Disqus - Latest Comments for rgrandall

Re: 'Nefarious' Reason Why Your Uber Driver May Look ... Off

rgrandall — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 02:31:36 -0000

The maximum number of hour online weekly is 114, not 126, allowing 12 on/ 6 off. So 114 on + 54 off = 168 hours ( 7 × 24 ) .

Re: Paradox Is Illuminating the Black Hole

rgrandall — Sat, 18 May 2019 05:36:01 -0000

Loop quantum gravity proposes that spacetime itself has a minimum possible size or unit, an "atom" of space. If correct, then no singularity at the core of a black hole .... and .... if spacetime itself has structure, then by some as yet unknown process there may be a maximum limit to the expansion of the universe -- it would reach that limit, then fall in on itself. The infall would not result in a singularity, but rather a "bounce" .... which would look like our Big Bang. The process would repeat endlessly in cycles of perhaps trillions of years.

Re: Paradox Is Illuminating the Black Hole

rgrandall — Sat, 18 May 2019 05:19:17 -0000

Yep, but it's an amazing idea with some math behind it ....

Re: Paradox Is Illuminating the Black Hole

rgrandall — Sat, 18 May 2019 05:17:27 -0000

Not negative energy, it's a particle / antiparticle and anti particles are well studied in particle accelerators. And the holographic principle, as stated in the essay, is mathematical equivalence .....

Re: Lyft’s New Weekly Ride Challenge Bonus is Live

rgrandall — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 03:17:03 -0000

Yes it's waaay too high for L.A. I'm surprised they never got nailed by the media for incentivising drivers to what is clearly unsafe driving practice ..... at least in LA ....

Re: Lyft’s New Weekly Ride Challenge Bonus is Live

rgrandall — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 17:18:01 -0000

This week UBER offered me a Mon-Thur bonus (Quest) of $135 for 60 rides ($2.25 each. I expect they will again offer me a Fri-Sun bonus of $130 for 55 rides ($2.36 each). A total of $265 for 115 rides, which will take about 55-57 hours to complete, and will comprise about 35% to my compensation for the week.

LYFT will have to top that to see me driving for them again ......

Re: Lyft’s New Weekly Ride Challenge Bonus is Live

rgrandall — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 17:07:37 -0000

I stopped driving for LYFT when they raised the top PDB level to 165 rides. I've driven full time now for nearly 3 years, 50-60 hours weekly in the LA market (11,000 rides / 4.96 rating) --- I have NEVER done 165 rides in a week, for LYFT or UBER. I used to hit the PDB top level every week before LYFT raised the bar impossibly high. It would take about 75-80 hours to hit 165 --- NOT SAFE !!

I've heard NOTHING from Lyft on the new program -- and I'll not drive for them again until/unless I do -- and it will have to offer the potential to earn or top my $1300-1400 weekly average with UBER.

Sorry LYFT, in my eyes, you suck .....

Re: Will Self-Driving Cars Ever Be Fully Autonomous?

rgrandall — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 06:15:59 -0000

I am amazed in all the discussion and Analysis of self-driving cars that no one has brought up a very simple problem that will prevent self-driving cars from being used successfully by Uber and Lyft.

As a driver for Uber and Lyft in the LA Market, I must use the telephone in about half of my rides simply to locate the rider. So, how will a self-driving robot car accomplish that relatively simple task? I see the need 4 an intervening technical infrastructure that will bring Rider and self-driving car together. Perhaps something like a docking station, which might resemble a parking meter to which the self driving car can go, allowing the rider to locate the car. Of course, this switches the burden completely to the rider.

Would love to hear from other drivers to see if they agree with me on this issue.

Re: Everyone Is Upset About New Surge and Prime Time. Should They Be?

rgrandall — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 15:30:49 -0000

SHOW ME A DRIVERLESS CAR THAT CAN FIND THE RIDER ! I have to use my phone for 50% of rides just to FIND the rider in downtown LA .....

Re: Everyone Is Upset About New Surge and Prime Time. Should They Be?

rgrandall — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 15:10:21 -0000

I stopped driving for LYFT when they raised the top level to 165 rides. Full time for 3 years and nearly 12,000 rides for Uber and Lyft, doing 55-60 hours weekly and I have NEVER done 165 rides in a week !! (LA Market) I estimate it takes about 75-80 hours to do that ! WOULDN'T THE MEDIA LOVE TO KNOW THAT LYFT ACTUALLY GIVES ITS TOP INCENTIVE TO ENCOURAGE THEIR DRIVERS TO DRIVE THAT MANY HOURS ?? Hell, I wouldn't get in the damn car if I knew the driver was that brain-fried .....

Re: Everyone Is Upset About New Surge and Prime Time. Should They Be?

rgrandall — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:57:44 -0000

Can't wait to see the self-driving rollout --> WON'T BE ABLE TO FIND THE RIDERS !!

Re: The Persistent Myth of the California Brown Recluse

rgrandall — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 18:44:25 -0000

Hi Danielle, My photo does not clearly show whether this spider has 6 or 8 eyes, so how do you determine it is Titiotus californicus or Laxosceles deserta? The hot, dry desert chaparral habit where I saw this specimen does not appear to match at all with that of Titiotus, which " ....occur mostly in forests, especially oak and mixed evergreen, but also in rocky grasslands. These spiders are also strongly cavernicolous, almost half of the known species are recorded from caves." Below are two photos, the first is by arachnologist Rick C West is Laxosceles, which looks exactly like my photo -- below that is Titiotus, taken from Wikipedia, which has shorter legs and looks nothing like my photo.

https://uploads.disquscdn.c... https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: How does the Uber Rider Preferred Program Work?

rgrandall — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 02:41:57 -0000

I meant to have added that I hope others will share when/if they get the Black Box and also disclose their UBER metrics. I pledge to .....

Re: How does the Uber Rider Preferred Program Work?

rgrandall — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 02:30:36 -0000

Yah -- would be nice to know where we stand and what it takes to be in the top 2% ..... !
(UBER 2.5 years in L.A, 7,722 rides, 4.95 rating, 3500 5-Star trips, 224 compliments, average 55+ hours weekly and usually hit the Level 6 bonus -- Also another 3,767 lifetime rides with LYFT)

Re: The Persistent Myth of the California Brown Recluse

rgrandall — Fri, 11 May 2018 03:26:45 -0000

Below is a Desert Recluse (Laxosceles deserta) photographed the evening of 5/9/18 on the Sam Merrill Trail leading up to Echo Mountain, about 1000 ft above Altadena, CA. This is a chaparral habitat. I estimate the leg spread was about 1.5 inches.

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: The Gesture That Changed Human History

rgrandall — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 02:38:05 -0000

I'm interested in how Loop Quantum Gravity might explain the phenomenon of non-local events between entangled particles.

Re: 3 Cards That Will Get You Cash Back on All Gas Purchases

rgrandall — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 14:28:51 -0000

You should add another cash back card: Citi Cosco. You get 4% cash back on all gasoline and 1% on everything else, AND you can use it to buy gas AT Costco, the only card they accept -- and I have never found any sources of gas that are cheaper than Costco, even using GasBuddy.

Re: June Sign-Up Bonus Update: Summer Slowdown

rgrandall — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 13:42:22 -0000

What has happened to UBER's Silver, Gold and Platinum status levels in Los Angeles? I've qualified for Silver and Gold respectively in the past two weeks but have heard nothing. I sent a message to Uber asking about status .... nothing.

Re: What To Make of The 2016 Uber Hourly Guarantees

rgrandall — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 00:33:45 -0000

Thanks, Harry !

Re: What To Make of The 2016 Uber Hourly Guarantees

rgrandall — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:02:28 -0000

UBER WINTER GUARANTEE: WHEN DOES IT END ??

I hit the guarantee last week and got some extra earnings out of it ....

BUT ... when does the guarantee end? This week? Next week? When?

THANKS !

Re: What To Make of The 2016 Uber Hourly Guarantees

rgrandall — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 03:16:01 -0000

But Uber is NOT doing it that way .... I got my first look at how they do it when I checked out my weekly summary from last week: Each day is divided into several 'blocks' -- for example, Monday to Thursday have four blocks: 7am to 10am, 10am to 4pm, 4pm to 7pm, and 7pm to 7am. You must average 1.5 rides per hour within any of those four blocks to qualify for the 'guarantee' for that block.

A really weak and flawed managerial choice of metrics, in my opinion, since it is NOT one that I as a driver can control in any positive sense: It's a total crap shoot whether I get 5+ rides or 4 or fewer rides during the 3-hour morning "Incentive Period" -- the first qualifies for the guarantee, the second doesn't. .... So ... how can I be motivated or "incentivated" by something I can not control ? .... It's just as likely to frustrate, infuriate and DE-motivate me.

HOWEVER -- In one negative sense, I CAN control the outcome: Say I start at 7am and by 9:15 I have just 4 rides totaling a net of $30 or less. What do I do? Do I wait and hope I get another ride before 10am, thus qualifying for the guarantee? If I don't get one -- no guarantee, no $45 net for the 3 hours of work. What if it gets to 9:35am and still no ride? Then what? -- Here's what: I go offline for Uber because if I do, I will still have 4 rides divided by 2.58 hours = 1.55 rides/hour and I will get 2.58 x $15 net = $38.70 net instead of $30 net from Uber. That's 29% more.

So that accomplishes the exact opposite of what Uber "management" wants from me as a driver -- which is to stay online and to take rides only from Uber ..... And the same logic can be applied to all four blocks of the day ... all day .... and all week. In essence, it encourages me to "switch off" unless I've already locked down the guarantee for that period.

Re: What To Make of The 2016 Uber Hourly Guarantees

rgrandall — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:48:32 -0000

HOWEVER --- What remains totally UNCLEAR is how the trips per hour threshold applies to hours outside of the "Incentive Periods" aka "All Other Hours" ..... Do they lump them all other hours together for the week and treat it as a block ? Or do they lump all other hours togehter as a block just for that day? Do they apply it to each hour ? ..... Totally unclear ! Here in LA, the trip per hour threshold for All Other Hours is 1.5 trips, the same level as for the morning and afternoon "Incentive Periods".

Does anyone else have any intel on this issue ?

P.S. -- I have sent an inquiry to Uber Support on this point -- will report back if/ when I get an intelligible response .....

Re: What To Make of The 2016 Uber Hourly Guarantees

rgrandall — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:42:30 -0000

Here's another piece of information on the Winter Warm Up Guarantee: Trips per hour are determined by the START time of the ride, not the end time. (I got a confirmation of this in an exchange of email with Uber Support.) So if you drive 7:00 to 10:00 am and have five rides and the last one starts at 9:50 but ends at 10:10, then you still have 5 rides in 3 hours = 1.67 rides/hour and you are over the 1.5 rides/hour threshold (for LA area at least) and are eligible for the $20/hr gross ($15/hr net) guarantee. However if that last ride starts at 10.01, it falls outside of the 7 to 10 block and you have only 4 rides in 3 hours = 1.33 rides/hour and you do not qualify for the guarantee .....

Now, since UBER alone controls IF or WHEN you get that ride ..... you have to call this a seriously FLAWED "incentive" program. The only things you can control as a driver are WHEN you go ONLINE and WHERE you do it. Asking us to jump through a hoop when they can move the hoop at will is just nonsense .....

Re: Uber To Cut Rates In More Than 100 Cities

rgrandall — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 14:57:27 -0000

Basing any "incentive plan" on the number of rides during any interval -- when THEY control the number of rides you can get -- is clearly just a shell game.

Discouragement is the opposite of "incentive" ....

Surely they're not that managerially stupid .... so they must think we are ....

Re: Uber To Cut Rates In More Than 100 Cities

rgrandall — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:58:40 -0000

I'm working on the Uber guarantee this week. Started in Pasadena around 6:30 and by noon had 14 rides, covering the morning incentive period and then some. Going out again for the 4 to 7 incentive period.

Do you know -- for purposed of tabulating trips per hour -- do they use the time of the START of the ride or the END of the ride to determine if it falls within an incentive period?