Uber’s Share Keeps Rising And Drivers Feel It

We bounce from real-world glitches to big platform moves, focusing on how drivers get squeezed when apps fail, pricing gets murky, and decisions have to happen fast. We question the gaps in transparency across Uber, DoorDash, Walmart delivery partnerships, and even robotaxis, then trade practical ways to protect your time and your safety. 

• DoorDash outage fallout, including late orders and closed restaurants 
• How many orders does DoorDash process, and why is downtime expensive 
• A nine-year data look at Uber’s growing take rate and why that matters to earnings 
• The stress of fast accept timers, constant beeps, and distracted driving pressure 
• DoorDash Flash Offers and the trade-off of always-on location permissions 
• Ask DoorDash chatbot features, photo-to-cart shopping, and AI trust limits 
• Local pushback on data centers and where AI infrastructure should go 
• Uber driver found not guilty case and the unanswered consent questions 
• Walmart adding Subway delivery and what bundling means for Spark routes 
• “Person as a package” requests and why drivers should refuse 
• Waymo getting stuck, remote support intervention, and self-driving edge cases 
• Delivery notes, missed instructions, and the odd excuse of “a friend used my account” 
• Curri dedicated route math, commitment costs, and battery drain from background tracking 

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:23

Hello,

Live Stream Recap And Weird Orders

SPEAKER_06 0:24

hello. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Gig Economy Podcast, episode three hundred and six with Larry. Uh rundown says Gabe on it, but that's okay. Uh welcome back to the living. Larry and I were uh did a live stream and it was a little bumpy at the beginning, but we persevered and cursed. And I call Larry a lot of names for ending the stream after we're offline. No, I'm just kidding. Um ears were burning, man. Yes, you knew I was I was yelling about you. So welcome to the show. We're gonna talk a lot about uh Uber keeping more of the fair, DoorDash AI, of course, and Tesla Robo Taxi Trouble just for the summer, just FYI every other week. We're gonna be streaming. Uh and it was it was actually fun, wasn't it? It was.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

Yeah, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Yeah, I mean, a couple hours went by in no time.

SPEAKER_06 1:22

Yeah, I so for behind the scenes, we streamed for like two hours and 20 minutes, but after I cut out all the door ding ding dings and the and the you know when we weren't talking, and and it ended up being like 90 minutes. So perfect amount. I I was happy with that. Uh that night, Larry, uh, did I dunno what did you end up? Did you end up tallying up what you ended up having? I know we kind of cut it short and then we somehow disconnected again, shockingly.

SPEAKER_05 1:49

I'm sure I did, but I went out again after the show and did more food delivery until uh whoever it was, door to actually I kept getting those weird orders where the places were closed. That's right. I was messaging me saying, Man, I ordered this an hour and a half ago, just freaking keep it. And I'm like, dude, I got your order five minutes ago. And I was like, all right, that's it, no more food delivery tonight.

SPEAKER_06 2:11

Okay. I ended up doing like 65 or 67s. Um, and I I thought that was pretty good for that night.

SPEAKER_05 2:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:20

Um, speaking of DoorDash uh being weird, so yesterday there was an outage. I was not on DoorDash at the time. I think it ended up being like an hour, it was like nationwide. So I get this order from McDonald's and I poll in there, and it's fine, it's whatever. And I look at it, it's it and now mind you, it's like 1145. It says sausage McMuffin with egg meals, and I'm like, mmm. And sure enough, I talked to the manager, yeah, we don't have it. You know, we're done with breakfast. And he's like, I guess that was probably sent during that outage, and then that was all that was it. And I'm like, why did DoorDash? I mean, maybe they don't have a way to like kill those orders, but they as soon as they were back up their servers, it sent them all out. So I bet there was a quite a few orders that happened that.

SPEAKER_05 3:10

Yeah, they should be able to fix that. Because I mean, just think if it was out for like six hours, and all of a sudden you get you know, some restaurants getting like six hours worth of orders.

SPEAKER_06 3:18

True. Maybe it maybe it snuck in right under the wire, right? Like right before it went. I don't know, maybe because you know, I mean, God, I would I would love to see the stats of like how many orders are being processed by DoorDash per hour, like in the country. Because you know it's gotta be like I mean, what would you guess an hour in in in nationwide?

SPEAKER_05 3:40

I I don't even man, it's it's hard to even guess. I don't guess what it would be. I like I don't even think I could be in the ballpark.

SPEAKER_06 3:47

I mean, I if if if I was guessing which we are, I would say 10,000. Is that too low? Oh, you're looking at you're gonna chat GPT it. Um by the way, I'm back on the plus. I canceled it, and then I resubscribed to it because I needed to upload a bunch of pictures for something and I had to upgrade. So what what are they saying?

SPEAKER_05 4:10

Let's see, I'm just gonna do the United States. Yeah, I would just say United States. 125,000 orders an hour on average. No, I was so off. Yeah, it says they average over three million deliveries per day in the United States. That is actually quite impressive. That is, uh, if it's true. If it's true, because this this is the little AI, you know, uh summary at the top. Yeah, and so just to put in perspective, our our uh South Warren High School here where our kids went, their softball team was uh went to the state championship this year. They played Saturday, and they're 43-0, ranked number one in this country. Wow. They have not been beat. So Saturday afternoon, I'm like, oh, I wonder if they won. I didn't know what time they played. So I searched just the 2026 Kentucky softball girls, you know, tournament. And they came up with that AI summary and said South Warren completed their undefeated season, beat Bullet County 11 to nothing. And I keep looking at, I'm looking for a box score, and I see, wait a minute, the game doesn't start till six. This was at three in the afternoon. And I took a picture of it. I told my wife, I was like, if they win by that score, something's fishy. But they didn't. They ended up winning by like eight to nothing. But yeah, you can't always trust that summary.

SPEAKER_06 5:31

Well, it's so interesting because I feel like I trust chat GPT a lot more than I do when I Google and get that summary up top.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

Like, okay, yeah, this is just the Google summary. I didn't go to chat GPT.

SPEAKER_06 5:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You're right. I I knew you did that, but I'm just saying it makes me wonder. Like, I don't take it for like the gospel when I see it, but I'm using chat for like my mother-in-law's air conditioner broke, she got a quote. I'm like, okay, what does this look like? And it tells me, hey, that seems a little pricey. You know, and it just it just organizes my thoughts. It's not like I'm looking for a score for the softball game, you know.

SPEAKER_05 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:10

Okay, so I did chat GBT it.

SPEAKER_05 6:14

It says they don't publicly report their orders per hour, but it said, oh man, across all its marketplaces in 2024, which is you know, two years ago, they did 2.6 billion orders, which breaks down into 7.1 million orders per day, or 296,000 orders per hour. But that didn't tell you, you know, in the United States. Says the United States is the company's largest market by far, so a reasonable estimate is that well over 200,000 orders per hour happened in the United States, and that was in 2024.

SPEAKER_06 6:44

Well, yeah, they're gonna give those stats from the later years because yeah, they don't report them, but their their reports that come out, they'll be stories from the older years, but yeah, I'm I mean 200,000 an hour. That's nuts. And so imagine those servers go down for the entire nation for an hour. Think how much money they're losing. And and yeah, I can't believe that that many people, or I mean, I see a lot of drivers. Like today, I I I did a Panda Express, and there were three drivers in there.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

So I guess there's so many Yeah, just yeah, there's a lot of freaking people doing it, man. And there really is.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

Well, think about the amount of people that are doing it compared to the customers. Like, who's who can afford? I mean, maybe I am not cheap by any means. I'm bougie. Ask Gabe, ask everybody. You know, you'll sleep in a pine box. I'm like, when we do the Airbnb, I want to be a I want to be pampered. You know, I hear you, but I'm not ordering DoorDash. I'm like, fuck that. I'm not spending that much on food or drink. I mean, I guess if I was like boozing and I didn't want to drive, I might do it because you do a but yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:53

I mean, I can certainly see it in in certain circumstances, but just on like I know people that I mean these people that do it on a you know three, four, five times a week, I just don't understand.

SPEAKER_06 8:04

Yeah, I I don't understand that either. And it's I mean, I love eating out. Like, I I am not a home cook meal kind of guy. I think it's probably trauma for my childhood because my mom was a terrible cook and everything was dry or overcooked. And so, like, eating out to me is like I love it. But I mean, first of all, I I can't afford it. I mean, I guess if I was living alone and not with a family, I might eat out quite a bit more. But I mean, I can't remember the last time I like actually cooked a meal for myself. Like, I might put a pot pie in the microwave or the air fryer. I mean, I'll cook in the air fryer a little bit, but not like like maybe spaghetti. That is yeah, the extent of it. But my point is, is like I love eating out, but I'm still stopping me from doing DoorDash because A, it's expensive, and B, it's gonna be cold.

SPEAKER_05 8:55

Yeah, so yeah, yeah, exactly. And uh uh we we you know we we deliver the food, we say how it all goes, we know we know how the sausage is made, so we don't want to deal with it.

SPEAKER_06 9:09

Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, and and and again, you're I'm trying to hustle out there. I mean, I bet there's dashers that don't give a shit and they're just like taking their time.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

Yeah, well, I mean we show videos of the people who don't care who's scratching their balls and and you know hanging your food and you know, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_06 9:27

Yeah, I treat it as a J-O-B. Like I'm like, not that I and my boss is the customer. I want to get it there quick, and then of course, my efficiency, the quicker I flip it, the better or I'm running my ass off because I double dipped and I've screwed up the directions. I mean, even today I had that double. I don't know if you heard the chat, and I'm like, I got a great Walmart one. I go, I better haul ass and drop this because Walmart's gonna see me go in the opposite direction.

SPEAKER_05 9:55

Yep, and they're gonna take it away from me.

SPEAKER_06 9:57

I remember I love it when those apps come out and they don't have that ability or haven't figured it out yet. And Walmart was one of those where you could you could accept an order and get over there 40 minutes later and it would have been fine. Yeah, but yeah, not so much anymore. No. Uh yeah, I had the one story from the road. I did uh get check out our TikTok. I spilled a bunch of blueberries. Well, I didn't, I say the loader did, and then they destroyed my back seat. Oh not destroyed it, I shouldn't say I mean dramatic as usual, but just dumped all over the place. So yeah. Um, but uh any stories from you? Did you other than you well, we can't really give our stories from I mean, you saw let me see. You saw a three-foot dead snake, you saw a girl giving it to her man on the highway.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

Um I wouldn't know let's let's let's let's define that.

SPEAKER_06 10:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:52

She was a gutter. She was giving him down the road, man. She was she was walking in front of him, but like every third step, man, she was turned around. She was pointing that finger in his face, and she was smacking her hands together. She was not happy with him at all.

SPEAKER_06 11:05

Do you have any other stories from the road?

SPEAKER_05 11:08

No, not really. The rest of that night. Um, except the weird stuff, like I said, that happened on DoorDash that night. That was yeah, that was kind of weird. But yeah, um, yeah, beside that, it's pretty unavoidable. I went out this weekend and did some ride sharing stuff, but it was all pretty calm. But uh, yeah, before you know it, students will be back here in you know another month or so. Students of the uh athletes will start start getting here. They come in early usually. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 11:33

Yeah, I I I feel like I have more, but I just don't remember because now I'm doing it so much, it just blurs out. I need to start jotting them down.

SPEAKER_05 11:41

Yeah, that's what I'd really I'm I'm really trying to do. That when something happens, if I don't I you know, just jump put in my notes real quick or take a voice note or something real quick because I know that I want to probably not remember it.

SPEAKER_06 11:52

The voice note is a really good idea because it really can capture your emotion around the moment instead of type like there's times for the other podcasts I do where I I type something out and we might not record for two weeks and I read it, I was like, I don't freaking remember.

SPEAKER_05 12:07

Have no idea what this means. Yeah, I'll find that in my in my notes app that I do. I I'm like, and I'll look in there and there'll be like a number or a time or something, and I'm like with no context. Yeah, you could put a gun to my head, I would not be able to tell you what this means.

SPEAKER_06 12:22

Oh, yeah, no idea. Man, what did we do without technology so long ago?

Uber Takes More Of The Fare

SPEAKER_06 12:29

Oh, gig economy in the news, Larry. Let's get to talking. I know last week we did deliveries today. We're doing news again. I don't know if this is new information. I did put it on there, but Uber is now keeps most of the fare from you in certain cities, so don't know if that's new information. I know we've talked about it, I know drivers talk about it. They I see a lot of people posting, oh, they take 60 or 70 or 80 or 90. I don't ever know. I just look, is that worth it to me? And I take the freaking ride.

SPEAKER_05 12:59

Right, yeah. And it's something we've talked about over and over, and uh, you see it posted by drivers in all sorts of forms and stuff. But this was done, this is actually a study done by a guy who's uh an adjunct professor and executive in residence at Columbia Business School. So, you know, he's got he's got some cred there. Yes, with the study. And he he, I mean, he didn't just look at a few things, he looked at nine years of ride sharing data for three specific drivers in three different cities Dallas, Miami, and Tampa. It says between the three, they have about 50,000 Uber trips. So oh wow, that's a lot. Yeah, he it wasn't he wasn't just glancing at a couple rides and saying, okay, this is what it shows. Uh but it does show that um in in some you know cities, uh their take has risen, you know, over 50 percent in in some places. And we remember when we first started, you know, we got 80, they got what was it? We got 80, they got 20, and then it was we got 75, they got 25, and then after that it was uh you know per mile per yeah, that kind of thing. So yeah, we used to get you know eighty, seventy-five or eighty percent of it, and now it it varies uh a ton. But um yeah, it says that um Uber claims that that it it only uh let's say in January they were keeping an average of twenty-one percent of the fare uh of this year? In third quarter of 2025. Okay. Uh that's what they're claiming. But yeah, it during during the study, he like I said, he studied these people, this uh these three data from these three drivers over a nine-year period. And over you know, from the time it started to what it is now, uh Uber's take has doubled for those for that data. Oh wow. So and we know, I mean, we know that it has. We know they're taking more profits because they're making huge profits. For years and years and years, they you know weren't making any money and they were pouring money into R D to develop all sorts of things, you know, the autonomous cars, the air taxis, you know, this, that, and the other. Uh and now, you know, now they're making pretty hefty profits uh every quarter.

SPEAKER_06 15:08

And and the thing is, is I I I want them to make a profit. If they're successful, we're successful. But exactly I feel like share the wealth. Yeah, but I feel like speaking of sharing the wealth, I think we need to have like a balance of, you know, okay, we're gonna sorry, we're gonna take a little less and and then we're gonna raise the rates a little bit. Like we should all, you know, customers and drivers take a little bit of the hit. And I I understand it. I'm not supporting Uber, don't think I'm a shill or anything, thinking, you know, I'm I'm I believe in capitalism. I think it works, it has its issues, but I you know, you kind of gotta have that, right? Like be you know, to make money, you gotta you gotta charge the rates. I guess the biggest issue for me is just the lack of transparency with that. They just kind of changed it and said, fuck you, you know, they mean and how many times have they changed it?

SPEAKER_05 16:02

That's the thing as well. They've changed it, you know, how they do things, they're constantly changing things.

SPEAKER_06 16:08

Yeah, and I I guess my point is if they said, Hey, you know, we're unfortunately we're gonna have to lower again. What job have you ever gone to where you lot, you know, we always bring this up where you make less money every year. Yeah, yeah. Um, but I I think again with transparency, I think they would be like, Well, look at this is what we gotta do. Okay, fine. We're gonna knock it down two percent or whatever. But no, they just you know, they're just like, whatever. Yeah, we're gonna go to a whole different system of pain, and we're not gonna tell you how it works. Yeah, we went from yeah, the 70-30 or 80-20 or whatever it was, and now we're just gonna be like, Well, you might make money on this ride, but you also we're gonna try to screw you on the next one.

SPEAKER_05 16:48

And you got about five seconds to decide and do the math while you're already on a ride with somebody in the car, and you know, you're driving on a busy highway.

SPEAKER_06 16:56

So I'm glad you brought that up because I've been really as I'm back doing gig work, I've been a little edgy just in general, with the amount of notifications and beeps I'm getting. And then like I know Gabe can struggle with that at times. He's talked about it. And so I it it makes you want to hurry, right? Because you want to get the beeping to stop. And I've noticed on food you get quite a bit of time.

SPEAKER_05 17:25

Yeah, food gives you uh quite a bit of time. Quite a bit of time. Like the rideshare. The rideshare is I don't know what it was, eight seconds maybe on the rideshare.

SPEAKER_06 17:34

It's quick, but why do you think it's different for food over um rides? I mean, there's still a pickup and a drop-off once person wants food. I guess I don't I I mean, I guess I wish I knew why it was so quick on rideshare.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

Yeah, I'm sure there's some kind of uh logic behind it, but I yeah, I I've never thought that through enough to figure it out. Uh yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's that um I don't know, maybe they can maybe they figure when, you know, when if you're getting it right when the person is ordering the food, it's gonna take a little bit for the food to be ready and they don't want to, you know, they're not you're not not as much as a rush to get you there. I don't know though. I really don't. That'd be an interesting study to to or rabbit hole to go down.

SPEAKER_06 18:19

I understand the the beeping. They want you to accept it, they want you to, they're pressuring you to do it. And I would say that we're doing that for rides, but I guess I why not take time to I don't know. Maybe they think that this is the only thing I can think of that there's a passenger in the car, and that the I don't know. That's not a good one. I was gonna say, like, they want you to accept it and be done with it so you can concentrate on the road. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 18:45

Yeah, yeah, I yeah, I'm not sure. Uh that that's a good question though. Yeah, I think we've talked about once or twice, but I've never seen a really good solid answer with science behind it or explanations for sure.

SPEAKER_06 19:01

And like we said, we don't do a lot of studying. I mean, my studying would be like if I was thinking about this off the show, I would pull up my phone and put it in Chat GPT and just be like, because somebody's probably done that's the thing. That's what's great about it. Like, I'm not a show for ChatGPT either, y'all. But my point is, is like it grabs all that data quickly and organizes it for you. And you're like, oh, okay. I mean, I'm not again, I'm not saying it's the gospel, but it gives you a starting point.

SPEAKER_05 19:28

Chat GPT, not a sponsor. Yeah.

DoorDash Flash Offers Outside Dashes

SPEAKER_06 19:33

All right. So me being a noob, uh, I found this. Uh, so I had some notifications on my phone, and I use a work phone, and it's Android, and I had a um a bunch of weird icons on the top, and they were DoorDash, and I clicked on them. And uh, this is what it was, and it's they're called flash orders, and I'd never had heard of them. Um, nearby offers when you're not on a dash. So this is like them contacting you when you've you know you're sitting at home on the couch and you have your phone next to you and you're not online. Basically, you're not on an active dash. Um, you can decline them without affecting your acceptance rate. So I toggled on get as many offers as possible and remove one offer per two hour limit. I don't know what that means. Remove one offer per two-hour limit. I don't know what that means. Uh uh. Not sure. Because it says get is anyways. So I toggled that on. I availability, I did, turned it all on. So I looked at some of the older notifications and I feel like they were overnight. Most of them. They were late night. But now since I've done that, I haven't got a one. You know, I've I've kind of kept my work phone next to me, even if I'm doing other things, and haven't gotten one at all. So So do you have to be you do have to be logged into the app? No. Well, I mean, what does logged in mean?

SPEAKER_05 21:03

Signed in? I mean, you have to have the app open and nope. You don't.

SPEAKER_06 21:08

No, you're either on it. So with Doordash, you're either on a dash or not on a dash. So I mean, active on a dash, like I clicked dash now, you're not gonna get these. This is literally just like curry or ones where you're just like you're not turning anything on, it just sends you a notification when there's an offer. And honestly, I looked at some of them, the paying ones, they weren't horrible, they were actually pretty decent.

SPEAKER_07 21:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 21:35

So if you don't if you have this in your area, if you kind of look at this picture up at the top, that it's so small, but I would turn this on. I again, I didn't even I don't ever remember. Okay, I don't read emails that well, but maybe they did email me about it. But um, I would definitely check it out. Um, I'm gonna try to see if I can get something, you know. I've like I said, I I've kept my phone with me. But I haven't got one since I turned them on. Like they were given to me, but like not, I don't know. It's weird.

SPEAKER_05 22:06

So I got I'll I'll have to go in there and see if we have those available.

SPEAKER_06 22:09

I mean, honestly, I couldn't tell you where the like this is why you know Larry and I talked on the stream that I love the Uber app. It seemed maybe it's because I'm used to it the most, but I feel like it's a better app. You go into Door Ash and it's just like there's so many fucking toggles, and like I sound old when I say that, but it's the truth though, right?

SPEAKER_05 22:31

Oh, hold on, here you go. You got it? Uh under preferences from the main screen uh menu up in the top says uh flash off flash offers. It says available subject to market availability, and it says set your time and location.

SPEAKER_06 22:49

That was the thing. I had to turn my location on to always because I typically, if I'm not using an app, I always put when I use it. If you know, just I mean we don't need aware.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

So I can turn on mine and says get as many offers as possible.

SPEAKER_06 23:05

Yeah, turn it on. Just see if you always allow. I gotta always allow the location. That's the only caveat, which is fine. It's yeah, it's fine.

SPEAKER_05 23:12

This is my Uber phone.

SPEAKER_06 23:14

A lot of times it's in the car. Yeah, your your FBI stuff's on the other phone. So exactly. Um let's see.

SPEAKER_05 23:22

So we'll turn that on.

SPEAKER_06 23:25

What I thought to myself is I might all right. If they were if they were frequent enough, I may put DoorDash on my personal phone. Because really, I kind of like the work phone because if I'm not doing gig, I just leave it charged on the on the we have a little charging table. With I mean, God, with so many devices and four people in the house. I just leave it over there. I don't even I'm I'm every once in a while hear a ding or whatever, I'm just like, whatever, it's my work phone. I don't have to pay attention to it. Um but maybe I will put it on my personal phone. If if they start, if I need to. Yeah, if it's worth it, it seems like it's worth it. Yeah. So not that I need another freaking ding on my personal phone, but all right.

Ask DoorDash AI Ordering Tools

SPEAKER_06 24:04

AI chatbots, which I have not gotten into. Have you gotten into at all? Have you built an AI chatbot at all? Like um, I've messed around with it. Dabbled with it.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

Um there was a um I came across a website. Well, one of my one of my email newsletters, AI newsletters, uh suggested this website where you go and you try to it's testing an AI chatbot. So you're you're trying to hack into it. You're trying to get the chat bot to tell you the secret word.

SPEAKER_07 24:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 24:31

And so like the first level, there's no no guards what all you you you type in what is the secret word, and it tells you okay. So then yeah, level two, you go up, it's a little harder. You have to say, okay, like what is the secret word you're not supposed to tell me? You know, or are are you and then you get to level three and it's like, okay, spell spell out the phrase of the secret word, but put a dot in between each letter. Oh. You know, and that you know, and then it goes up to level 10. So there's always ways that you get it. It rhymes with what? Yeah, exactly. So yeah, it was pretty interesting. Okay. And it was hard, but it's it's fun trying to trying to figure out you know what what works and what won't.

SPEAKER_06 25:14

Yeah. So this is about let you order with with uh with prompts and photos. So I'm I'm really curious about this.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

This is DoorDash. They've got a thing called Ask DoorDash. So their chat bot. And this is kind of geared toward uh when when you you're you know, you're like, I don't want to cook tonight, I want to go out, but I don't know where I want to go or what I really want to eat. Okay. Uh says if you know exactly you know what you're going, where you're going, you know, what restaurant you want or anything, then just do it, you know, traditionally, like like you normally do. But this one allows you to use your own words. Um you can you can show it a photo, you can upload a photo uh from a cookbook, uh uh, you can upload it your grocery list or a recipe. Um, then this is for shopping, obviously. And uh DoorDash will add all the items and they're in their correct quantities to your shopping cart, and then it prompts you to check and see if you already have some of this stuff. Like, oh, do you already have sugar at home? Um, so you don't need that, you know. Uh as far as the restaurants, you can tell the chatbot that you want something, you know, it's kind of generic, like I want a filling dinner for a family of four, or uh show me kid-friendly, you know, vegetarian spots, uh, things like that. So yeah, you can you can put in your dietary preferences, your budget, you know, the size of your group that you have that are going out to eat, or past orders that you've done, um, you know, anything like that. You know, ask it for like a table for two downtown for a date night dinner around 8 p.m. And then it'll pop a bunch of restaurants that have availability. So yeah, it'll be interesting if uh you know if if it really turns out to work well.

SPEAKER_06 26:54

I love it says uh vegetarian dinners for children. I'm like, okay. Yeah, people I mean, I get it. There are kids that have to have those restrictions, or you know, depending on your religion, but like you really think people are doing that on a regular basis? No, they're like well, out on the left coast, they are. Maybe. I mean, like, get get me as close to chicken nuggets as possible. I mean, uh I'm not hating on vegetarians, I'm just saying, like, I uh it seems odd for children.

SPEAKER_05 27:22

Um yeah, that you wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily uh that's not the first thing you think of when you think of vegetarian. Right, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 27:31

Well, again, I mean as much I don't want to be like an AI D rider, but um I do think I do think this is this it's coming whether you like it or not. You either embrace it or be a stick in the mud. And if you're gonna be a stick in the mud, you're gonna get left behind. I I'm sorry, there's no fighting it.

SPEAKER_05 27:49

Yeah, I mean it it really is. It's coming and it's coming fast, it's happening. The speed is I heard that. You did one earlier that did not apply. I know, I know, but I was about halfway through it and I was like, oh man, that that's the wrong thing. But anyway, uh yeah, AI is here to stay. It's just gonna you know keep being more and more prevalent, I think. And so yeah, if you if you don't want to use it, uh it's gonna be hard not to.

SPEAKER_06 28:21

And that's fine if you don't want to. And the only

Data Centers And Not In My Backyard

SPEAKER_06 28:23

thing I say fight for is fight for the data center. Like, they need to figure something out. Like, don't put it in my backyard. Sorry, put it in a freaking desert. Okay. You ran internet cables underneath the ocean. You can run whatever you need to run in the desert. Okay. You know what I mean? Like, that's what I I'm gonna fight for. I'm gonna go to my board meetings and say, like, I I do want this, but why does it have to be in my backyard? Or or not just my backyard or like close to civilization.

SPEAKER_05 28:51

Sure, yeah. There was a protest last night at our city commission meeting here in Bloom Green. Um they were they were um the second reading. They have they they always do two readings on ordinances, and uh the second one's not the only one that that actually matters. But um it's funny because the county here has has passed regulations against the city uh voted not to. No regulations. Well, not not no regulations, but uh this specific I think they're doing one a moratorium for six months. Gotcha on it. Um but yeah, there's a apparently uh quite a few people at City Hall last night in the public, you know, speaking section and session and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_06 29:33

Uh take this with a grain of salt, but I did hear that uh Kevin O'Leary.

SPEAKER_05 29:38

Um yeah, the one that wanted to build the one in Utah.

SPEAKER_06 29:41

Well, I think it's happening.

SPEAKER_05 29:43

Well, he's he scaled it down.

SPEAKER_06 29:44

Okay, because he was b basically building this in the middle and then putting a forest around it. So there's literally no no humans around.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

Yeah, but he was gonna use more power in that data center than the state uses, the whole state. Yeah, and I think he has scaled it down in at least in half.

SPEAKER_06 30:02

Well, I didn't know that part of it, but I guess I guess it was my point. He's putting it in an area he bought 40,000 acres or whatever it was, and no one lives there. No one lives there, and he's gonna put it in the middle. Like that's what I'm talking about, not putting it like you know, there's one where my old shop where I used to work at, they want to put it there. There's there's homes everywhere over there, and it's like right that is a problem. So, anyways, that's my AI soapbox.

SPEAKER_05 30:29

Yeah, yeah, it's one of those things, you know. We uh it's like prisons, you know. We all want prisons and people are king, but we don't want them in our neighborhood.

SPEAKER_06 30:37

Well, no, no, no, I knew you were gonna bring something up like that. Like, not in my backyard. I'm I'm I'm not I don't want it in anyone's backyard. Like, I it doesn't yeah, it's not just me, it's not whatever. Like, put the prisons in the middle of the fucking desert too. Like, I don't give a shit. Like I mean, I didn't want I didn't want the development in my backyard, but I want more housing for people, right? I that's a perfect example, not in my backyard, because like I had woods and wildlife, and now I got fucking hilljacks running their big trucks up and down the road because they think they got big penises or something. But there you go. Big Bubba trucks, they don't, but um, all

Patreon Plug And Summer Schedule

SPEAKER_06 31:15

right. Patreon.com slash the Gigacon podcast. Go ahead and check that out. Uh, you can sign up for free uh for seven days, or if you just want to sign up as uh just a free member, that's fine too. Every once in a while I throw y'all a bone. Uh Patreon.com slash the Gigacon Podcast, extra podcast a week, uh t-shirt, all kinds of fun stuff. Uh, we do a pre-ramble uh before the show, and then we do a um uh Patreon after each episode, except this summer we're not doing one on the live nights because we're just signing off and going home. So um, but yeah, check it out. We'd really appreciate the support for that. Uh all right, back to normal.

Uber Assault Case Raises Questions

SPEAKER_06 31:55

Uh okay, so this Uber driver, I did not watch this video because I prep like an amazing person. This is in Grand Rapids, an Uber driver found not guilty of an alleged assault in the cemetery, which, okay, so we're gonna watch that and see what they have to say.

SPEAKER_08 32:13

Not guilty. That's the verdict in the trial of an Uber driver charged with sexually assaulting a rider in Grand Rapids. Target 8 investigator Sudan Samples reports a Kent County jury took about four and a half hours yesterday to reach that verdict.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

This case actually started in fall 2024 over the Halloween weekend when a Grand Rapids woman, after a night out drinking, called for an Uber. The 43-year-old Uber driver had traveled from his home in northern Michigan to drive in Grand Rapids over the Halloween weekend.

SPEAKER_08 33:03

We had DNA. We had DNA to back her story up there.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Cell phone video of the alleged assault captured by the rider herself, who also texted friends for help. Spotting her location, the friends rushed to the cemetery and witnessed the Uber driver speed away before he dropped the rider at home.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

No one disputed that they had sexual activity that night. No one disputed that she was intoxicated that night.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

But the defense did dispute that the rider was incapacitated and her blood alcohol level was not measured that night. Should Uber drivers ever be having sex with their passenger? I would say no. Chris Becker says prosecutors across Michigan should consider taking a look at laws governing rideshare drivers in other states to determine whether lawmakers here should consider any new legislation in Grand Rapids. I'm targeting investigator Susan Samples.

SPEAKER_06 34:23

Okay, I have a lot of questions.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:26

So basically they're saying they never said the word that it was consensual sex.

SPEAKER_05 34:35

That's what his defense attorney said. Yeah, he said there's no, there's no dis we're not disputing the fact that there was, you know, that they had sex. Uh he's just saying that she was not uh incapacitated enough where she couldn't consent to it.

SPEAKER_06 34:48

Oh, okay. So yeah, they didn't use the word of con they didn't use the word one time consensual, like because like I I feel like that word should have been applied in this little video because that means like okay, she wasn't too drunk to say yes or no. Okay, we got that, but did she say yes? You never I mean again, I didn't know anything about the I didn't even know this was going on. This is the first time I had seen anything about it, so uh it's it's just kind of confusing to me why he got free if it wasn't consensual.

SPEAKER_05 35:20

Yeah, I yeah, I it does uh open a lot of questions, especially if it said, you know, she was texting her friends, uh video videotape part of it, you know. Um he sped off.

SPEAKER_06 35:33

Uh yeah, it's it everything that and again the news is trying to get you to paint a certain picture, but like why didn't say like the sex was consensual? Again, that that attorney may have said that, but they cut it out. Like, you know, you know.

SPEAKER_05 35:49

Yeah, I mean, because he did say he said, you know, we're not there's you know, there's no no one's disputing the fact that there is you know sexual contact and right and this and that. But but she wasn't she was not too drunk, but she wasn't drunk beyond can you know yeah where she she was she couldn't make decisions.

SPEAKER_06 36:04

So I feel like I'd love to do a foyer on that once it's all done and and read this, read it a little bit because uh just something's not adding up.

SPEAKER_05 36:13

So yeah, yeah, definitely find out, like to find out what you know what was the uh evidence that convinced the jury that he wasn't guilty.

SPEAKER_06 36:22

Right. So that back 40 saloon, that's our country bar. Oh my god, the drunks, Larry. That that's not the Bob, obviously, but that is another one where late at night, I and it's on a main drag to. There's a little freaking alley there, but it's like they come out of there fucked up.

SPEAKER_07 36:40

I'm not drunk, I'm not drunk.

SPEAKER_06 36:42

These are the serious drinkers, the special drinkers. Well, honestly, it's really I'm trying to think if there's another country bar, but I feel like that's kind of the main one. And it's like for young country, like for like you know, just 21 to like 27 year olds. But yeah, that okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:58

That's not the that's not the old professional drinkers.

SPEAKER_06 37:01

No, no, that's not the paps, although they probably sell probably have paps on draft, but it would always be funny. I would drop people off there. I would because I was such a stickler, other than the bob, it's really hard to not do that. But on that road, it's it's busier than the front of the bob. And I would pull in that alley, and they're like, You passed it. I'm like, it's not and it's not even that far. It's literally the alley from the back 40 saloon and like a commercial building. And I'm like, sorry, I can't park on the road there, you know. I don't want to get re-arrended. Um that fucking bar. Oof. Oh man, yeah. So good memories, huh? No, not great memories. Uh uh, so yes, Walmart and oh, this is your story, yep.

SPEAKER_05 37:42

Yeah, yeah.

Walmart App Adds Subway Delivery

SPEAKER_05 37:43

So Walmart is uh it's been reported that they are going to start offering uh food delivery directly in the Walmart app. So um it was a little confusing at first. I did a little check-in, but it's it's apparently it's only uh you can only order from you know you know how some Walmarts will have a restaurant inside them. So it's only gonna be from there at this point. Yeah. So they're starting out with Subway, because that's the one that's the most prevalent restaurant that they have in Walmarts. Uh neither of all Walmart, Walmarts here have any anything in them.

SPEAKER_06 38:18

The Walmart, at least the one I work out of, it's it's a revolving section. Like really, yeah, now they got like a freaking window and door company in there doing that. But like they've they've they have like new businesses in this area all the time. And I I can't even remember honestly, we didn't before gig work, I didn't really go to Walmart at all. I did like the local Meyer, and now we actually get our groceries from Walmart because it's cheaper and working in it. So I don't know if there was a subway there before, but I there isn't now. So yeah, we had McDonald's in both of ours for a long time.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Oh wow, Mickey D's? Yeah, yeah, in both of ours. Um one of them was in the back of the restaurant, and then the other one it was right right in the front of the restaurant as as you walked in to the left, um, which is nice uh sometimes. But yeah, they took them out years ago and and and they're just just Walmart now. But yeah, it said they ex you know they're they hope to see how this goes and they want to eventually expand to some other uh restaurants that they have. Apparently, some of them have Taco Bells in them. Okay. Um I'm not sure what the other ones are, but yeah, it says uh subway items will cost the exact same as they do in the restaurant, so there's no markup. Um uh there's a flat express delivery free and zero hidden service costs. Um, so yeah, you can order it you know completely on its own, the subway, or you can bundle it into the same cart as your standard Walmart grocery household express delivery orders.

SPEAKER_06 39:51

So that brings up another story from the road. I just remembered is so yeah, they're starting to put we call GMDs, general merchandise deliveries with grocery deliveries. And so really right after the the blueberry spill was the last order on that, and before that, I had one GMD and I put it in my front seat and I put all the other groceries for the next order there, and you know, you you forget about it, and I unloaded that with that customer, and I had to go back, knock on the door. Hey, do you have Susan? Actually, the name was Susan. Do you have Susan's whatever it was? She's like, Oh, yep, this isn't mine, thank you. But you know, and I brought up in the group, how do I separate? Of course, Gabe came up. Of course, he has a great idea. He's like, you know, if it's one or two, put it in a delivery bag, then you know. But my car was full to the brim. I mean, that it was like three groceries and one GMD, full to the brim. Um, and so I just fucked up. But this is the same thing what they're talking about. They'll throw a subway in with a grocery delivery route.

SPEAKER_05 40:53

Exactly. Yeah. Um, yeah, hopefully, hopefully they'll uh they'll have you order, you know, deliver the food first, but who knows?

SPEAKER_06 41:02

Well, interestingly you bring that up too. I do notice today I had that 23 mile, I had three grocery deliveries and like seven or eight GMDs. They do the groceries first. Well, that makes sense. Yeah, you got to do that. That's me.

SPEAKER_05 41:17

They always gonna do that.

SPEAKER_06 41:18

Yeah, but I was just thinking that myself today. I'm like, man, I'm impressed that they're routing it that way. That I know that these three are gonna be groceries because they're perishable. And obviously, they're on they're giving you stuff the GMD is relatively close, anyways. You know what I mean? So it's not like you're like going all through the county just to deliver the groceries first. So we'll be here. Yeah. The uh somebody wrote in the comments that the Walmarts and this person's area has McDonald's, like you said, and they were in Canada. Um, one thing they did that I did forget about, and we talked about it before. Sam's Club has the pizzas now, where you can get a hot pizza um delivered with uh your Spark order. It's still Spark, but it's only for Sam's clubs and orders. Um I don't know. I don't hate it.

SPEAKER_05 42:08

Um no, you know, it's just uh they're doing you know what all the apps are doing, they're trying to integrate and make these partnerships uh or make it where you can do more things through their app so keep you in their ecosystem longer. So I mean it makes makes a lot of sense to me. I think you know, I uh I'm surprised they haven't done it sooner.

SPEAKER_06 42:26

But as a customer, I like that Walmart doesn't inflate their prices for delivery or any of that. I've I as much as they you know they're not great for employees, you know, they get a lot of hate about that, they're great on for the customer. I mean, I don't pay any extra, I wouldn't pay any extra for this. Now, on the driver side, if if someone orders Subway, I'm hoping I don't, and I'm doing a curb side. Do I have to get my groceries as as a driver and then walk into the subway, or are they bringing the subway out to me with the grocery delivery? That's what I want to know.

SPEAKER_05 43:01

That's a good question. It does not address that in this in the article that we have.

SPEAKER_06 43:05

I mean, if you're adding another step, I'm gonna be fussy about that. I'm like, I'll deliver anything, I'll deliver a baby calf if it fits in my car, as long as you bring it out to me and I I don't have to do any extra. Maybe clean some poop up. I don't know, maybe not a baby calf. I don't first thing that popped in my head. Um but um yeah, I mean I I don't hate it if it brings more revenue. I think the problem is I'm seeing with these GMDs added on is uh Walmart's trying to just I mean a lot of them are shitty. I mean, and maybe that's just regular orders can be shitty too, so they're cramming a bunch of shit together and say, hey, take more shit. I don't know. Yeah. There you go. But higher and deeper. Right, right. You've taken this shitty one. How about this one? Yeah. So well, it should be interesting to see. No doubt. Uh all right, so this is just a real quick one. This

The Person As A Package Scam

SPEAKER_06 43:59

uh Passenger pretended that uh says, Hi, I'm a p person on a package. I believe you picked me up the other day. Basically, what this person was doing is uh wanting to do it cheaper. It's I'm sure it's cheaper to do it as a package than a person. Sure. Um, but of course, as the driver, it's an uninsured trip. You know, I mean it's it it's a you might it's might as well take an off-book ride at that point. You know what I mean? Because you're you're kind of just doing the same thing. And especially if they're sending you a message and you confirm it and then you still do it, then you're then you're double fucked. Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a digital trail there. Yeah, you you understand everything you say in there. Um I found I just remembered another story. My gosh, speaking of digital trail, everything you say in these chats are being read and saved. So um somebody commented, hi, I'm a person, not a package, is a series of words put together I don't think I've ever heard before tonight. You know, like I identify as a squirrel or I identify like that's what it makes me think of. Identify as a package, identify as a package. So yeah, don't do this. Uh and if you see that, like why why are you even yeah, why are you even taking that? I did that package like uh one time and it was just it was it didn't pay that good, it seemed shady, it's always drugs, um and it's just not worth it.

SPEAKER_05 45:25

So yeah, I mean I've done it, I've done it uh you know, taking the package uh on Uber. Yeah, taking yeah, taking uh like a car part.

SPEAKER_06 45:33

Uh I've done that, I think well that's fine two or three times.

SPEAKER_05 45:36

Yeah, another way that's what I'm saying, I don't I don't mind doing that. No, me either. You know, a person as a package, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:43

You're I'm even talking about person to person because you can do that, and that one I did, I s he said it was AirPods in that box. And I'm like, there ain't no way there's fucking AirPods in here. I couldn't smell it. Well, clearly it wasn't weed because weed stinks. I don't care what box you put in there. If you put your note your schnazz on it, you can smell it. But whatever it was, it felt shady. So I was like, eh, not gonna do that again. Yeah, not worth it. Yeah, trust your instincts for sure. All right, here we go. Waymo.

Waymo Gets Stuck In Traffic

SPEAKER_06 46:12

Waymo in the news. Not a crash today, almost a crash. Well, there's a guy that crashed out. This is actually one of our longer Waymo videos, a minute 58. I watched half of it, and the and the another person was getting very fussy, so I I ended it because I wanted to be surprised. So uh one minute 58 seconds. We're gonna watch this and see what's up.

SPEAKER_04 46:39

What are we doing? There's a trash can. There's a trash can. Oh, and there's someone behind us. Uh look at this. Oh, we can't go that way, Waymo. No, Waymo, we can't go that way. Alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

Okay, if anything comes up, press support for assistance. Connecting to support. Doors are locked, camera.

SPEAKER_04 47:26

Oh my goodness. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

Connected to rider support. This call may be recorded for quality assurance. Hi, my name is Eric.

SPEAKER_03 47:35

I'm with Waymo Event Response. Are you okay?

SPEAKER_04 47:38

Yeah, but I think the Waymo is stuck, like it's almost about to hit another vehicle.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

Okay, give me a second here. Uh, I'm gonna go ahead and uh place it on a pole. Um, that way it doesn't move any further forward. Um, and I just want to let you know that as of right now, I don't have um clear visuals on what's going on, but um hopefully this person in front sees that I'm trying to move the vehicle.

SPEAKER_04 48:12

Oh yep, yeah, now we're going back. Oh yeah! Oh yeah, dog. Oh, we just went in a oh, we just went in a manho, I think.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

Okay, are you okay? I do apologize on the rough writing there.

SPEAKER_06 48:37

Okay, there's there is there is a lot to unpack there. Yeah. I appreciate his editing because they put him on a hold. That was nice. Uh I I love it. I when I watch a lot of Dash Cam videos, you'll watch for a minute before something happens. I'm like, do we not know how to edit our clips? Like, give me 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after. Anyways, uh yeah, I thought that guy was gonna crash out, but he clearly didn't.

SPEAKER_05 49:05

Um that guy in that truck was not happy. You you could see him standing out there, yes.

SPEAKER_06 49:11

Yeah, I think he was not not not so clearly it it got out of the situation and somebody was driving it because it was moving faster than what the technology would move it. Like I feel like it move it it has more herky jerky with the tech, and but anyways, so yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 49:32

Uh went over some curbs, it looks like yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:35

I mean, I mean I get it, it was probably close to that. Um, looks like a some sort of storage container, which I mean, when you're a passenger, you look at stuff different. I find as as um when I'm driving the elderly around, I I have mirrors, right? I know how close I'm like I can see exactly where the corner of my bus is, and they'll be like, oh, oh, oh, you know, it's just a different perspective. Um, so I'm sure he yeah, anyways, but yeah, it sounds like he hit a manhole or something because there was a thunk.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

Yeah, there's two thunks that I heard, and I I think they I think they either jumped a curb or yeah, there's a pretty decent size uh dip where the manhole was or something. And yeah, because you could hear it thud pretty good and and can hear it, you know, kind of rattle.

SPEAKER_06 50:21

Yeah, this is where you know it's it's it's frustrating that you know everyone wants this to happen, but like there's so there's thousands of videos of this this little stuff happening. Like, yeah, it might be great. You can go down a straight road and a highway, but like when you get in a pickle like that, you I think what it a lot of it is is you well, not a lot of it, because we've seen them just go in the fucking wrong lane when no one else is doing anything. But I said I think a lot of it is it's having trouble predicting what other people are doing. Like if a driver, like maybe that truck, maybe he had to go around another car so he was in the wrong lane. Um and so the wayman was trying to turn in, and he's like, fuck, no, I'm trying to get out. You know what I mean? Like it yeah, I don't feel like it can fix whatever other people are doing. I think that's part of the problem.

SPEAKER_05 51:08

Yeah, we're still at the point where uh the human brain can figure out the situation and all the different factors and all the different options better than it can be coded.

SPEAKER_06 51:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For now. For for now. I'm sure it's gonna get better. I'm sure. Yeah, it's gotten better. Yeah, it's obviously gotten better over the years. Do you feel like they brought them out too early and they should have waited and and tested them more, or do you feel like this is how you test them and figure it out? Because like you can only do so much in a in a simulated environment.

SPEAKER_05 51:47

Yeah, um, I mean obviously we you we wish they would test them until they're you know perfectly safe, but that's uh that's not gonna happen. You know, that's unreal expectation. Although I have read some um I've read some good things about, especially with the advent of the AI technology here over the last couple years, where it really seems like it's increased, they're able to run so many different simulations that they weren't able to do in the past. So that will help them out as well. But yeah, I mean, uh you know they're gonna rush them a little bit because they want to be the first, they want to be the biggest.

SPEAKER_06 52:23

Yeah, for sure. I I just wonder, I mean, I know you can't simulate everything, you can't simulate a guy going around. I mean, I'm just you know, I don't know if that does happen, but going around another car, getting in the wrong lane, the Waymo's trying to turn in, he's waiting. The Waymo's waiting for that guy to fucking move. Like, but that guy's like, no, you need to fucking move. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 52:44

And then somebody on a bike pulls up and there's somebody walking, and you know, there's all these things that can happen and and change the equation.

SPEAKER_06 52:51

Yeah, and then you're on a standoff, and like the guy doesn't. I think a lot of people don't understand that it's not gonna make well, here I say this with a grain of salt, it's not gonna make a rash decision, which it does sometimes. It goes in the wrong way. I don't think it's rash. I don't think the computer thinks it's rash. I think that the computer thinks it's right. But it you're luckily that you're uh will have more success if that guy that's like you gotta move, back up and figure out another way.

SPEAKER_05 53:15

Exactly. He was out of his car standing near the Wayman, like, well, it's not gonna move now. You're sure right there. So get in your truck, back up a little bit, you know, and and just let him, you know, let him go, and and all this would have ended way, you know, a whole lot sooner.

SPEAKER_06 53:28

Yeah, but it is crazy to me that it is 2026 and it doesn't have enough sense to like I don't know, like put the camera on. I I just I don't I don't get it.

SPEAKER_05 53:40

We can talk about this forever, but it would be nice, it would be nice to see like a uh overhead drone shot of the whole situation to see exactly where everybody was at and you know what's going on. You know, was there a trash can right there and then somebody over here? So it was you know, other things, other factors were involved that were keeping the Waymo from being able to get out of it.

SPEAKER_06 53:58

Yeah, he was talking about a trash can for sure. Yeah, so there was something else, but anyways.

SPEAKER_05 54:02

I like where it said the guy was touching the screen for support, and it says, Oh, I can beep the horn, I can honk the horn. I was like, Oh, that's gonna help. Yeah, go ahead, do that, do that about 10 times.

SPEAKER_06 54:11

Yeah, that that that redneck in front of you is gonna lost that window. Yeah, shatter that windshield for sure. Uh, what do we have? 55

Delivery Notes Ignored And Account Sharing

SPEAKER_06 54:21

minutes. I don't remember what this one's about. Oh. So this is just talking about um nope, that's not it, Jason. Nope, that's not it. Nope, this one's it.

SPEAKER_05 54:35

There it is.

SPEAKER_06 54:36

I didn't label that one for whatever reason, but um, so this dasher was frustrated about um she dashed it before and she has all these signs, you know, uh, not here, not here, and this person um delivered there. And the the the crazy part about was is that customer said, not only do I have notes they deliver to the side door driveway door, I literally have signs saying not here. The dasher responded, I'm so sorry your stuff was delivered to that door. I have a friend using my account to make money for bills, I'll make sure it won't happen again, so sorry. But then I'm like, did she comment later? Because like, why would he or maybe was that person just lying that he was having a friend? You know what I'm saying? Because usually when you're done with the order, you get disconnected from them, and so it feels like that is real time.

SPEAKER_05 55:26

Yeah, yeah. Usually, I mean, usually, if I remember correctly, it seems like there's a you know, there's a certain period of time they can still message you, uh-huh. But uh I you know, I don't know, I don't remember how long that is, but yeah, it it it doesn't sound right. It sounds like the person's like, oh, a friend's using my account. Well, how can you how can you answer this? Exactly. Unless it's you know, unless they both have that account loaded on their phone and that I mean like that can't be possible, can it?

SPEAKER_06 55:54

I don't know. I mean, there's some apps I use that like I you know, like the podcasting platform that we use. Sometimes I can log in on two browsers, but then if I try to make any major changes, it kicks me out. So I mean, I guess it's possible, but I I doubt it though.

SPEAKER_05 56:08

I mean, even like Waze, if I try to use it on my one phone and I'm using it on the other, it'll be like, oh, do you want to switch to this phone?

SPEAKER_06 56:14

Yeah, yeah, it is kind of weird, but um number one comment, I'm sorry, but the sight of all those bags right next to the giant not here sign is just hilarious. Yeah, I mean, there ain't no way with that sign I would leave it there.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

Oh, yeah. I mean, for for the audio listeners, yeah, there there's a sign that says not here, and then he has a plant right in front of the door, and then he has another sign in there that said uh I can't read it. It's just something about all FedEx, yeah, DoorDash, uh Amazon. And and then the uh then in the comments he also said you can't see it in the picture, but I also have a big arrow pointing toward the side door where I'm asking him to deliver it. He's like, the reason I'm doing that is because I'm doing construction inside the house and I can't open that back door right now.

SPEAKER_06 56:56

So it's funny. I I um I think about all these stories from the road, I got a violation on Spark recently. Oh bad boy. I know. Apparently I didn't follow the directions, right? And I'm like, okay, I usually do. So then today I remember in one of my in my 12, that one that I got like $53 for like 23 miles. Out of the 12 of them, I remember seeing a note that says ring the doorbell, and I got done with my route. I'm like, fuck. You're out to ring the doorbell. I don't know which one it was, but I know I didn't ring any doorbells today. I'm like, slow down, man. Read like, I mean, even even me, I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm saying I do try to do what the customer wants. I forgot to ring the doorbell for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_05 57:43

So yeah, man, the note stuff, man, it'll get me to like uh I think it makes a little maybe a little noise now, but for a long time. I know the the lift app wouldn't make a noise when they when the when they sent a comment. And so I would miss them. Uh you know, you get there and you're waiting for them, and then you look down at the app and they're like, Oh, there's a message. And then you click you have to click on it, and then it's like, oh, you know, I please put me up around back or something. You know, I was like, Oh, you know, if I could have read that, I would have known. But I if I'm not if I'm not mistaken, it does make maybe make a little tiny sound now. But well, you know, sometimes the note stuff can really get you.

SPEAKER_06 58:21

You had that issue when you delivered the gate code thing, you know. Yeah, and I don't think DoorDash makes a noise. I'll be honest with you. I've missed that stuff too because you go over there. Sorry, and it's I got a beard here, and it's like the tiniest little like red light. I mean, if you get a message from somebody, it should be bright and like, hey, because like we're trying to assist, like we want to do the best job we can if if we can't see the the messages, and like I'm not gonna remember to check it every time.

SPEAKER_05 58:51

Right, and I'm assuming it wasn't a message, it was just in the notes when they made their or you know, made their made their order that you I you know, I guess you can put it in the notes. Well, either way. Yeah, either way though, if there's a note or a message, it should flash or make a beep or bring it you know to the front of the screen, something um that's gonna make you want to, you know, yeah, click on it and read it.

SPEAKER_06 59:14

You send me enough freaking beeps, like yeah send me another one with a message, but exactly with a different tone, right? All right, last thing, and then we'll um we're gonna end the show and uh Patreon.

Curri Dedicated Routes And Battery Drain

SPEAKER_06 59:28

We got a couple of stories, uh a lot of talking tonight. I didn't know we didn't get through them all, but this is Curry, and I thought this was interesting. Um I I what I don't like okay, well, I'll just read this and then I'll go back. Curry, hi Jason. We have a dedicated route starting June 22nd. Details below. Interested? $126 a day for four hours a day. So a little less than what is that 20 an hour? Or is that more than that? Or is that 25 an hour? A little less than 24 an hour. 25 an hour. No, more than that.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:02

No, more than that. Fucking idiot. Because for 30 would be uh uh 120.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:07

Oh, yeah. So it's like, yeah, okay. So quite a bit more. 31 or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:11

I'm not good enough at math with this shit, but here we go.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:14

If the epitome of we don't do math, like sometimes I do good math in my head, and clearly not it's I've been talking for an hour. So 3150 an hour is what it is. Okay. So it was City, Grand Haven, Michigan, starts on June 22nd, ends on September 30th, so it's tempting. Uh, but it was uh every day Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So every single day for four hours. Uh yeah, I know. Um 90 miles a day for four hours. So it's not it's not horrible, but man, every day like Yeah. Uh no, that's a pass. And it got it got filled pretty quick. I think I got the uh notification, I don't know, three hours later that had the role had been filled, fulfilled. Oh well. So I just didn't know they kind of did that. I mean, I guess it's not a full-time thing, it's in it, it's a dedicated route, but it's only June 22nd through three months, and then you're then you're done. But um, I thought that was interesting. It's not bad if you're willing to commit to seven days a week and if you're available every morning. I mean, let's face it, and this is no offense to anyone else out there, but there are there are people out there that uh that don't that don't have lives and and and they all they do is work, and so that that might be great for them.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:34

Yeah, or there's somebody that's hurting and and just really need really needs the money and they're like, all right, this is something that's guaranteed. I don't have to I don't have to wonder how much I'm gonna make that day. If you know this could be good for them.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:45

That's that's the biggest point. Yeah, uh John used to work every day, yeah. But it wasn't the same thing every day, was it? Maybe. Um yeah, he was doing wasn't he doing medical deliveries there for like a year where you don't take any days off. So it's eight eighty-two a week, cat, like no taxes. So, and then seven times four is what twenty-eight? So for twenty-eight hours, you get eight eighty two. I mean, that's that ain't fucking bad. I mean, 90 miles, like I said, with me, my EV, it'd be even more better, but 882 for 28 hours. Again, I for me it wouldn't work, A, because I don't want to commit to that, and B, it was in Grand Haven, which is like a 40-minute drive for me. Like if it was in Granville, I'm I mean, yeah, I couldn't do it with busing, but I mean if it was I I might have considered it if it was Yeah, like a month or something. Yeah, a month or something with that cut off before school started.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:42

So yeah, yeah, I I think I've gotten one one of those offers, dedicated ride offers. I I think I remember that coming from curry, which is weird, yeah, because I don't ever I've done one curry.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:55

The one thing I hate about curry, and I've noticed, and and then we'll we'll wrap it up and head to Patreon, but is that it used to be so you have an iPhone, so when they're using a location, it's blue.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:09

They even if you're like I used to be able to say active all the time and that wouldn't show up. Right. Now it does. And so it's a big it's a battery drain, and so if you force close it, it turns you inactive. And it used to be you could just force close it and it would still run in the background and you would still get orders, but now I'm actually signing on. If now I could this could be wrong. I'm I could be doing it wrong, but now I'm sign or I'm going on clicking active, and when I'm done with my work day, I click inactive because I don't want it to like drain my battery. Okay, yeah. So I don't know if I got something wrong or what.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:44

Yeah, I don't know. I think uh most of the time that I I've always like signed out of it, but then I think there for a while, I'm like, I'm just gonna leave it on to you if I get anything. And I mean I I think I had it on for months and they're getting off.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:56

It's definitely been slow now. Like I've been every time I sign on, you know, I put on Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and I turn on Curry. I used to get a bunch of them and they net they weren't always great. Now I'm not getting about anything, so I I don't know what's going on. But no telling. All right, I gotta pee like a racehorse, and uh so in about four minutes we're gonna be on uh Patreon. Yep,

Weekend Plans And Sign Off

SPEAKER_06 1:04:19

uh any gig work this weekend? Uh well no, I'm probably going to St. Louis to uh to hang out with my son for Father's Day. All right, cool. For me, no gig work. I'm working at the White Cap. So um yeah, I probably my last gig work probably will be tomorrow morning and uh and then until next week, Monday.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:37

So okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:39

See you on Patreon, and as always, don't put up with anyone's bullshit. And we'll see you on the road. All right, peace out.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:45

Yeah, thanks everybody. All right, I gotta pee bad. You and me both.