Mo Cities, Waymo Problems - DTNS 4909  ## Metadata - Author: [[Daily Tech News Show]] - Full Title: Mo Cities, Waymo Problems - DTNS 4909 - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/d74152bd-3f39-4166-aab9-870302d9bcf8 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Waymo's Miami Expansion** - Waymo is expanding its robo-taxi service to Miami, adding to operations in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. - Miami's unique urban layout and unpredictable weather will test Waymo's autonomous technology. Transcript: Sarah Lane Waymo announced it's going to expand its robo-taxi service to Miami, targeting a 24-7 launch, coming next year. The move adds to its current operations. First started in Phoenix, went to San Francisco, now in not all of Los Angeles, but a pretty large swath of it. Miami has a different kind of urban layout. It's flat, but it also has, shall we say, unpredictable weather conditions. So it should make an interesting test bed for Waymo's autonomous tech in a different kind of place. The company says it now averages 100,000 weekly paid trips across its active markets. And that's a pretty big growth over just last year. Justin, I know you don't live in Miami currently, but what do you think, how do you think Waymo is going to be, is going to work out there? Justin Robert Young Well, there's a few things that you have to deal with if you are running a Waymo operation in Miami, an autonomous car operation. Number one, there's the technical. You mentioned that there is a different climatological challenge. That's rain and oftentimes very dense, very quick rain that they are going to have to deal with when it comes to their sensors in that region. That is something that is technologically different than some of the other fairly predictable cities that they are in currently. San Francisco, you have some of the elevation stuff, but it doesn't really change much weather-wise. Same with LA, same with Phoenix. And similar here in Austin, where they're also running, Miami has that, so this will be something to look out for. The other part is the fact that people from Miami are there. And, you know, it's a party place. I don't know where they're going to be running it specifically but especially in some of the areas in uh downtown miami and south beach and even in some of the other uh more gentrified Areas like winwood you know it's a bit of a party town and people like to do strange things in party town. Sarah Lane Sure. Yeah. People might not act appropriately in the back of a Waymo. ([Time 0:10:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/965b35c3-78a9-41e8-a40d-3245d165c101)) - **Waymo Normalization** - Sarah Lane notes an increase in Waymo vehicles without drivers in her area of Los Angeles. - She even found it odd to ride in a human-driven Uber recently, highlighting the normalization of autonomous vehicles. Transcript: Sarah Lane I mean, I've talked about my, my love for Waymo. I mean, I've really only been in one a handful of times, but there are so many in my area of Los Angeles now. And it used to be that, you know, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd crane my head to be like, is someone driving? Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's obvious when it's a Waymo, but there would be, you know, about half the time you'd see a driver behind the wheel. You go, yeah, they're just like testing stuff. Now I never see anybody driving. They're just chilling. They're just hanging out, around town. Sometimes people are in the back. I mean, the windows are tinted, so it's not like I can really get a good look at anybody, but you can kind of tell if somebody's in the back or not. But you can definitely tell that someone's not driving. And it's sort of inching past this novelty stage where I'm like, yeah, that's just how it goes. I took an Uber to the airport. I had to go up north a couple of weeks ago. And it made way more sense for me to take an Uber rather than do long-term parking. But Waymo doesn't go to Burbank Airport where I was going. And I remember sitting in the back of the car just being like, huh, kind of weird. Human. Human driving me. That's how quickly we get used to this stuff. ([Time 0:13:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0c6fad59-44f2-47e4-b539-e6239020ecb3)) - **Uber Rebranding and Expansion** - Uber is rebranding its same-day delivery service from Uber Connect to Uber Courier. - They are also expanding their car seat offerings to more cities, including Orlando, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Miami, and San Francisco. Transcript: Sarah Lane Interesting. Yeah. Speaking of Uber news, Uber announced it's rebranding its same day delivery service currently called Uber connect to Uber courier. A lot of people are like, that makes more sense because that's what it is. It's a courier service. Deliveries can be scheduled ahead of time. Uber offers live trip tracking as well as a PIN verification system to confirm receipt of the package. You know, make sure that the right person is getting what they ordered. Uber is also expanding its car seat offerings to more cities, including Orlando, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, and San Francisco. The service, which provides NUNA car seats to drivers, has been live in New York City and Los Angeles since 2023. But it was not that long ago that I remember in San Francisco in particular, because I still lived there, there would always be this conversation of like, well, we can't take an Uber because We got the baby type thing. You know, the car seat thing was, was a huge problem. And so you, you, you just, you just didn't get a lot of Ubers with kids unless there was some special circumstance. Robb Dunewood The car seats thing is cool because not everybody has a carrier or one of those strollers that'll convert into one. So the fact that they're just going to be able to service more people, more people ultimately will probably use the service. ([Time 0:15:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8a3dcf49-938d-407f-b9d0-9bc792f1b804)) - **Blue Sky's Monetization** - Blue Sky is considering revenue streams like subscriptions, an algorithm marketplace, and domain name sales. - Advertising may also be a possibility, despite the platform's current ad-free model, potentially impacting user growth. Transcript: Robb Dunewood Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. Blue sky, the social media platform that has blown up recently, thanks to vibrant community of posters, user customization choices, and a decentralized protocol is hinting at a few Potential revenue streams, including social media subscriptions, a marketplace of algorithms, and selling domain names. It also looks like advertising could be on the table for the XM Threads competitor. Blue Sky CEO Jay Graber has commented not to incentivize the platform with ads, but at TechCrunch's Strictly VC event in San Francisco, she says she's not ruling out ads altogether. We asked if Blue Sky would always be free of advertising like it is today, Graber said, when I think it's not necessarily true. I think that the ways we would explore advertising if we did would be much more user intent driven. So I don't think that it is a stretch to say that one of the reasons, one, not all, but one of the reasons, one of the factors that Blue Sky is having the ridiculous growth that it's having Over the last three weeks, because about three weeks ago, Threads announced that they are going to be adding ads to their platform starting next year. So people don't like ads. So that's one of the reasons why, what's a place that doesn't have ads at Blue Sky? So that's one of the factors. I don't think it's the main one. But when I think about um selling domain names they'll make a little bit of money doing that when i think about a marketplace for algorithms they'll make a little bit of money doing that When i think about actual subscriptions i think they might actually do well with that i personally have subscriptions on x that will expire here shortly i have them on meta platforms I would probably get one there. But those three things combined would only be a rounding error compared to what this company could potentially do if they get ads right. So I'm right now, you know, you know, Blue Sky has not crossed, I don't think, 25 million subscribers yet. They're probably real close to it. But I don't think that, you know, it is much of a stretch to think that eventually they're going to put ads on this thing because that's where the real money ultimately can be made. You know, Justin, I kind of want to get your take on that because I don't know that you necessarily agree. Justin Robert Young I don't agree for two different reasons. Number one, I'm not a long-term believer in blue sky. And number two, I'm not a long-term believer in advertising and specifically advertising at the scale that you would really make the money that you'd want to do. The way that you get maximum ad money now is by putting on the kind of ads that are ugly and intrusive and make people hate ads. There's a reason why the web has become nearly impenetrable when you go to certain websites because of intrusive ad tech. The websites aren't doing that because they hate you, although they might. They're doing that because those are the ads that pay money. And it's the chum ads. It's the ugly ads. Sarah Lane So yeah, it's like the whack-a stuff. You launch a page, you want to read a story, and you're like, let me right-click on four of these things so that I can actually read that story. Justin Robert Young So if you're chasing ad money, you're going to go with very ugly ads. What I would look at as an example, and we're going to talk about it a little bit later, but like OpenAI right now has the largest user, the largest growing user product there is, which At GPT. Maybe they go with ads, but right now they have not. And granted, they're in a very different position because they are selling things and they're in an API business that matters for different reasons. But they have opted not to get into the ad game. And I wonder whether or not that is the future for some of these products. That being said, I'm not a long-term believer in Blue Sky. I think Blue Sky is having a moment right now that will probably fade because like Threads, it is just not a sufficiently differentiated product aside from the animus that people have Toward Twitter, which that passion kind of comes and goes and the utility is going to be what it is. The other side of it is that Threads has Instagram that people can pump into and Blue Sky simply doesn't. ([Time 0:16:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/66820a39-e8eb-40d8-a910-97daac342da0)) - **OpenAI in Defense** - OpenAI is partnering with Andrel, a defense company, to integrate its software into counter-drone systems. - This marks a shift from OpenAI's previous ban on military applications of its AI. Transcript: Robb Dunewood On Wednesday, OpenAI and defense company Andro announced a partnership that will see OpenAI integrated software into Andro's counter drone systems developed to identify and take Down drones. This is a significant flip in its stance for OpenAI. The company originally banned the use of its generative AI for military and warfare. Sarah Lane OpenAI was also a not-for company at one point. And they are definitely now open ai has has open ai has had a very interesting couple of years well certainly yeah i i don't i don't think this is a huge surprise yeah ([Time 0:25:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/978d10a9-d7ce-4aa2-aca3-da5241d8f9fe)) - **OpenAI's GPT Pro Launch** - OpenAI launched GPT Pro, a $200/month subscription, offering access to the O1 model, exclusive Pro mode, GPT 4.0, and advanced voice. - The $20 plus tier will remain, providing early access to new features but excluding the O1 Pro mode. Transcript: Sarah Lane Started its 12 days of shipments. We talked about this shipmas yesterday. So it's day one. We promise we will not cover OpenAI. Justin Robert Young On the first day of ship, Miss Sam Altman gave to me. Sarah Lane GPT Pro. So we mentioned in yesterday's show that they're going to be doing this advent calendar style. Today it kicked things off by announcing a new $200 per month subscription model called GPT Pro that includes access to its O1 model, including an exclusive O1 Pro mode, which offers More compute power to provide best possible answers for difficult problems. GPT 4.0 and also an advanced voice mode. So this is, again, you say $200 a month. That's crazy. Well, you know, it depends on who you are and what you're doing. The $20 plus tier which is much more the consumer focused model will still be on offer and is going to include early access to new features and all models except that 01 pro mode you're Going to need to go gpt pro I'm still on GPT just free. Free? Free 99? Every time it says, you ready for plus? I'm like, eh, I'll just do this tomorrow. But I don't need it as much as some people do. Robb Dunewood The 200 sounds like a lot, but that's not going to generally be for individual people who currently may have the pro account now. This is going to be for researchers and ultimately businesses who are trying to build something on top of that stack. So when you look at it like that, I will look at it not so much as, you know, don't compare to the free stuff. I would compare it to you've got a really, really nice, you know, AWS implementation, or you are doing these really crazy things in Salesforce, or you've got, you know, you've got HubSpot, You know, for your company of, you know, you know, 182 people, and you're using it this way. I look at it at, you know, I look at it from that perspective, that is not necessarily $200 just for one person. It is a single account, but it is more of an account that would be used by a business. Yeah. Justin Robert Young The way that they talked about promote in the announcement, which I would encourage everybody to watch, it's only 12 minutes. So they're keeping these announcement pretty short and consumable, but they they are pretty dense. If you're fascinated by AI, the way that they look at it is that you are looking at the hardest chemistry, math and coding problems. So if you are in the world of research, if you're in the world of coding, that is doing a lot of difficult stuff like Rob pointed out, that's where this marketplace is. And it's basically people that were already running up against rate limits for GBT40. Now they are able to have it without rate limits. That's the price that they set. By the way, remember that we were hearing rumors weeks ago of a $2,000 a month plan for OpenAI, which kind of makes you wonder if this is what they believe. Sarah Lane It's only day one. Justin Robert Young I know. If this is what they believe a $200 plan is, you got to wonder what they believe a $2,000 plan would be if that indeed comes to pass. The other side of this was 01, the model, being now out and deployed. Previously, we had seen 01 preview. The biggest steps forward were that it now has dynamic thinking. If you have ever used 01, the big thing that's different about it is that the model thinks amongst itself before it answers your question. And so initially what they were trying to solve for was that if you asked it hello, it would take as long as if you asked it something very complex. So now there's dynamic thinking. It goes a lot faster. There was some meme-y stuff happening during this interview. Uh, one of the lead researchers that was doing the demo had a strawberry on his laptop, which for those who have followed the idea of how many hours were in a strawberry, there was that. And then the first demo that they did for a one was, uh, uh, he's like, Oh, I'm a history buff. So I asked it all of the Roman emperors. So all of the men only think about the Roman empire meme. So it was, I don't know. I thought it was, it was, it was kind of charming. The, the announcement, I think it was, it was a little lower five than we are used to seeing from kind of top of the line tech companies, but I thought it was, it was fun. It felt, it felt authentic in a way that, uh post-Jobsian era of polish and lo-fi techno had kind of brought us away from. ([Time 0:28:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4a3f7fcf-eb4f-4daa-851d-76cfc728c5fb)) - **Mobile Password Manager Suggestions** - Consider using KeePass DX for local password storage or Proton for multi-device password management with secure notes and 2FA backups. - RoboForm also offers an on-device option for securing passwords, passkeys, and other sensitive information. Transcript: Robb Dunewood Tristan writes in, heard you talk about possibilities for mobile password managers. I use key pass DX, which is an Android version of key pass XC and stores all passwords locally in an encrypted dot KB DX file. This file also works key pass XC app on your PC. If you want to sync it there as well, I've only been using it for about a month now, but so far I've done nothing. I've had nothing to complain about and have found the overall experience to be much Let's than the other free password managers I've tried. Sarah Lane We got a lot of responses. We definitely struck a chord on the show yesterday. Tanner also wrote in and said, I'm a recent convert to Proton. Their password manager is available on any device, supports Autofill and iOS or Mac OS. You can create a separate vault to save secure notes, 2FA backups, security questions, etc. For images or documents, I use Proton Vault. Everything uploaded is encrypted with the possibility to add a second password as well as 2FA. Proton's free tier gives you access all of their products with their paid option increasing storage. And ([Time 0:33:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5bc70c30-2969-4def-b852-cead324db7fc))