
Google patents ad-powered taxi service that would offer free rides to shoppers - avsaro
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/google-patents-ad-powered-taxi-service-that-would-offer-free-rides-to-shoppers/
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jasonkester
Prior Art: Bangkok Tuk Tuk Taxis

You walk up to a driver and tell him where you want to go. He quotes you a
ludicrously low price. You hop in. He drives you several miles out of your way
and stops you in front of a Priceless Gem Broker's shop, and refuses to budge
until you go up and at least take a look around.

This is common enough that you need to actually specify "No Shopping" when you
hail a tuk tuk so that you can get a price that involves driving directly from
here to your destination.

~~~
jsmeaton
Hah, the first time this happened to me I freaked out. Thought we were being
kidnapped, considering the place we were taken to was some seedy bar hidden at
the back of a carpark.

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dsr_
Clearly this is Google making fun of the patent system.

The value of an ad is, say, ten cents per thousand. You can upgrade the price
because you have (a) a captive audience for ten minutes which has (b) already
decided to visit your location, but you need to counter that with (c) has
already decided to visit your location, so you aren't getting an additional
expected profit from that. So, let's say a dollar per 1000. In ten minutes you
can show no more than a hundred ads (and showing so many will overwhelm the
viewer and desensitize them), so the expected ad value is 10 cents.

Even if the expected ad value is a dollar, that just about pays for a bus
ride, not a taxi ride.

OK, so it's a self-driving taxi, no labor costs, electric is cheaper than gas,
and you own it so you don't need to make an additional profit, just cover the
costs. You still can't do it. Maybe a self-driving bus with a route from a
public transport hub to your inexplicably inaccessible location...

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pavs
Alternatively. Take everything you pointed out plus additionally you could
generate revenue by showing ads on the body of the taxi cabs (which also
generates decent revenue). Google could pursue this idea to show the viability
of self-driving cars even at a bit of a loss in one or two cities at small
scale.

Not everything is about making profit and money directly. Google have
repeatedly showed that they don't go after projects thinking about generating
profit first. And honestly if I had to bet on any single company trying to
push the envelope in making self-driving cars in our daily life (not merely as
a concept that is possible), Google is it. If Google doesn't go for it, no one
else will do it anytime soon, or even in our lifetime IMO.

~~~
hrjet
A self-driving Taxi + Ads. The mind boggles.

Imagine. The taxi would probably take a sponsored route through commercial
hubs. Show you a good view of a hotel perhaps so that you take a room there.
The radio would play ads and the windows would be transparent panels with
overlaid ads.

This whole focus of Google on ads is sickening.

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WaterSponge
They day I can give up my driving commute and order a ride uber style and for
a reasonable subscription. I'll be all over it.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Perhaps the cab companies could work together to raise funds for a isolated
road network (call it something web 2.0 like "rails") and then offer to drive
on the "rails", subsidising your journey by making you share with others in
the cab. In fact why not have the driver sit in the "cab" and you can ride in
a trailer behind, with the othr passengers.

I think we are onto something.

:-)

(could not resist)

Edit: in all seriousness I looked quite hard for ride-shares to help me with a
killer commute. I even looked at the price of a daily taxi doing 100 miles
pday (ha ha ha) and one a different contract was amazed to find a large 16
wheeler coach that passed by my house (in commuter-land) and dropped off in
Central London on the same street as the clients office. (Notably with the
coffee shop between the drop off point and the office, saving everyone some
time.)

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awjr
I could see this working for a company if the passenger was offered a voucher
to the value of the taxi ride off goods/services that the company sells.

I'm not sure offering a free ride to a centrally located business would make
financial sense.

Is it important to offer a free return journey?

Of note, in the UK, some out of town supermarkets offer a free bus service to
them. However the key bit is that there is usually nothing else near them to
make it worth taking the bus unless you actually want to go to that
supermarket.

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Atroxide
I am assuming the ad offer would take many things into consideration. the main
one being distance, I doubt you could really use such a feature to actually
get to somewhere you need to go.

I would also like to point out that every ride they give, and every offer a
customer uses, they are getting that much more data to create better behavior
guesses which will help show the ads that would be used instead of abused. I
also could see this being offered only after you have put in a destination
(and thus also your credit card which means you actually need transportation)
and if you are going to an area with a ton of restaurants at 5pm, it might
instead suggest a restaurant (not near the destination). this couldn't be
abused as easy.

I honestly don't see a way this couldn't be profitable in the long run knowing
how Google uses all of their behavior data. (this all really depends on the
car being self-driven)

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halviti
I've seen something like this done in Europe, but with bike rickshaws.

The service seemed to very popular and heavily used, but it would be hard to
say if those people weren't already going to the store and were just taking
advantage of the free transport.

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surreal
Why has an exclamation mark vomited all over their patent.

