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  • Hacker News
  • I'd love to have been a fly on the wall of the Waymo offices when this news broke
    by hadlock
  • I’m so excited for driverless cars, and I wonder how this will affect the shift towards services like Waymo. If the choice of whether to take Waymo vs Uber comes down to cost, unions seem like they would shift the usage towards Waymo. (or Waymo simply increases prices to match)
    by beering
  • Or they might signal supporting a fellow human. I preferentially but union made things because in general the workers are getting a bigger cut.
    by forestrywat
  • Presuming that paying fair wages drives up service price. Uber and Lyft may increase prices a bit, but there are other factors that affect customers willingness to pay which don’t change with increases in driver compensation. The companies can always choose to take slightly less profit to pay a fair wage, and they might make that choice if it’s less painful than the loss in paid rides due to a price increase.
    by SequoiaHope
  • The economics of self driving taxis is still to be determined. Waymo right now costs significantly more than Uber and Lyft and service is extremely limited. And Google is still pouring billions into the division with no expectation of profit in the short term. A lot has to change before self driving taxis will seriously start to displace regular ones.
    by paxys
  • Great news, although I just read uber is rolling out driverless rides.

    Just as I support the AMA for doctors I support collective bargaining rights even for gig drivers.

    Let's hope it makes a difference.

    by newsomix9xl
  • > Just as I support the AMA for doctors

    Strong disagree: they’re the main entity responsible for limiting the available quantity of doctors/medical practitioners available,

    and, well, they’re frankly not spending enough time with each patient per appointment.

    Not something to glance over - it’s a complete mishandling of the only formula that matters to the patient.

    by DANmode
  • > Just as I support the AMA for doctors

    Doctors pay has been increasing a lot and it has nothing to do with union. In fact they just do one thing, lobby to not allow a perfectly good set of students to go to college.

    by YetAnotherNick
  • > I just read uber is rolling out driverless rides.

    Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. You made me laugh.

    Each time a industry unionizes corporations try to downplay the need of labor. Executives think that employees are just a nuisance and that the working class is ungrateful for their salaries. The reality is that the only ones adding value are the working class.

    Unionize, let them fear us instead of mocking us and steal from us.

    by Frieren