
Uber, Google, Facebook: Your experiments have gone too far - bcOpus
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/19/uber-google-facebook-experiments-gone-wrong/
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TACIXAT
This article is all over the place. It just felt like complaint soup.

They start on about Uber and Lyft causing increased traffic and then turn to
complain about the tech busses (a measure to reduce traffic!) in the same
breath.

I don't really see what the Facebook ads story adds to the local politics
angle.

Did the author have a source for the waymo car "causing" another vehicle
pinwheel (I assume this means spin out) and fleeing the scene? That seems
really serious.

As for the scooters, another clean solution to reduce traffic, but people
throw a shit fit cause they're tech.

Don't get me wrong, these companies are awful. Ads are psychological warfare,
Facebook has done actual experiments to affect people's moods. So many of
these products are designed to be addictive, capturing our attention for their
profit. As well, the pervasive surveillance state that smart phones, apps, and
data collection has created. This doesn't address any of that, instead it's
just SF political pandering.

Edit: The article has like / share buttons for basically all these companies
at the bottom of the page.

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TarpitCarnivore
> Did the author have a source for the waymo car "causing" another vehicle
> pinwheel (I assume this means spin out) and fleeing the scene? That seems
> really serious.

It was from a New Yorker story this week where there were emails from
Lewandowski discussing an accident. This is linked in the post so I don't know
how you missed it.

~~~
TACIXAT
>This is linked in the post so I don't know how you missed it.

It's almost as if my brain is trained to completely ignore underlined text
from all the sites that use it for inter-linking spam. Seriously, didn't even
notice it.

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jypepin
full disclosure: I used to work at Uber.

I'd be interested in hearing more about the claims made at the beginning of
the article and the sources of those.

I moved to SF in 2012 when uber was barely a thing (still only black cars) and
haven't noticed the traffic being worst. I've also not noticed any parking
spots that are now free (but even if this happened, isn't that a good sign?).

To the opposite, and again my own sources are biased since I worked at Uber
for a while (i'm not anymore), but I've heard a lot of studies proving the
opposite - reduced traffic, better for the environment, etc.

As an example, I googled "how many cars per day in SF" and the first thing I
found is that 110 000 cars cross the golden gate bridge alone. I'd assume the
Bay bridge is seeing at least that if not twice. So the argument that 5700
more cars because of Uber and Lyft in the city are the cause of traffic seems
a little short sighted. It's also the same argument that was made by De Blasio
a few years ago about NYC and studies proved that it was false.

I'm not saying the article is lying or anything, and again, I'm very biased,
I'm just surprised to see an article from Engadget making such claims without
links to sources/studies. The author saying "I'd realized congestion in San
Francisco had gone insane" doesn't convince me this is particularly true...

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
There was a study that came out in August noting that Uber & Lyft are infact
causing congestion:
[http://www.schallerconsult.com/rideservices/automobility.pdf](http://www.schallerconsult.com/rideservices/automobility.pdf)

Summary via NPR: [https://www.npr.org/2018/08/01/634506179/ride-hailing-
servic...](https://www.npr.org/2018/08/01/634506179/ride-hailing-services-add-
to-traffic-congestion-study-says)

~~~
tmymt
heh. Do we really need a study to know that having cheaper taxis causes
congestion?

~~~
TarpitCarnivore
Well considering the claims by Lyft & Uber that they'd reduce congestion, I'd
say yes a study would be warranted to highlight if it's true or not.

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purplezooey
I wish we could start putting more ideas and investment into the physical
world of roads, trains and bridges now that we have the information part doing
well. Sadly it won't happen for decades with the current political situation
poisoned by the extreme right.

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buboard
to endgadget: your clickbait experiment worked. thanks

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skrebbel
Tl;Dr: writer complains about local politics and is afraid for his job and
it's all the fault of big tech companies.

Very SF-local story, too, I don't understand why it's in a globally targeted
publication.

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hkai
The same writer would likely be happy to defend the point of view that if you
don't like how a platform is treating you, like banning you for your views,
then you can just leave.

