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Comment by gavinray | Hacker News Reader

Exactly, I will pay a premium for not having to deal with a human being in the car with me.

It's a dice roll: you could get a very extroverted driver who won't leave you alone, or someone who smells bad, or someone rude, or a distracted driver...

Just let me sit in peace, alone with a robot.

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Isolationism progresses.

1950: cars give you the freedom to go anywhere you want. Artificial fertilizer puts an end to hunger in industrialized world. Yeehaw!

2000: you are a second class citizen who can’t even get a job in many places if you do not have a car. Also the median person is overweight. But here is this new internet thing that lets you get everything you need in life sorted out with no need for human interactions. Yeehaw!

2025: the average person can no longer hold a conversation with a stranger for five seconds without having an anxiety attack. Oops!

> So when Vashti found her cabin invaded by a rosy finger of light, she was annoyed, and tried to adjust the blind. But the blind flew up altogether, and she saw through the skylight small pink clouds, swaying against a background of blue, and as the sun crept higher, its radiance entered direct, brimming down the wall, like a golden sea. It rose and fell with the air-ship’s motion, just as waves rise and fall, but it advanced steadily, as a tide advances. Unless she was careful, it would strike her face. A spasm of horror shook her and she rang for the attendant. The attendant too was horrified, but she could do nothing; it was not her place to mend the blind. She could only suggest that the lady should change her cabin, which she accordingly prepared to do. People were almost exactly alike all over the world, but the attendant of the air-ship, perhaps owing to her exceptional duties, had grown a little out of the common. She had often to address passengers with direct speech, and this had given her a certain roughness and originality of manner. When Vashti swerved away from the sunbeams with a cry, she behaved barbarically — she put out her hand to steady her.

> “How dare you!” exclaimed the passenger. “You forget yourself!”

> The woman was confused, and apologized for not having let her fall. People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine

The Machine Stops (1909)

https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/...

Wow. It's hard to believe this novella was written in 1909. The imagination and insight of the author is remarkable. It reads as an account of a dystopic future that we are now more and more living in the present.

Thank you for sharing this.

I don't _want_ to have a random conversation with a person every time I ride a cab. Especially after a long flight and/or early in the morning.

And we wonder why we can’t get along anymore when the only time we go outside it to grab our Amazon packages off the porch.

It goes both ways too. Customer service in person has digressed pretty far.

What do you propose? Should Uber/Lyft train their drivers better to pick up on social cues to know when to engage and when to shut up and drive? Should they do more to make sure their drivers have good hygiene and manners?

After every ride the rider can vote on the driver. At least on Uber the driver gets 'punished' is his rating falls below 4. The driver will loose his rank benefits. As a rider you got to use the start. If it's ok, then 5. If there is something wrong, less than 5. Simple as that. As most people are voting 5 they seem to be over all ok with the overall service.

To be honest I'm afraid to rate low. I suspect I'll get flagged as a bad rater and banned from Uber/Lyft. So, if the ride is bad I just don't rate and don't tip. Even not tipping is scary to me given it's all tracked and they know me as a customer.

Another issue which I wish they'd add and related to rating, every person has a different preference. My preference is a safe driver who obeys traffic laws. Others people preferences are a driver who gets there as fast as possible, even if that means speeding, cutting people off, running red lights, etc... I've recorded drivers regualarly going 15-20 miles over the speed limit.

I wish I could put that preference in to the app and it would tell the driver, "this person will give you a higher rating if you drive safely and don't break any traffic laws". I'm not sure they could put the other "this passenger prefers quick service" without implying things.

Scaryiest Uber/Lyft I've had the driver was checking their stock portfolio on their smartphone while driving.

Like every company does with their employees?

It's not really a ride share problem. It's simply another crack showing how hard it is to just talk to people these days. There's a dozen other things to address first before I'd try to "make people be social in cars". funding into a variety of public spaces, better public transportation, regulating dating apps, better community outreach for events that already exist. I could go on.

Indeed. The market is exposing the truth here, whether that's the outcome some would prefer or not. These dense, wealthy, coastal regions are an endless fount of talk about how flyover suburbia is an unhealthy manifestation of isolation. Yet here we see that when given a choice in these same areas with their various competing taxi systems, isolation has significant monetary value.

Going outside costs $200 a day, and i cant afford to spend 1/4 my paycheck 7 times a week.

Also, I'm just doing my best to get the most out of the ludicrously high rent is pay every month.

I think you’re kidding, but I’m not sure. Can’t you walk to a park or ride your bike or something for free?

Time for a Perry Expedition-themed dating service.

How do you feel about public transportation?

They are two different things.

There are enough people on the bus or subway to be able to enforce some type of standard behavior. And if you encounter an unruly person, you can get off at the next stop.

With Uber and Lyft, it’s just you and the driver. You are also limited when you can exit the vehicle.

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