I believe this is a great step for Lyft to continue to differentiate themselves from Uber. In SF they are perceived as the 'friendly' service, but when I've talked to friends in other parts of the country they don't seem to view them differently than Uber.
I hope the profiles are limited in what they ask so users aren't turned off of the service because they feel that they have to share too many personal details.
Viewing this as a branding exercise is missing the whole picture. UberPOOL and Lyft Line will revolutionize transportation by convincing drivers to pick up passengers during their commutes to and from work to pay their gas, maintenance, and then some. They'll convince riders to get in cars with strangers for prices that make owning more than one car in a household unreasonable, even in the suburbs.
Doing that requires far more people to get comfortable sharing small spaces with strangers. Profiles are a step in that direction.
EDIT: Either I missed it the first time, or they added a big chunk to the article about Line. Regardless, the branding angle is far secondary to Line.
In post-soviet countries like Poland it was (less so now, but still popular). At some point we even had "hitchhiker's booklets" with coupons you would leave drivers who took you, and they could then use in lotteries. Hitchhiking was a strong tradition in Central/Eastern Europe, and - in some parts of the continent - still is.
I am pretty happy that Lyft is betting on carpooling as that was the original vision that they had for Zimride (where Lyft was born) and I feel it sets a very clear distinction against the vision Uber has. Lyft is carpooling with friendly strangers, Uber is everyone's private driver (cheaper taxi).
The challenge with the free/common courtesy model is that casual carpools are just not getting enough cars off the road. Lyft is solving the two biggest challenges I see in carpooling 1) convenience of having the app route you to people who are close enough to your route and can be dropped off without adding too much time and 2) making you feel more comfortable picking up strangers. Adding money to the equation to encourage more drivers is fine with me as it reduces car traffic and pollution.
As I said, I have conflicting feelings about this. On the one hand, I very much agree with what you wrote, and the tangible benefits this model has. On the other hand, picking up random passengers really was about just being nice to another human being. So between Lyft and BlaBlaCar it feels like we're losing a little bit of humanity again.
To be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad thing - it's just that my alarm bells go off every time I see a business creeping into what used to be a money-free zone, so I thought I'd raise that concern.
My parents would tell me that one of our extended family's (my family had already emigrated to the US at this point) favorite economic reforms in Peru during the 90s was deregulating the cab industry so that anyone could simply put in a little sign that said "taxi" on their dashboard could operate as a cab driver.
From what I understand and vaguely remember from visits as a kid was that it wasn't uncommon to pay for a ride for someone on their way to or from work. The economy was so bad that cab drivers were frequently from all kinds of background, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, etc but all needed and appreciated the ability to make some extra untaxed income.
Why does the driver matter when choosing a cab? Lots of room for profiling etc. Another way to subtly discriminate e.g. avoid women drivers or anybody who likes ethnic music.
Choosing someone who you 'get along with' is a code phrase for excluding everybody different.
According to the article, they'll be providing profiles for drivers. What point in that, except to browse them? Its going to change soon, according to the author.
Users don't choose the driver, though. In these services the only way to do that would be to cancel the ride and ask for a new one immediately. Users who want to discriminate against their drivers have enough information already — name and photo — to do that. Not to mention that Lyft can detect the behavior easily and take corrective measures if necessary, such as making it clear that they know users are doing that. But I doubt that'll happen.
Its supposed to be all about getting a driver with topics of conversation in common. They're adding profiles for drivers, that's clear in the article. What use adding them if you can't see them? Of course the customer can see them. And choose between them. Did I read the same article?
Most interests are pretty simple keywords so it'd certainly be possible to do algorithmic matching on the backend. But the article doesn't actually say they'll use profiles to choose drivers. More likely they'll continue sending you the closest available driver (at least at first), and if their profile indicates a shared interest, great, now you have something to talk about.
They see them after they have already been assigned a driver, just like it is now, except now you only see their name and photo. Have you ever used Lyft or Uber?
The point is that if there are things the driver and passenger have to talk about, they will more easily come to light if there is a driver profile available.
I feel really reassured when the Lyft driver who picks me up is a woman. When your service is set up in a way that makes women feel comfortable picking up total strangers and driving them around the city, you know you're doing something right.
"If a user has connected their Facebook account, the Lyft app can show if drivers and passengers have mutual friends in common."
I see so many possibilities around adding a social dimension to ride-sharing services. What if the app would in fact try to preferably connect you with a rider who has mutual Facebook friends with you? What if the drivers and passengers could check a box indicating they were single and would like to use rides as a way to have an informal, inexpensive, casual date? What about matching people based on common business interests (looking for an employee or employer)? People-to-people contact during a ride finally makes social "real", unlike Facebooking while sitting in front of your laptop alone in your apartment.
The potential is really immense. One day, Uber and other ride-sharing companies being valued so high won't look so ridiculous.
I simply don't see the potential. My anecdotal experience has been that the target demographics for these apps simply aren't as social as investors think they are. Is there room for growth? Probably. Billion-dollar growth? Not even close.
I like the idea of profiles for a personalized taxi service, but not because of the possibilities for social connections.
There is definitely a kind of person who's interested in the social aspect of ride-sharing. In fact, there's always been—the people who hitchhike and those wiling to pick them up.
You're right though. It's a small group. These features are for a very small percent of the total user base. Neat though.
> There is definitely a kind of person who's interested in the social aspect of ride-sharing. In fact, there's always been—the people who hitchhike and those wiling to pick them up.
My grandfather hitchhiked to school when he was young. He lived in rural Minnesota and that was the only way to get around, he didn't do it to be social.
Now that most people have other options, the only people still doing it are the people who want the social experience, and it's not many.
I'm not saying there is no potential social appeal to rideshare whatsoever, but like parent, I'm guessing it's slim.
> the only people still doing it are the people
> who want the social experience
Based on the people I see hitchhiking and the people I know who have, I have to believe that it's often (maybe usually) still motivated by means rather than a desire for a social experience.
Blablacar(https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blablacar), which specializes in longer rides (>45min) rebranded itself in this way too. It used to be called Covoiturage.fr (which translates to Ridesharing.fr).
It already features profiles and when you select a ride, you can chose whether you don't really want to talk (bla), don't mind talking (bla bla) or really want to talk (bla bla bla) during the ride.
In my anecdotal experience using the service for 1h-2h30 rides, people mostly chat all ride long. I've met really interesting people, although I've yet to keep a lasting connection with anyone.
Of course the first motivation to use the service is financial, but a lot of people like the social aspect of it too, as opposed to a train where you're just not supposed to talk to people. Anyway, they have been quite successful until now in Europe at least.
> you can chose whether you don't really want to talk (bla), don't mind talking (bla bla) or really want to talk (bla bla bla) during the ride.
I wish airlines would develop that feature when selecting seats. Just simply allowing people to choose one of those options and have it show up in the seat map when subsequent passengers are selecting their seats would be quite interesting.
Will this work after the required migration to Facebook API v2+ that is coming on April 30? My understanding of one of the many changes this will drive is it will only be possible for apps to see your friends who also use the app. Apps won't be able to get full friends lists to do this kind of intersection any longer.
Or is there a special relationship exemption for Lyft? Or maybe I misunderstand the FB changes.
> What if the drivers and passengers could check a box indicating they were single and would like to use rides as a way to have an informal, inexpensive, casual date?
I personally wouldn't feel comfortable putting up a profile for a service such as Uber or Lyft. I especially wouldn't feel comfortable for my SO to have a profile - she already feels uncomfortable using these services by herself (though safer than a taxi, sexual assault incidents do happen). I'm not sure if this is a step in the right direction. The drivers in my area aren't people I would want to connect with or share personal info...
Instead of sharing personal info, why can't we know when the driver started driving for Uber or Lyft? Some have just started and have 5.0 ratings even though they may have only completed a handful of rides...
Also, my Facebook Friends aren't always my actual friends. I might not want to get into a long conversation about Aunt Bridget with my Lyft/Uber driver - I don't know what their feelings about her are, and they don't know what mine are. I might hate her guts, and they might be her best friend.
I find that sometimes after work I don't want to talk to anyone, but minutes after getting into a Lyft, I feel happier because the driver has energized me with their personality and conversation.
This is a good move by Lyft. Uber has cornered the market for taking someone from point A to point B. Lyft needs to give customers the perception that there's more to the industry than being a low cost taxi. Not sure if it will pay off...not sure if Lyft has much of a choice...but seems logical for them to go down this path.
Thought experiment: if Lyft had a fleet of autonomous cabs called Lyftbot that was 10% cheaper, but not social, would anyone pay more for the "social experience" of a human cabby?
This feels like a feature from 2010 when every interaction was destined to become social. Social shopping, social search, social everything... until it wasn't.
I love Lyft and use it all the time. But it's there to get me to a destination. I enjoy chatting with the driver, but that's incidental. I hope they don't mess it up by forcing it to be more social than it need be -- let's call it "pulling a Google+."
> would anyone pay more for the "social experience" of a human cabby?
Only if i had just moved to the area or was in another country so i could talk to the driver - but this is no different than if i were in a traditional cab. But otherwise i agree, the point of the most of these lyft/uber/cab rides is the destination, anything else is just fluff.
Has anyone ever used something like the "MichiVan" from vRide? It's been around for quite some time as a work carpool service. I'm curious how it compares with Lyft/Uber in terms of cost.
I'm a fan of the branding moves Lyft has been making recently. Will these moves be enough to supplant Uber as my preferred ride-share service? Probably not.
I don't see the introduction of profiles hindering Lyft's progress as some have suggested, but I don't see this as being a huge leap forward to gain ground on Uber either. If anything with more information about my driver the greater obligation and guilt I will feel to tip them more. I am now emotionally invested in my driver's wellbeing. This is an obligation that I don't feel when choosing Uber, but I can still engage in the same conversations with the driver should the mood strike.
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[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 69.8 ms ] threadI hope the profiles are limited in what they ask so users aren't turned off of the service because they feel that they have to share too many personal details.
Doing that requires far more people to get comfortable sharing small spaces with strangers. Profiles are a step in that direction.
EDIT: Either I missed it the first time, or they added a big chunk to the article about Line. Regardless, the branding angle is far secondary to Line.
Which is yet another case of capitalism replacing what was a common courtesy with a business transaction. I have very conflicting feelings about this.
A courtesy, yes. But a common one?
(I'm actually genuinely interested - was this common at some point in history?)
The idea is that by picking up people, you can drive in the HOV lanes.
The challenge with the free/common courtesy model is that casual carpools are just not getting enough cars off the road. Lyft is solving the two biggest challenges I see in carpooling 1) convenience of having the app route you to people who are close enough to your route and can be dropped off without adding too much time and 2) making you feel more comfortable picking up strangers. Adding money to the equation to encourage more drivers is fine with me as it reduces car traffic and pollution.
To be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad thing - it's just that my alarm bells go off every time I see a business creeping into what used to be a money-free zone, so I thought I'd raise that concern.
From what I understand and vaguely remember from visits as a kid was that it wasn't uncommon to pay for a ride for someone on their way to or from work. The economy was so bad that cab drivers were frequently from all kinds of background, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, etc but all needed and appreciated the ability to make some extra untaxed income.
Choosing someone who you 'get along with' is a code phrase for excluding everybody different.
The point is that if there are things the driver and passenger have to talk about, they will more easily come to light if there is a driver profile available.
Or did you just assume that this was a way for you as the rider to choose a driver?
I see so many possibilities around adding a social dimension to ride-sharing services. What if the app would in fact try to preferably connect you with a rider who has mutual Facebook friends with you? What if the drivers and passengers could check a box indicating they were single and would like to use rides as a way to have an informal, inexpensive, casual date? What about matching people based on common business interests (looking for an employee or employer)? People-to-people contact during a ride finally makes social "real", unlike Facebooking while sitting in front of your laptop alone in your apartment.
The potential is really immense. One day, Uber and other ride-sharing companies being valued so high won't look so ridiculous.
I can't remember the exact quote, but it's something like the longer your site is live, the likelier it is to have turned into a dating site.
Once you're chatting, dating is not that far anyway :)
I like the idea of profiles for a personalized taxi service, but not because of the possibilities for social connections.
You're right though. It's a small group. These features are for a very small percent of the total user base. Neat though.
My grandfather hitchhiked to school when he was young. He lived in rural Minnesota and that was the only way to get around, he didn't do it to be social.
Now that most people have other options, the only people still doing it are the people who want the social experience, and it's not many.
I'm not saying there is no potential social appeal to rideshare whatsoever, but like parent, I'm guessing it's slim.
Based on the people I see hitchhiking and the people I know who have, I have to believe that it's often (maybe usually) still motivated by means rather than a desire for a social experience.
It already features profiles and when you select a ride, you can chose whether you don't really want to talk (bla), don't mind talking (bla bla) or really want to talk (bla bla bla) during the ride.
In my anecdotal experience using the service for 1h-2h30 rides, people mostly chat all ride long. I've met really interesting people, although I've yet to keep a lasting connection with anyone.
Of course the first motivation to use the service is financial, but a lot of people like the social aspect of it too, as opposed to a train where you're just not supposed to talk to people. Anyway, they have been quite successful until now in Europe at least.
I wish airlines would develop that feature when selecting seats. Just simply allowing people to choose one of those options and have it show up in the seat map when subsequent passengers are selecting their seats would be quite interesting.
Or is there a special relationship exemption for Lyft? Or maybe I misunderstand the FB changes.
I would do this.
Instead of sharing personal info, why can't we know when the driver started driving for Uber or Lyft? Some have just started and have 5.0 ratings even though they may have only completed a handful of rides...
Also, my Facebook Friends aren't always my actual friends. I might not want to get into a long conversation about Aunt Bridget with my Lyft/Uber driver - I don't know what their feelings about her are, and they don't know what mine are. I might hate her guts, and they might be her best friend.
This feels like a feature from 2010 when every interaction was destined to become social. Social shopping, social search, social everything... until it wasn't.
I love Lyft and use it all the time. But it's there to get me to a destination. I enjoy chatting with the driver, but that's incidental. I hope they don't mess it up by forcing it to be more social than it need be -- let's call it "pulling a Google+."
Only if i had just moved to the area or was in another country so i could talk to the driver - but this is no different than if i were in a traditional cab. But otherwise i agree, the point of the most of these lyft/uber/cab rides is the destination, anything else is just fluff.
I don't see the introduction of profiles hindering Lyft's progress as some have suggested, but I don't see this as being a huge leap forward to gain ground on Uber either. If anything with more information about my driver the greater obligation and guilt I will feel to tip them more. I am now emotionally invested in my driver's wellbeing. This is an obligation that I don't feel when choosing Uber, but I can still engage in the same conversations with the driver should the mood strike.