomous robotaxi plans
• delivery slip-and-fall video, why you always report injuries and protect yourself
• Poplin laundry earnings claims, cost of utilities and supplies, workload reality, pricing limits
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Hello, hello. Welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast. Episode 300. Uber's AI future is here. Robotaxis, voice booking, airport, chaos, and drivers getting replaced. All that great stuff. Welcome to the show. As you can see, we have a a stranger in the show, and we'll talk to him a little bit. That's uh Mr. Jesper, the OG of the podcast, which we can't thank him enough for joining. But stories from the road, Larry, what do you got?
SPEAKER_07Oh, so it was a busy Saturday. Uh everybody, all the college kids partying before you know finals. So um had a lot of half drunk kids in and out of the car. Luckily, nobody got sick, nothing too crazy, but yeah, busy Saturday. Half drunk, not full drunk? Uh some were half drunk, some were some were two and a half times drunk.
BabyQuip Side Hustle Setup And Pricing
SPEAKER_10Two and a half times drunk. Um, I worked Sunday morning. It was there's nothing to report on that. It was it was it was relatively eventful for me. I ended up like doing I wanted to do a hundred bucks, and I think I did it in like three and a quarter hours, three something like that. So you can't. I mean, if I'm 2535 an hour, um, I'm happy with that for sure. And then I do have a big update, and if you listen to the show on a regular basis, uh, you heard about Larry and I talking about Baby Quip. And what is Baby Quip? Baby Quip is a a rental service basically for high chairs, cribs, uh, pack and plays, basically whatever you can associate with uh traveling with a small child is a rental service for. And uh I think I got on the waiting list like a year ago, and Larry and I would talk about it back and forth, and I'd I'd email them every month, and I'd be like, hey, you know, am I off the wait list? No, I'm off the wait list. So the last time I emailed them was December, Larry, and I finally got a hair, wild hair, and I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna email them. Soon as I email him, she's like, Yep, you're in. Like, I I kind of it kind of frustrated me a little bit because they said that they would check in because for a while they were checking in every month. They said they would check in and then then they didn't, and I don't know what made me think of it. Probably summer's coming up, and I'm gonna be broke. Uh, so yeah, I emailed them. I'm in. Uh, it's a$200 fee to start. So I thought it was$150 when we talked about it. But yeah,$200. So I paid that, got everything set up. They're doing my background check now, and then the store will be live in one week. So what is that? It's basically a rental service for baby stuff. So, like you're traveling out of town, you don't want to ship a pack and play, you rent it from Jason's store for three days, I deliver it to you, you set it up. There's no setup, you just drop it off and you pick it up, and um, and then you get paid for that. But what I found as I've set it set up my store is that the rental is the cheapest part. Where you get paid is the delivery. You're basically a delivery service. So you pay$10 or it's$20 a month for this crib or a month, a day for this crib, but you I'm charging$40,$50 depending on the distance for pickup and delivery. So it expands. You can do dog crates, you can do that, uh, a bunch of other stuff. And then they sent me a notification. Hey, if you're interested in doing like blow-up stuff, like parties and stuff like that, you know, once you get going with this, just send us an email. We can send you some more details. So we'll see how this goes.
SPEAKER_06No stuff, huh?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, yeah. Blow up stuff for parties. For parties, not that kind of parties, goddamn it. Why is there no comments? Why is there no comments, Larry? I don't know what is going on.
SPEAKER_07I mean, what we're going on.
SPEAKER_10I didn't promote anything, but I but usually like I'm like, God, is yeah, we always have at least a couple people. Traveler's not here, Bobas not here, but anyways, not here. So yeah, I'm excited.
SPEAKER_07Nobody wants to see my face, right?
SPEAKER_10I'm excited for that. Uh, I'll keep you updated.
SPEAKER_07Um, the the only problem. I was excited. I was excited when you said that because we you used to get so hyped up talking about it, man. We would talk about it, especially on the Patreon. Sometimes we would talk about it the whole show, and then they're like, Oh crap, I'm on a wait list.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, and and and I'm excited about it because it's something new. The only caveat, the problem is I got an ugly face. So, and the only and so when you see it, you got all these pretty moms, and then you got this fucker. So I did decide to put my what me and my wife together. So it's my name, it says Jason T on it, but I have my wife with me in the picture. And they just good marketing. Good marketing. They said, and and and I of course I use chat GBT to come up with my bio, but I am gonna go tweak it a little bit as I was thinking today, because I kind of rushed stuff a little bit just to get it set up to get the process going. But I'm like, I should probably talk about like I've been born and raised in Grand Rapids, I've lived here my whole life, I'm a school bus drive, like just kind of like a little bit into the personality part of it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah. Just you know, that way they'll say you're not some transient coming through. I'm spending your money.
SPEAKER_06I know, I know what you're what your what your your your what's it called, your tagline could be. Oh it's like Jason Teary, right? Don't worry, I know where you live.
Jesper Returns With Life Updates
SPEAKER_10Or I know Jason Tierry, I know, I know where you live, and I'll leave your kids alone. Yeah, air quotes. There you go. Anyway, so yeah, Jasper. Um, yeah, he was the not the original original, but pretty damn close, probably in the first 20 episodes you were on.
SPEAKER_06I was part of the first four, right? The first four hosts. Yep.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, but I think it was like me, my first one was by myself, then me and Ben for like maybe 20 episodes, and then Jesper came on.
SPEAKER_06So well, let's not forget about Nick. And Nick.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, but you and Ben were first, weren't you?
SPEAKER_06I don't remember.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, it doesn't matter. He was the OG, and he's he stayed on the longest until he bailed on me. And just kidding. And that's where you know Larry came in and said, God, I've been waiting this out for three fucking years and finally I've been I've been building this relationship, man.
SPEAKER_07I've been just waiting in the wings.
SPEAKER_10Waiting in the wings. And so Jesper and I did like episode 100, and we did episode 200, and we like and episode 200 was fun because we did have a lot of like the OGs, and and you know, it was basically us having fun. But I'm like, what else can I do? You know, and I was like, I'll see if Jesper wants to come on. So Jesper, uh, you don't do gig work anymore, uh, which is which is totally fine, but what give us an update uh how the family's doing, how you're doing, if you're willing to come back.
SPEAKER_06Well, everybody's doing good. Um, I mean, things are going well. We uh well I think everything is pretty much the same uh as when I left, except the business is going really well and and and still working from home, still kind of doing the the internet marketing, you know. Uh a lot of programming, a lot of uh custom programming now. So that's that's been really good. Uh so yeah, there's there's that. My uh uh son is home, he has a full-time job now, so that's that's doing well. So, yep. Uh what else is new? Julia is still in school, finishing that up. You know, things are going well. Things are going well. Yep, doing a lot more travel than we wanted. We wanted to do more travel, and we are, and so that's good. This year, Michelle and I are celebrating 25 years of marriage. So yeah.
SPEAKER_10God damn. Congratulations. You're old.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I'll I watch your travels on on uh Facebook. I'll you know keep up with your trips, and I see your wife post on there. And is it so your your daughter, your daughter got a Kentucky boy? Is that what is that what I saw on you?
SPEAKER_06We did get a boyfriend, yeah, yeah, yeah. And from Kentucky. Yeah, this year they celebrated one year together. So yeah, we we took him with us on the cruise and everybody went out. So it was a lot of fun. We just uh we just did a cruise out of Cape Naval and did like all the standard stops, I think, right?
SPEAKER_10So how old is Julia now? Was she junior? 16. Junior? Okay, so that's junior or sophomore, I don't know.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, well, she's 10th grade. 10th grade.
SPEAKER_10Sophomore, sophomore, gotcha. Okay. Well, cool. I'm glad things are going well. Um, nothing different from Larry and I. We have the same kids. Uh my daughter's graduating from high school this year. So uh looking forward to that and moving on with different things and stuff like that. Um, I threw it in the group chat about where are y'all at? I was like, she's like, Faith's like, getting ready for hockey. Sorry, I go, Yes, we're on the show. I thought that would bring a lot of people in, but apparently not. But she says I'm at a bar and she can't hear. So anyway. Who's that? Uh Faith. Do you remember Faith?
SPEAKER_06Possibly. I don't know.
Uber’s Voice Booking AI And Driver Impact
SPEAKER_10Maybe she came on right at right at when you were kind of transitioning. I mean, she had definitely had heard you. Yeah, she's from Vegas. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So let's see. Oh, Bubba Sue says she's at CVS. Bubba Sue, what the fuck? You know the show starts at seven o'clock. We need your content. Or we need your your comments. So all right, gig economy in the news. Um, we're gonna uh it's gonna it's gonna be heavy on the Uber. Uh Uber had their what are they what do you call that when they do that?
SPEAKER_07I forget. They do have a name for it, I think.
SPEAKER_10Um just not for Uber, but when they're doing like Apple does their thing, and um those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_07It's like uh yeah, gosh, I don't know, I don't know what they what they actually call it.
SPEAKER_10It's like a product showcase, you know. The big companies come out with it.
SPEAKER_07UberCon. UberCon.
SPEAKER_10There you go. Hey, that's good anything that we're stumbling over.
SPEAKER_07Turbo trademark on yeah, UberCon.
SPEAKER_10Can you shit buy that website right now? Damn it.
SPEAKER_07Right now. All right, go ahead, Larry. All right, so yeah, as Jason said, Uber had their um their big product release or whatever they want to call it, and they talked about uh a lot of different stuff. So uh yeah, if you want, we'll play this video and then we'll talk about this. They're gonna um you'll be able to pretty soon you could be able to book an Uber just using uh voice commands.
SPEAKER_05So should I book an Uber at the Delta at Terminal C with Wardia Airport for$69.61?
SPEAKER_08Do you have something cheaper than that?
SPEAKER_05You got it. Wait and save is a more affordable option for your trip to Delta at Terminal C with Guardia Airport. Should I book wait and save for$66.55?
SPEAKER_08How much do I have to wait?
SPEAKER_05Wait and save is usually a few minutes longer than number S, but you'll get a better fare.
SPEAKER_08No, actually, I just realized I have five other passengers and I have five pieces of luggage. So what's the cheapest option that can accommodate all of us?
SPEAKER_05Uber XXL is the most affordable ride for six passengers with lots of luggage. Should I vote Uber XXL to Delta X?
SPEAKER_08Do I have to pay anything extra for holes?
SPEAKER_05You don't need to pay holes separately. Any holes on your router included in your hair. Should I vote Uber XXL to Delta X or two?
SPEAKER_08Yes, please let's vote in the world. It does. And now my right is being hooked.
SPEAKER_10So what do we think about that?
SPEAKER_07I don't know that it's something that I necessarily wouldn't use a lot. It's kind of more of a G whiz kind of thing, you know, we can do this. Uh, but I don't know. It doesn't do much for me personally.
SPEAKER_10I mean, for for me, it it it definitely um it definitely it was slow. Like I was was just coming up with what I was gonna say. It was slow when it like I and he interrupted it, and I don't know if that like made it go slower, but I mean there was a couple of times I counted my head, it was like four or five seconds. I mean, I I guess to me, I feel like it would have been a little faster. I mean, maybe because it's running on cell service, and although not there, though, they're they gotta be on some sort of like Wi-Fi.
SPEAKER_06It's AI as slower as it is, is thinking I added the AI agent to my uh Google Home, and it's been considerably slower ever since I did.
SPEAKER_07Really?
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Um now it understands more. I can give it you know multiple commands in in one in one statement, and that works, but it takes two to three seconds longer for it to do it.
SPEAKER_10Interesting. Um, I mean, I'm using, you know, and now I I I know that I'm like the boomer of the AI generation because I'm using Chat GPT, because like if you're using Chat GPT, you don't know what the fuck you're doing. That's what I see on TikTok. People are saying. Um, I don't know if that's true or not, but I it's relatively quick. Now I will say, Larry, I forgot to tell you I did upgrade to the monthly. I'm trying it out. I got the date to cancel it on there, and I I can say it's not any faster, but I definitely can do a quite uh more multi-step things like give me a picture, do this, and like it'll do it without like freezing me out or or stuff like that. But sure, um, yeah, I I agree. I think it's kitschy. Uh, I don't think I'd ever use it, and I would be too worried that they would fuck it up because they fuck up the stuff that you do when you're tapping. Let AI is gonna and people are gonna like not pay attention and it's gonna mess it up, and then they're gonna blame Uber for it. Oh, they're blame the driver.
SPEAKER_06The one thing we have to think about though, guys, is what about what about accessibility?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that's what I that's what I was getting ready to bring out.
SPEAKER_06Adding AI to uh to Uber or those kind of apps is a brilliant thing from an accessibility perspective. I just I mean, alone, how alone can I go to Uber Eats now and say, hey, uh order me a chicken sandwich from whatever and have it delivered to me by 8 p.m. That's probably easier than going through the interface and trying to figure out how to do all that bullshit.
SPEAKER_10I think the only caveat with that is is I worry that they'll they'll get taken advantage of because like you know how it is. Like all of a sudden, I mean, and maybe if you got F you money or not even F you money, if you literally don't care and you need that chicken sandwich at 8 p.m., maybe you don't care about. I mean, I'm not saying they're going to, but what happens if there's a surge going on? Like, I guess it would repeat the price, and you'd be like, oh shit.
SPEAKER_07But yeah, I'm sure you have to confirm it before it makes an order. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Would there be a situation where AI would come back and say, looking at historically at 8 p.m., you would be fast at it's more likely you'll get it by 8 p.m. if you pay a five-dollar tip. Is that an option? I mean, I'm just saying because AI technically is not, they don't care, right? They look at data sets, they look at data and all that stuff. So technically, that should be an option.
SPEAKER_09Sure.
SPEAKER_06But I don't know if it's going to. And so from that perspective, you're right. I mean, is it going to take surges into into consideration? Is it going to take, you know, how much you're going to tip, how fast you're going to get it, that kind of tough. I don't know.
SPEAKER_07But yeah, and then for people, you know, for people who are vision impaired, this is you know, it's a great thing for them. And for uh people who who were seeing double because they've been drinking too much, you know. I mean, you know, that's not great for them.
SPEAKER_06I'm still reminded of the guy, the time I picked up a gentleman with our arms. I mean, it would be a lot easier for him, I can tell you.
SPEAKER_10See, this is the comedy. This is the comedy we're talking about, folks.
SPEAKER_06You remember him, Jason.
SPEAKER_10I do.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, he like comes out to the car. He's like in the middle of the night, and he's like, he's leaving for a booty call. And and he comes out and he's like, he's like, Can you help me with my shirt? And I had to like take it over his shoulders because he had no arms.
SPEAKER_07So you had to open the door for him, too, I guess.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_07Well, no, he didn't because the Esper's got the power van, the power doors.
SPEAKER_10He didn't even have to get out. There you go.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Now there I used to uh I used to have a passenger, I probably had him half a dozen times, who was who was blind. And you know, that would be I would think that'd be a great thing for somebody like that.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they're they're not obviously they're not implementing it for this, the ADA, they could give two shits about that, right? But and we all know the AI is in infancy mode, and it and so I'm I'm not shitting on them too much because it's a little slow. It'll get better, and they're getting on the train early, right? So, like it's only good for them to do that. And if it gets great, I mean I mean, I don't use the app often as a customer, but uh, I I mean I I would use it.
SPEAKER_06There's situations where it's gonna make it worse for the drivers, right? Because one of the things that we all know is it's a pain in the butt to add at a stop on on Uber, right? Because I can't even figure out how to do it and stop.
SPEAKER_10That's such a good point.
SPEAKER_06With AI, hey, you know, I'd like to have a stop at the grocery store, and it's just gonna do it. And we had as drivers, you're gonna say, fuck, we don't want that.
SPEAKER_10I mean, that's that's a brilliant idea. You're right. It's clunky. I can't even tell somebody. They, you know, when I take people, they're like, I I'm like, I am sorry, I don't know how to do it. And and yeah, we maybe we should do it more. But I mean, how many rides are we gonna take before we freaking learn? You know what I mean? I'm not gonna take 10 rides to learn how to do it.
SPEAKER_07No, and they change it. That's what I tell. That's what that's my reasoning for everybody. I'm like, they change the app so much. I was like, you know, they probably changed it since the last time I I did that. So yeah, because and they do, they're you know, when they're constantly changing the interface.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, but no, I mean, just wrapping the AI part of it up. I'm not I'm definitely not against AI by any means. Um, and I think it I think it'll be better uh in the future with this, but I'm interested to see how they're gonna use AI for the drivers, probably to fuck us, but I mean it would be cool. I I'm trying to think how you could use it as a driver or or just say, hey, I don't want this ride.
SPEAKER_07It's just if they would just do voice accept where we can you can say accept or deny the ride, that would be a nice start. That would be.
SPEAKER_06I mean, I I think they should use it to to teach better tipping etiquette, right? Well, that's true. It's like, hey, Johnny, you know, the right thing for you to do is to tip 30% because Jason did an excellent job.
Uber Black Coffee Add On And Car Rules
SPEAKER_10Right. Well, I think they kind of do that, they do those prompts anyways when you when you end your ride. I mean, I see that. Uh oh yeah. So all right, moving on. Um, if you really like coffee, you're gonna love this. Now, uh, just a caveat, this is a shorter, it kind of got cut off. These TikToks I found. Um, maybe there's more out there from Uber. I just didn't investigate it because you know I don't do any research. Um, but this is if you are but that hasn't changed.
SPEAKER_06Right, no, no.
SPEAKER_10Uh, this is if you uh take an Uber black and select cities, you can have the c you can have a coffee ordered and and waiting for you when you get in the car. So watch that and do that.
SPEAKER_01How about a coffee if you're right? Now, if you reserve an uber black starting with a few select cities, we're going to let you order a coffee or a snack. And we'll have it reading for you in the car. How do you have? We call it for the reads. And the way it works is quite simple. You open the app, you look your eye, and you tap on adding the release. And you can pick your beverage or a snack from a list of nearby spots. Now it might seem simple, but to ensure that your coffee arrives hot and your ride is on time is actually quite complicated. And we do the hard work on the back end so that we can give you time back.
SPEAKER_10So, how long before this gets into Uber X where you can order fucking Wendy's and you said you take a ride, and you know what I mean? Like, uh, you know it's coming.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, Uber X, or bring me a bucket of KFC, you alright? I'm I gotta hang out chicken.
SPEAKER_06Let's add that to the AI features. Oh, yeah, and add a cup of coffee and a bucket of chicken. No.
SPEAKER_10Yeah. No, I mean you can see it happening though, because every I mean it doesn't happen anymore, right? Because well, I I actually don't know, Larry. Does it still happen quite a bit at night where people asking people asking for you to stop at a drive thru?
SPEAKER_07No, no, not nothing like it used to. Not at all. I worry to get somebody that I don't I don't know. If it's uh people just have learned that, you know, most drivers are not gonna stop. I'll take people to cookout, but I'm I'm just dropping them off because cookout's still open. Right. Um but very rare. I mean I probably had maybe maybe two people this year ask me to stop. And uh like one of them it was you know, it was pretty slow, so it was no big deal. And the other one's like, nah, it's too busy. And they they're like, Oh yeah, I understand. But yeah, it used to happen all the time. All the time.
SPEAKER_10I think it I think it could work if Uber does it correctly in the app. You know what I mean? Like if you want food and a ride, I think if you order the ride and you order the food right away, maybe I don't know. There's got to be a way they can time it. I mean, obviously, it depends on the restaurant, how busy they are, and shit like that. And obviously, if it's 1 30 in the morning, I don't think it's gonna work. But if you're if you're running late for something in the afternoon, you got to go to a meeting. I mean, you might be able to just like pick something up on the way and and do it because they want you to be in the app, right? This is all built so you order everything through the app.
SPEAKER_07Yes, they want to you stay in their ecosystem, but yeah, but I mean what if you I don't you know I don't I don't necessarily want somebody eating in my car.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I mean it doesn't mean they have to eat in your car, but maybe they don't have any time to, you know, and a lot of people in these bigger cities they don't have cars, you know, and maybe you know, I don't know. I'm just I'm just shooting shit out out of my mouth, and I mean I can see it happening.
SPEAKER_06No, yeah, I mean I wouldn't be surprised. And then we we added together with uh grocery pickup and some other stuff and laundry pickup and stuff you laugh on the driveways in your car find an hour and a half, and you don't get any more out of it.
SPEAKER_07Stop by the Walgreens, you know. I'm I'm running low on lube. Gotta pick up some treasures.
SPEAKER_10No, that's the lube for the driver. Um, they don't give us any lube. Yeah, but that's why you gotta buy it in yourself. I'm just saying, you guys laugh about that, but like I can I it's coming. They're they're they're gonna make sure everything is in the app as much as they can. I I just I just think it's coming. Whether how they implement, I have no idea. That's what the big bucks are paid for.
SPEAKER_07So but at that point, it's gonna be you know, it's gonna be the robo taxi. So how that's good.
SPEAKER_10Jeez, fucking idiot. All right, uh moving on. Uh again, more more Uber stuff. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_07So you were asking what it's called. I looked it up. It's called the they call it the go get conference. So the go get conference. Yes, that's what they call it.
SPEAKER_10But what's the generic name for stuff? Like there's a generic name that, and maybe it's not generic, maybe it was coined by app. I mean, there's uh uh what's the one in Vegas every year? Um CSI. No.
SPEAKER_07CES. CES, yeah. It's more electronic show.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, but there's another, there's another, I don't know. It doesn't matter, but it's gonna be trade show, huh?
SPEAKER_07Like a trade show. CES is a trade show.
Uber Expedia Hotels And Booking Pitfalls
SPEAKER_10Yeah, nah, that's that's not the word you're looking for. No, it's not. We'll we'll figure it out on the Patreon. Yeah, uh, all right, so Uber partners with Expedia. Yeah, I mean, there's really not much to say about that. We'll watch the video and shit on them.
SPEAKER_01Now, every big trip starts with the most important decision. Ray to stay. Booking a hotel on Uber is going to feel as simple as booking a ride. You open the app, you trap on hotels. Now you can enter your destination, select the number of nights, the rooms you want, the names and the results. You can filter like price, ratings, reviews, even things like who is file. What if the property is that famous? You can scroll through the photos, and then in one time you can make your book. We don't ask you for your credit card inform or any of the information because if you've used Google before, we've got your cover. Now, thanks to a partnership with an exterior, you'll have access to over 700,000 hotels at over 250,000 locations worldwide. And it's not just hotels, pretty soon we're going to bring every verbal vacation property into the app, taking the total number of saves to over a million. Now, here's the best part. You're going to save some real money. When you book with Uber, you get up to 20% off of thousands of credits. And if you are an Uber One member, we'll give you an additional 10% back in Uber One credits.
SPEAKER_07Okay. Um so yeah, I mean, if they're gonna if it's gonna save me money, you know, 20%. We'll see. They all they all say that.
SPEAKER_10Well, I mean, there's always gonna be restrictions, but the Uber One's like$10 a month or something like that.
SPEAKER_07Uh yes.
SPEAKER_10I mean, it would be worth it if you're going on a a nice trip and you can save 20%. I mean, although it's just like they say, uh, the uh yeah, Uber One is a joke for delivery. You guys remember that story like a month ago when that remember I had that triple and that guy was like, I got fucking Uber One, and I'm like, Yeah, sorry, man, I I don't control it. But um, but I'm saying if you can save 20%, but I was gonna say, are they gonna just jack up the prices like they do for other things?
SPEAKER_06I was gonna say, if you look at Expedia, you can quite often uh on those deals, you can quite often just go to the hotel m manually and get the same room for less. See, I can you on the hotel?
SPEAKER_10Oh, yeah, or is it okay? You just have to book directly through them. Because I mean Expedia's gotta make money.
SPEAKER_07And the big thing too is if you have any problems, if you've gone through Expedia, uh the hotel usually is usually can't can't help you out if there's any kind of yeah, you can't we can't do anything for you or anything like that. That's that's why I usually will book directly with the hotel. I you know, join join whatever the hotel's loyalty program is, it's all they're all free, and you know, you can get you can get discounted rates that way, and uh, you know, they'll give you like like I know uh we stayed at Hyatt when we went to South Carolina, and it's you know it's just a free membership, so you know, not like we spend a ton of money with Hyatt, but you know, just because you're a Hyatt member when you're there you get two free bottles of water every day, or you can get you know, you can get some different perks, you know, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_10Bottle of water, holy shit, I can't get that out of the faucet.
SPEAKER_06Was it clean water? No, that would tell us you can't drink that water.
SPEAKER_07I didn't, I wouldn't.
SPEAKER_10Uh yeah, so same thing what you said about booking with Expedia. My wife had a problem. She did a bunch of trips through or did a trip through Expedia, and that was it was a nightmare. They had some issues and had to move in the hotel. I mean, you know, my wife wasn't mad at the hotel, she understood, and she's like, fuck, like I should have just booked through the hotel, you know what I mean? So it is that is absolutely true that if you go through Expedia for that stuff. Flights, I've had no trouble using those apps.
SPEAKER_06Like, I I've had no issues don't book with spirit air, right?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, did you see the the push for that guy who was trying to collect enough money to buy spirit air? I'm sure it was a support.
SPEAKER_06Have you seen that close to$500 million in pledges now? Yeah, I$500 million. Last I take$475 in pledge, and half of that is confirmed.
SPEAKER_10Oh$250 million is confirmed? Okay, so how much how much can they buy them for?
SPEAKER_06$1.75 billion.
SPEAKER_10Oh, so there it was.
SPEAKER_06Let's get in on this. Yeah, 35% there. 30% there. Yeah, my math is off. Maybe not. Yeah, getting close. Yeah, almost 30%.
SPEAKER_10You could have said 92%. I'd been like, yeah, sounds good. But it's not it's not like one percent, right?
SPEAKER_06I mean, we at least the numbers are getting where it's real. I mean, it's they were they were mentioning it on some show and stuff. So it's and they and and they actually called the I think it was the the the um what's it called the flight personnel's union. Um and they're all they have their support in all of it.
SPEAKER_10So yeah, it's but how does that even work? Could this even be feasible?
SPEAKER_06Like I know the only yeah, so so if you if you look, there's uh there's a football team that's owned that way.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, the Packers.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, the Packers, yeah. And so basically, whether you buy a$2,000 share, you buy a$45 share, your your vote counts the same. You get one vote.
SPEAKER_09That's okay.
SPEAKER_06But but in in all the decisions, but the share, you know, in your your uh the what the the share of the profits pays is based on how much you you invest right.
SPEAKER_10Right. I mean, are there any other companies other than the Green Bay Packers that are out there? Like, I mean, I'm sure there's smaller companies locally. You see a sign that says we're employee owned, like, does that mean like they are actually employee owned?
SPEAKER_07There's one here in town, it's called the Husband Group, and and they own a ton of different businesses. They're they're they're one of the biggest employee-owned companies in the world.
SPEAKER_06So employee owned is called an eSop, and it's definitely a real thing. Um and and so it basically they they they put down some rules as to how long you have to be an employee before you start owning shares uh and that kind of stuff. But yes, you yeah, employee owned.
SPEAKER_10I think I'm gonna go throw a hundred bucks on Spirit. Yeah, I mean, as long as I get it back if it doesn't go.
SPEAKER_06I think I think it is uh help helpme buy spiritair.com. Something like that.
SPEAKER_10All right, well, that sounds like a Patreon uh adventure.
SPEAKER_07I think we need to set up a uh a website that's very close to that. Put up our Venmo.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, yeah. Let's go to prison. That sounds fun. We'll talk about that later.
SPEAKER_06No, he does say he does say that we no longer take take money through uh through Venmo anymore.
Hertz Fleets And Robotaxi Expansion Plans
SPEAKER_10Yeah, yeah, let's let's keep being legit about that. All right, uh, okay, moving on. Hertz expanding. Oh no, this I is it this video? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uber share is actually in the red so far.
SPEAKER_10This no, that's not it. I didn't I didn't pull a video for this, but uh is this mine? Oh yeah, I fucked this up. I missed this. I thought this was a video. Okay, stand by. Are we all muted? Oh fuck, y'all are muted. This is this is oh my fucking god. Stop hitting the button! Fuck unmute. Yes, we're unmute. There we go. We were hitting the button at the same time. Welcome to StreamEard's little glitch. If you start a video and stop it, it fucks everything up. Okay, Hertz is expanding about his traditional car realm till business through a new partnership with Uber aimed at powering both autonomous robo taxi fleets and driver-led ride chair options uh under the agreement. Didn't they just didn't Hertz just like say it was their worst? Like, okay, I know it's not the same investment, but didn't that didn't that guy get fired too?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, the one that decided, hey, we need to buy that we need to buy like 600,000 uh electric cars and then then they sold them.
SPEAKER_10No, no, no. It wasn't just electric cars. Do not bring this into the conversation and shit on electric cars, Larry. It was not I'm just saying that's what happened. I don't think it was just electric. I think it was the whole deal, the rental deal in general with Uber, I thought, but I could be wrong. Amen.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_10Um, I'm sure you'll Google it right now to try to prove me wrong. Um, so the Robo Taxi Service will use lucid vehicles equipped with neuro self-driving technology, expected to launch into Tanfran later this year with potential expansion in 2027. Hertz will also supply and operate fleets driven by its own employees on Uber's platform, building a pilot program that's already expanded in Los Angeles with additional markets planned. So um, yeah, I think Hertz should not do this. I think you should run away as fast as you can and not deal with Hertz because they suck dick. Um, did you Google that? Did you as did I fill enough time for you to prove me wrong, Larry?
SPEAKER_07No, uh still looking.
SPEAKER_10Uh-huh. So again, I I robotaxis, lucid, it's all getting blurry at this point. So uh oh god, this video is fucking hilarious. Larry. So I was thinking, this is behind the scenes. I was thinking when I was driving, or I actually almost missed a bus stop today because I was thinking about shit. It's been a thinking day. Um, even though I've driven it all year, I was like, I was like, ah, I almost missed it. What if we present when we present these videos? What if we describe them what we before the video play? You know what I mean? If it's definitely one that they have to hear, you know what I'm saying? It just so that like they can visualize it. I got it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, okay. So so this video, this is uh uh appears like a person comes home and they're in it in their yard, there's like um like looks like tracks in their yard.
Delivery Slip Video And Injury Reporting
SPEAKER_10Yeah, like ruts.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like a rut through there. And so they're kind of walking around. You can tell they're thinking, you know, what what happened to did somebody drive through my yard? What happened? And then it flashes back to earlier in the day, I guess, on from their doorbell camera. And the delivery driver is like trying to is running from the neck yard next to them and hits this wet patch of grass and just slides and busts his busts his butt, but leaves a big old divot, big old trench in their yard that looks like a tire track.
SPEAKER_10All right, let's watch it real quick. Where are the ruts in our yard? Why are there ruts in our yard? Mower? Weird. Earlier that day.
SPEAKER_07Oh, that looked painful.
SPEAKER_10I mean you hear him, he said, Oh fuck.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, he landed right on his tailbone. Oh, and left a big, big rut in the yard.
SPEAKER_06He's apparently not a big golfer either, because yeah, golfer, you know how to pick that exactly.
SPEAKER_10Well, we didn't see he may he may have done it on the way back, but yeah, he went down hard. God, he didn't he left a mark. You know what? You know, and I say this all the time like when you when you tra when I trained with UPS, they're like, do not run. I mean, they're paid by the hour, so that doesn't matter anyways, but um, these guys are always running. And you know, that guy probably didn't even report that. And always, you know, this is old old man Jason talking. I talk to these young kids at the white caps and stuff like that. I'm like, always report it. Always report it. You're not gonna hurt your boss's feeling because you never know down the road if you have a major injury and you don't want to pay for that out of pocket. So exactly.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, come back and start haunting you six months later.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, that that's your uh that's your HR uh learning of the thing.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that happened to me when I fell and hit and uh hit my head at at my at my city job and uh thought I was fine, but you know, reported it. And then like uh a couple weeks later, like my my hand started turning numb.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I'd pinch something in my neck. But oh damn, yeah, it's because you don't want to be on the hook for that. You're not trying to fuck your employer, they pay for that insurance every month. Exactly.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you just want to be covered, so there's a trail, so workman's comp will cover you.
SPEAKER_10Right.
SPEAKER_07That's good because I I I went to the doctor and you know, PT and everything else for a while.
Poplin Laundry Math Costs And Reality
SPEAKER_10Oh, damn. Yeah, racking up some bills, not enough to get you know, disability, but not quite that that's what we're all going for. Um, all right. So we've talked about laundry um as a gig quite a bit, and I and I I can guarantee Bubba Sue is typing right now. Ew, gross. And I get it, that's gross. But this this video, this this person says that they make seven to nine thousand dollars a month. And I I I just don't see it. So we'll watch watch the lawn. I label her the laundry queen. We'll watch that and uh and go from there.
SPEAKER_03Loris Awful is starting one of many loads of laundry today. A lot of the times the laundry comes in like this, but this much laundry isn't just from her big family, it's from other southern Nevada residents. They find Loris through the app called Poplin.
SPEAKER_02It's a team effort, honestly, with the whole family kind of pitching in. Between um our oldest son, who will go do drop-offs and pickups for us and does a lot of the heavy lifting, which is nice. And then um, between me and my wife, we have folding as well as bagging.
SPEAKER_03She started in 2022 with three orders a week. And now I do anywhere between 10 to 15 orders a day. With 15 orders a day, Laura says she's making anywhere from seven to nine thousand dollars a month. We're able to stay home, pay all of our bills. And she says most of her clients are everyday people. They're a couple, they got a couple of kids. We have a family who has six kids. To keep up with all those orders, she has several washers, fill it in, and dryers going at all times. Loris believes the convenience of having your laundry done for you will bring in more customers, and this is not a business she sees drying out anytime soon. Drying out.
SPEAKER_10You think they write those for themselves, or the producer's like, oh, I got a good one.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah, I'm sure it's some producer. Uh how do you how who has who has multiple washers in their house?
SPEAKER_10Well, obviously, she bought them. Yeah. So here's the thing, too. If you're and then I'm a huge proponent of Speed Queen, okay? That they're made in Wisconsin, uh, they're made with metal parts. They don't have they do have some with a little bit of frills electronics, but mine is like literally a basic dial pole, you know, mechanism. It's gonna outlast me. You know, that they have but those other ones, like how many times do you see people on Facebook talking about oh, my LG washer went out, my fucking da-da-da went out? Like, those I mean, talk about expenses, those things are gonna go down quickly.
SPEAKER_07If you're doing 10 to 15 loads a day, yeah, you spread out between what I don't know how many she has, but yeah, so I just did the math.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, nine thousand nine thousand dollars a day, uh nine thousand dollars a month is four hundred and fifty loads of laundry a month. That's only twenty dollars a load. I don't think that's way off. I bet they pay that, but the question is she might be making nine thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_10Right, yeah, you got water.
SPEAKER_06Well, and like laundry soap. So you see how much she was pouring into that shit?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, and and that and that and that's funny too, because they tell you if you look up, like dig into laundry soap, you only need such a tiny amount. People pour so much, like even those pods are filled with way more than you actually need.
SPEAKER_06Have you heard about that? My wife found a while bag, they found the laundry that the turchin sheets. Have you done looked at those?
SPEAKER_07I know I know what you're talking about. Those are brilliant. It's like a it looks like a dryer sheet almost. Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_10Why why why are those better than the liquid? Because it's measured out.
SPEAKER_06There's no liquid in them. You just you tear it in half, you throw it in your dryer, and it just dissolves doing it. Oh, in your dryer? No, no, sorry, in your washer.
SPEAKER_10Okay, I just want to clarify because I thought I saw something about consumers report that they don't have enough in those dryer sheets, though. Like they are actually lacking in the amount of soap that you need to put in there. I could be wrong.
SPEAKER_06And laundry shops, maybe I don't know. They they seem to work just fine for us.
SPEAKER_10Well, of course they do, because you don't need that fancy shit to get your clothes. I mean, unless you're shitting in your pants every day, or you're you're you're you know, you got blood stains. What are we doing? Like, you don't need all that. What were we gonna say, Larry?
SPEAKER_07No, that's just funny.
SPEAKER_10Oh, you're gonna make a joke and I beat you to it or something.
SPEAKER_07No, no, no.
SPEAKER_10I was laughing at you. Okay. Blood stains. Oh, lots in the chat. Electric is very expensive now. Yeah, electricity went up. Yeah, May 1st, we went up 6.5% in Michigan.
SPEAKER_06You don't care, right? You don't care about us, Jason. You have your own electricity.
SPEAKER_10See, I don't though, because I don't have enough. Like, I so I told you you should have bought a battery. I know. I I need to, but it's expensive. But the problem is, is I'm not one to one. I'm I'm 50 cents. So so every dollar I send to them, they only give like every you know what I mean. Like, I only get 50 cents back. They keep the 50 cents and then they charge it to you for more. So they're so which kind of sucks. Um, I mean, I'm definitely like I'm not paying an electricity bill for my electricity. What I'm paying for is distribution, the taxes, all the other fees. So, like in the summer, my bill's like 60 bucks a month, but in the winter it's like 175, you know, because I mean solar doesn't work at in this winter. We had a lot of snow, and I'm not getting on that roof to take it off.
SPEAKER_06My I think my electricity's bill is like ninety-one a month. What in the winter? Oh, yeah, I'm on the budget plan.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I I mean uh yeah, you're it's way more than that. You're gonna be paying at the end. Um, so anyways, getting getting back to um the the laundry stuff, yeah. So uh Babasue said different customers want different detergent that you have to purchase. That's true. Although I remember signing up for what was that one, Larry? Launder.
SPEAKER_06Launder, isn't that dead now?
SPEAKER_10So it's funny. There's a story. It's not dead. It's not dead. But that guy ended up the original guy that we talked to, Yesper, ended up like try being shady. Like someone helped him out, kind of bought it, and then the the guy was fucking him, went through a terrible divorce, right? Or something like that. It was just like terrible. Like he went dark for a year, and then didn't he email us back and try to get it back going again? I don't know if that was with Jesper or you, Larry. Because I remember he went dark, and then a year later he's like, sorry guys, I haven't you know connected with you.
SPEAKER_07Sorry, been busy the last year.
SPEAKER_06So now apparently the you know, the big one right now is called poppin'. So that is yeah.
SPEAKER_10So let me ask you guys, would you do this on a smaller scale? Like, don't look at her scale. Like, you're not buying a washer and dryer, or do you just think it's not worth the hassle?
SPEAKER_07I wouldn't it's it's not something I'd probably lean toward. I mean, just to try it out, maybe if I mean if I need the money, I would do it. You know, well, yeah, there were some other things I couldn't do. Yeah, I didn't have a car to do Uber and stuff. I mean, it does. Well, you still you still have to deliver it and pick it up. So yeah, you gotta have that. Um, yeah, probably not something I would lean into.
SPEAKER_10I feel like yes, we did the math at$20 a load. I don't think that's worth it with the because like so. I'm thinking about baby quip, right? Now there is an investment with that stuff. If if you you know if someone rents a stroller, you gotta go out and buy it, and now it's yours, you know what I mean? Yeah, but you can use you can make money over and over and over, and you can always sell it. Exactly. When if you're done with it, it's it's a huge market on Facebook Marketplace. Yeah. But with this, you're not just driving, you're doing you're you're in you're like folding it, putting it in the dryer, using detergent, like Baba Sue said.
SPEAKER_06I'd like to point out, Jason, if you fold it before you put it in the dryer, you're doing twice the work.
SPEAKER_10Oh, you're not supposed to do that? Because I thought one if you fold it before it comes out even more folded.
SPEAKER_07See, I would do what Traveler would do.
SPEAKER_10I would do the drop-off service at the laundromat, and then I'd just I would I would say you leave the you leave the pobling service to Megan, Jason, and then no, she's the breadwinner, so she she I'd be doing the dirty work, she'd be out there making the cheddar. So um, traveler. So this is a good point. He says take it to the laundromat, then mark it up. Here's the thing can you mark it up? Because that's one thing with and I keep bringing baby quip. You set your own prices, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I don't know if you do in launder.
SPEAKER_10So that's the thing. I was talking to I was yeah, I was talking to Megan today. I'm like, this is almost like you're a small business owner because you set your own prices. Of course, you can price yourself out of work, right? I mean, if you set it too high, you're not gonna get work, but like any other gig work we do, we have no say in it. So it's not, you know. I mean, would you consider baby quip more of a true independent contractor if you can set your own prices?
SPEAKER_07I mean, it's more than Doordash or Uber. Yeah. And Poplin, no, you cannot set your own prices.
SPEAKER_06So, yeah, Poplin you can't. I just try to put in two two loads, two hambers, uh$33 a month a week.
SPEAKER_10$33 a week?
SPEAKER_06For two for for two loads and two hampers.
SPEAKER_10Well, how well how much uh Babasue says it goes by weight, so I mean 22 pounds of laundry per uh per hamper or per basket or whatever.
SPEAKER_06Thirty-three bucks.
SPEAKER_10I can't I can't think about how much that would weigh. I mean, I I guess if it's summertime and your shorts and t-shirt, you're gonna get a lot more than jeans and sweatshirts. Um interesting. I'd like to try it. You know me. I'd like well, there was one. I bought Larry, you don't remember shit. You don't remember 10 minutes ago what we talked about. Uh no, that's you're deaf. Um there was one I tried like last winter or maybe last summer. I bought all the stuff to do it, and I literally never got one. And I bought like the it wasn't Poplin though. I can't remember what it was. Doesn't matter. I can't remember either.
SPEAKER_07But oh, the laundry service?
SPEAKER_10Yeah, no, it wasn't launder, it was another one that came out.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I remember you buying it, but I don't remember the name.
SPEAKER_10I remember why why would I buy all the shit before like what a dumb like it wasn't super expensive, but like Jason, that was fucking stupid. Why did you do that? That's why with this baby quip, I put all the shit on, like not everything, but I put it all on my quote unquote website, and if somebody orders it, now if they order it day of and I I'll have to, you know, I'll have to say I can't do it unless I can go to Target and get it, you know, or Amazon, you know, next day. But like if they order it day of, I'll be kind of screwed, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_06Uh that's on that. Didn't you do a cover of loads for Londa?
SPEAKER_10No, I never did. I I had the app active. I was at a platform, I shared it. That they were before Poplin or any of them, so I think people were a little leery of it.
SPEAKER_06But uh Poplin is active in Grand Abbots.
SPEAKER_10Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure it is. Uh, I just don't, I don't know. It's in you know, Bubasu gave the gross thing. That doesn't really bother me because the chance I mean, yes, are you gonna you're gonna wear gloves, of course. Are you gonna come across some stuff maybe from time to time? Yes, but I would guess majority of the time the shit's relatively clean. I mean, other than it just needs a wash because you know you wore it for a couple days.
SPEAKER_06And don't you think that they would have the opportunity? Like, let's say, like you said, Larry, if you get something that's blood stained or something that's like really super nasty, don't you think you can have the opportunity of saying I ain't doing this or I need additional money? Sure. I would think they have just like with somebody pukes in your car with Uber, you can do something on that soon.
SPEAKER_10I would think you would have more, maybe not charge extra money because I are you doing anything more? Are you scrubbing it? No, you're just throwing it in there. I would think you just have an opportunity to deny it, to say, I'm not, I'm not cleaning this. I'm sorry. Now you probably not get that customer back if that you know, depending on what it is.
SPEAKER_07I want that customer back to that's available in bowling green, too.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, okay. All right, Larry, fucking go. Sign up.
SPEAKER_06Next time you got a born on Hollywood. How many loads do you guys do? Come on, guys.
Patreon Plug Then Waymo Luggage Disaster
SPEAKER_10Kidding man by episode 400, we'll have we'll have the answer for you. That's right. Tune in, episode 400. All right, moving on. Uh, patreon.com slash the Gigicon Podcast. Come support us next year podcast a week. Uh, exclusive piece of merch, all kinds of fun stuff, ad-free episodes. Uh, I know you uh Bubba Sue loves the ad, but I want to thank our Patreon members, Samson, Bud, Omar, Frank, Tom, Jim, Miguel, Linda, Jerry, Faith, Metal Kickass, and Anna. Appreciate you guys so much. Again, support the show if you love it. If you love us, patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast. Okay. Uh, all right. And next is our favorite segment of all time.
SPEAKER_00Waymo in the news.
SPEAKER_10All right, Waymo in the news today. This is kind of a long video. Um, just basically the gist of it. It's a story about this guy that lost his luggage to the Waymo. So no Waymo crashing, but this is the shit you got to deal with if you're dealing with AI.
SPEAKER_04New at 11, not an ideal situation. Imagine you're about to leave for a business trip, but when your Waymo drops you off at the airport, that Waymo takes off with your luggage. A South Bay man is not happy with how Waymo is trying to resolve the situation. Let's bring it NBC's Alyssa Gord. Uh, this is uh kind of a sign of the times, Alyssa.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, Raj, he actually emailed us when he said he wasn't getting anywhere with Waymo's customer service. He doesn't think that it should cost him money or time to get his stuff back. On Monday, Djinn took his first ever ride in a driverless vehicle, a Waymo from his home in Sunnyvale to the San Jose Moneta airport. He was going on a business trip.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, I was very excited about uh Waymo, the automotive's um driving.
SPEAKER_11He says the drive was smooth, but when he got out of the car and went to the trunk to grab his luggage, he says the Waymo took off before he could.
SPEAKER_00I pressed the uh trunk open button to try to get my luggage, but um it doesn't do anything, and he drove away immediately.
SPEAKER_11Free Jin says he immediately called Waymo customer service, but was told Waymo couldn't turn the vehicle back around. So Jin flew to San Diego with no suitcase, no change of clothes, and no work notes. Later that day, Waymo found his luggage. A rep told him either Jin could pay to have his stuff shipped back to him, or Waymo could cover two free rides intended to get him to and from the Waymo yard to get his stuff.
SPEAKER_00This sounds terrible. It doesn't make any sense at all, because it's not my mistake.
SPEAKER_11Jin didn't feel it was fair for him to pay for the shipping nor take the two plus hour round trip to San Francisco. So he contacted us. We reached out to Waymo for comment, but have not yet received a statement. We went to Waymo's website in search of information. Under the lost and found portion, Waymo says it is not responsible for items left behind in the vehicle after a trip ends. But Jin says he didn't lose his stuff.
SPEAKER_00And I I already told them very clearly it's not lost and a fund, right? I pressed the trunk open button, but um it's it's just not functional.
SPEAKER_11Back in November, San Jose became the first airport in California to offer driverless Waymo rides to paying customers. Jin says he likes driverless technology, but says this interaction has put a sour taste in his mouth. Now, about a year ago, we interviewed a San Francisco man who claimed a driverless Waymo took off with his pricey tennis equipment in the trunk. Back then, Waymo told us it operates with the goal of reuniting riders with their forgotten items. But that man, much like Jin, said his items were not forgotten.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, the frustrating part with it, and and I'm I typically try to preview these, but it was a two-hour round trip. I missed that. Like, you're gonna make this fucker okay, it's free, but who's gonna pay for his time?
SPEAKER_06The thing that drives me crazy, it's such an easy fix, right? Yeah, yeah, it's not an easy fix. Just put a damn scale in the trunk and and know if something is there and don't take off. Oh, you but they but he pressed the button, that's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand, but there's it's not an easy fix for Waymo to fix it, so it doesn't happen. Just put an extra center in the car. That's all you have to do.
SPEAKER_10But you don't have to, you have the sensor of the button getting pressed.
SPEAKER_06You think people are just then you have then you have the situation, Jason, that it pushes the button and they actually close it again or something, whatever it is, right?
SPEAKER_10True. I guess I guess yeah, you could get uh yeah, you could get one bag out, but you the person still has to close it, it can't close automatically because you know I understand and I agree with you, but then all I'm saying is to protect themselves for this and have just put an extra sensor in.
SPEAKER_06Is there anything in the damn truck? Yeah, and if there is, don't take off. Easy peasy. You can coat this very easy.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, it's probably not that difficult to do that.
SPEAKER_06Put a sensor in there instead of putting 8,411 sensors on, they have to put 8,412 sensors on, right? Right. Is that big of a deal?
SPEAKER_07I mean you gotta draw the line somewhere. That's it. 11 is it.
SPEAKER_10Uh, there's another way I I don't know why uh for um why I didn't pull this one, but I saw another picture of a knife sticking out. Did you see that one through the from the somewhere in the trunk? It was sticking out in the back seat like a fucking machete. It wasn't just like no pocket knife.
SPEAKER_06It looked like it was placed there.
SPEAKER_10Oh, 100%. It was like it's like somebody opened the trunk, and you know how it you can get through the crack in the back or whatever and shoved a knife in there, like really huge, huge knife. So I'm like, what is going on? So I did not see that. No, uh, it was just a picture, but yeah, it's uh it's crazy.
SPEAKER_06So it seems like such an easy. I mean, compared to the fact that we have a driverless vehicle, right? We can be we can produce a car that knows how to drive in fucking traffic and not going into accident, but we can't figure out, yeah, I know, we can't figure out how to determine whether or not there's something in the truck.
SPEAKER_09That seems like come on.
SPEAKER_10Well, it's also too when the news reaches out, you respond with and go, absolutely, we're gonna ship this to him. We are sorry about that, and we're gonna look into it. Oh my god, yeah, oh and and you there would be no story, right? And and you would or maybe there would be it would be a good positive story. Like, hey, Waymo, this happened, and I'm Waymo did the right thing. Like, what's it cost? A hundred bucks to ship that? Like, fuck off.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, pay a driver to take it to two hours. I don't care how yeah, no, no, it's a it's an autonomous car.
SPEAKER_07Put the luggage in the car and send it to him. That's the answer. Exactly. I offered to do that already. He doesn't need to come all the way there to get it. Yeah, why does he reason for him to come get it? Why does he have to be in the car? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Put it in the car, send it to him.
SPEAKER_06But you know why this isn't happened, right? It's because nobody from the upper middle management looked at the situation. This this case is all dealt with by customer support agents who don't know how to speak English, and they have a book to go from, and that's what happened.
SPEAKER_07And they have no leeway to make anything right.
SPEAKER_06Exactly. It's this is no, you already should forgot it in your trunk, and it's your fault, buddy. That's exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_10Well, I mean, do any of these people have common sense to be like, okay, we can't make this guy like I would no, I'm older now. Maybe if I was a 20-year-old customer service rep, I would not give a shit.
SPEAKER_06But I'd be like, then they're not paid enough to have customer to have common sense, Jason. They're not.
SPEAKER_10It's just it's just sad because you're you're trying to you're trying to take this this technology and make it make it good or comfortable. We want you to be comfortable with this. We want you to and you're being a cockhead on customer service. Like people will be like, oh, they really took care of that guy. What a great, you know.
SPEAKER_06Okay, maybe they're not, you know, and they just but look look at how many of the corporate America who actually takes care of you anymore. Nobody, no, they don't care, but they don't have to.
SPEAKER_10That sucks. It does. They don't have to. That's exactly it because people will still, you know, like McDonald's. One McDonald's pisses you off, they don't give a shit. They're like, You'll you'll fucking come back to this McDonald's, you fat fuck. And that's me talking to myself in the mirror. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_07So, anyways, but that's that's such a simple solution. Put put the luggage in the car and send the car to him. I don't, I mean, yep.
SPEAKER_06There's a hundred ways they could have solved this better than what's going on right now.
Final Takes Weekend Plans And Sign Off
SPEAKER_10Yes, yeah, they did everything wrong. So exactly. All right, I think we'll wrap it up there. Jasper, thanks for coming on. You all you always bring great insight, as always.
SPEAKER_07Always good to see you, Jesper.
SPEAKER_10And uh yeah, and we'll be going on the Patreon. Yes, we're probably won't, but at 8 10 p.m., we got a couple of stories we didn't go get to. Developers of Scroober app get two years for helping uh NYC drivers scam customers. I don't even remember this, I didn't even know this was a thing. Um, and then a bunch of other articles. But yeah, if you want to join live, go to patreon.com slash the gig econ podcast, and we'll be there in nine minutes. And uh any gig work, Larry, for you this weekend?
SPEAKER_07Let me think Saturday. Um possibly uh I'm I'll definitely be out uh tomorrow night and then possibly Saturday. Uh just depends on when we're celebrating stuff for Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, I got a weird uh the so the it's a White Caps week, but like Friday is a regular night game, and then Saturday is a day game, and Sunday is a day game. And it's kind of like do I go out in the morning? But then I mean I guess I can. So I I'm not committing to gig work this weekend. It might happen, but yeah, I don't think I'm gonna. We know Jesper's not gonna. He's just gonna drink whiskey and I don't know, play ARC or something like that.
SPEAKER_06I don't play Arc anymore. I play other shit.
SPEAKER_10Oh, what are you playing now then?
SPEAKER_06Uh it's a game called PAX.
SPEAKER_10Oh, ARK, PAX, shit, all short names.
SPEAKER_06I only do three of the games. That's it. Okay.
SPEAKER_07Very specific niche.
SPEAKER_10All right. All right. As always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. And we'll see you on the roof. All right. Well, we'll see you. Just not doing gig work.
SPEAKER_07Just not doing gig work, yeah. I know.
