Tech workers are leaving notes in robot taxis seeking workers and lovers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/12/waymo-handwritten-notes-jobs-ads/

by wallflower • 1 year ago

92 54 1 year ago

washingtonpost.com

buggy6257• 1 year ago

https://archive.is/YzaF7

skulk• 1 year ago

Provably shouldn't have included that dude's phone number in the photo of his note.

hulitu• 1 year ago

Tech workers are leaving notes in robot taxis seeking workers and lovers

Like toilet notes ? Dirty message + phone number ?

blitzar• 1 year ago

For a good time call 555-6969

comrade1234• 1 year ago

Sounds like the perfect example that human touch is dead.

Animats• 1 year ago

Soon, ads on screens in Waymos? Probably. Has Google ever resisted the temptation to put ads on something?

blibble• 1 year ago

I always assumed this was the only reason they entered this market at all

like black mirror: ads on every surface, with sound, and if you close your eyes the vehicle stops

vrosas• 1 year ago

"You may exit the vehicle after this word from our sponsors..."

akudha2• 1 year ago

I'm just waiting for the day when people sell ad spaces on their foreheads...

xyst• 1 year ago

I can see it now:

* Waymo as you go - no ads, up front cost of $50 per ride to unlock then 0.50/mi mileage fee after 5 miles (get em hooked)

* Waymo Standard Plan w/ Ads, 3 rides per month included then adhoc charge per ride (unlimited miles). May pick up other “standard” passengers en route to final destination

* Waymo Plus w/ fewer ads, 10 rides per month. Priority seating/delivery

* Waymo Luxx (no ads, more coverage , free rides all month, high priority)

* Waymo God - same as lux but now you have access to api data of the vehicles, riders, audio data, video data, and historical routes. Great for your local LEOs or federal bois.

asdfman123• 1 year ago

Nah, first you expand to capture as much of the market as you can, then you exploit it for profit.

They're very much in the first phase right now.

testing22321• 1 year ago

I live in a remote town. Whenever I go to the big city and catch a train I’m utterly flabbergasted by all the advertisements on the platforms and in the actual trains. No wonder everyone looks like a zombie.

themanmaran• 1 year ago

Using robo-taxies to pass notes like a message in a bottle.

Not the future I expected, but honestly sounds like a fun little experiment.

_bin_2• 1 year ago

Great, WaPo mentioned it, now it's dead and no longer fun and will be overused.

Why can't journos leave anything alone man

morkalork• 1 year ago

It's like when Vice spilled the beans on late nite Chinese restaurants serving "cold tea" after legal hours for alcohol. Completely ruined it for everyone. Some things don't need to be whistleblown.

delichon• 1 year ago

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bsimpson2• 1 year ago

I feel this way about remote work.

I've been working in tech since 2008. Nobody ever cared where anyone worked from. I've spent many summers digital nomadding.

Then, the pandemic happened and some reporters started writing articles about it, as if it was invented during the pandemic. HR departments got wind, and now many companies have formal policies about how many days you're supposed to badge in, or how long you're allowed to work remotely.

There's a journalistic trend churning out bullshit stories about "quiet quitting" et. al. and I hate it. Executives take them at face value and make reactionary policies based on some filler they read online.

recursive• 1 year ago

If your thing requires everyone to agree that it shouldn't be whistleblown, you should probably start preparing for the whistle.

seydor2• 1 year ago

tech has turned anything that was once special into worldwide spectacle

igor47• 1 year ago

Yeah, get your grubby tech hands off my autonomously driving electric car that sees stuff with lasers

socalgal22• 1 year ago

Easy solution, robotaxis know who call the car and have cameras. They can fine and/or ban people who abuse the taxis.

And yes, it's abuse. Without enforcement the interiors of robotaxis will look like telephone poles covered in stickers for causes, ads for bands and events, ads for sex workers, etc...

_bin_2• 1 year ago

There is literally no reason to do this for a piece of paper vs. for a sticker or a flyer that's stapled on. The core difference is the papers will be there for a day, a few hours, then go. The telephone pole stuff stays there forever and just builds up.

One is vandalism, the other is literally just leaving something behind.

trhway• 1 year ago

The legend has that back in USSR journalists published extremely critical piece in a national newspaper about some car drivers using headlights flashing to warn oncoming drivers about hidden traffic police speed checkpoints, and the next day and since then the whole country was doing that.

golergka2• 1 year ago

Still is.

tanelpoder• 1 year ago

And worse, now there'll be a generic romcom about this on some streaming service, called "The Note" or something...

klipt• 1 year ago

"He was just looking for a reliable connection. But he got Way Mo' than he bargained for!"

neilv• 1 year ago

A little bit funny, these two adjacent paragraphs:

Anyone who gets in the Waymo and sees the note “can feel this emotion of surprise, joy or inspiration” at seeing someone putting themself out there in an unorthodox way, [dating coach Joyce] Zhang said, potentially prompting riders to ask themselves: “What can I do to put myself out there in the world?”
The 26-year-old single man did not respond to a reporter’s text and voicemail seeking comment.

Being hounded by a Washington Post reporter wasn't the world out into which he lightheartedly intended to put himself.

dullcrisp• 1 year ago

I guess you can’t choose the world.

fnordpiglet2• 1 year ago

My theory is once the novelty wears off and the high tech jaguar carriage is eating margins, public robo taxis will be about as fun to ride in as a public toilet. The lack of a person and the social pressure that implies (and legal protections) means people will do just about anything in the robotaxi. Cameras and deplatforming will work for a while but it’ll turn into more an accumulation of small things - spilled drinks, garbage left behind - then eventually it’ll be a race to the bottom where most people ride in relative filth while people continue to private cars because they want to avoid sitting in semen stains.

pesus2• 1 year ago

I think the key difference is they can just easily ban you from the service if you damage the vehicle, and every ride is tied to your account from the beginning. Those things can always happen in Uber/Lyft, but I imagine the fees you can receive and the risk of being banned completely keeps it under control.

LightHugger• 1 year ago

I just watched a video where a guy kayak'd down a new york city river with countless electric share scooters thrown into the water by people who just didn't want to pay for a scooter ride. All up and down the river for 8km they were there.

I think the OP is on to something.

jackvalentine• 1 year ago

Difference being that now there isn’t a driver there to recognise the damage - now I have to take a million pictures of the inside of my auto taxi and report any damage promptly so I don’t get blamed for the piss covered seats by the next person and banned from the platform. I don’t trust the cameras to capture everything they need to.

pj_mukh• 1 year ago

"My theory is once the novelty wears off..."

FWIW, for a lot of us in the city, the novelties been off for a while. It's now completely replaced uber/lyfts for me, because the driver is a lot more patient, especially with loading children (mini-car seat installation, strollers et al.) and a 100% of my rides have been completely uneventful, no notes, no garbage, no "wAyMo in AccIdeNt". My wife feels safe taking them at night.

I realize digital journalism has no space for this, but I wish there was space for the rest of the public to get messages like: "this service came up and is boringly being used as intended".

skunkworker• 1 year ago

Anecdotal, but around college campuses (ASU in particular), many people like Waymo because there isn't a creepy driver in the front seat.

fnordpiglet2• 1 year ago

Right but this is now. The novelty is still there and margin compression hasn’t really happened yet. Being a loss leading jaguar vehicle with plenty of off time to clean and reputational concerns are still top of mind. Novelty here didn’t mean for you - it meant for companies operating driverless cars. The next step is enshitification then dive to bottom minimal margin maximal volume businesses.

Of course major infractions will be caught. Taking a dump in the Waymo on camera will be punished. But the small incremental dirtying caused by constant and increasingly negligent use unmediated by social cohesion will lead to the public bathroom effect. Margin compression will require taxis reduce amenities and increase time between service stops. There will probably be tiered services but the bottom tier will be disgusting. I’ll put my $20 on it now.

boxedemp• 1 year ago

The last Uber I took, the driver told me my country wasn't a real country and basically I have no identity.

Human interaction always positive, and they can ban the bad riders or charge their credit cards.

akudha2• 1 year ago

I wonder how much of this would happen in a place like Japan or Korea. I haven't been to those countries, but heard that they have higher standards of cleanliness and people generally don't litter etc

floydnoel• 1 year ago

i've actually read that people litter constantly in japan, but highly vigilant workers are always cleaning it up.

Supermancho• 1 year ago

This stinks of publicity stunt. Employers and dating via robocars? I don't believe it at all.

Tech workers are leaving notes in robot taxis seeking workers and lovers

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