I am fairly sure you meant highwire act.

I have found that it largely depends on class. If you are a blue collar or middle class worker, things have been getting worse for several decades now. If you are upper-middle class or richer, there may be more ebbs and flows in how you experience the economy.

Except lower class people got the highest increases in wages over the last few years. It's only the top 5% that haven't netted out far ahead, and they're basically at the same level as before.

And how has the cost of living/housing/transportation increased? And not just over 5 years. Over decades. How much more are they actually saving compared to 10 or 20 years ago? The reason why your points are considered "gaslighting" by others is because you are addressing the wrong questions.

Yeah, was going to comment the same. Pretty clear evidence of a lot of wage compression the past few years https://www.nber.org/papers/w31010 https://www.ft.com/content/f32d4927-a182-4d7c-bf2d-dd915ef84...

Your data ironically cannot be viewed unless you are a paying member.

When you bring this up people call it "gaslighting" because positive news can't be real. It's honestly bizarre.

> If you are a blue collar or middle class worker

This. All of my friends are blue collar workers. It's been getting tougher for them year after year. It's been difficult to watch at times.

The ones who have gone to work for themselves fare better, but it hasn't gotten any easier for those grinding it out on an hourly wage.

How much does the average trip go for distances such as your use case?

On average, within SF (say, a 3-4 mile trip), is typically ~$20. Peak times on Friday or Saturday evenings can definitely exceed $35, but I've yet to have any ride go above $50.

Does it matter if you enter with multiple people? Does the charge go up (whereas Uber/Lyft grants you 3+ seats by default)?

Doesn't matter, and the total is 4 people.

> How much does the average trip go for distances such as your use case?

They seem to undercut Uber and Lyft by a hair. Given the longer wait times, and lack of a need to tip, that seems fair. (In San Francisco, they undercut by a wider margin. But human ride shares are more expensive there for a variety of reasons.)

> usually at least 50% more expensive than Uber or Lyft

Hmm, I used them this weekend and was comparing pricing. Waymo was cheaper. That said, I wasn’t riding during peak traffic. And in peak traffic, I’d vastly prefer a Waymo. So I get the premium pricing.

In my experience it seems that the price floor is higher, but the ceiling is lower. Short rides (~10 min) that might cost 8-9$ (before tip) on Uber / Lyft, cost $18-20 on Waymo. If I'm going to the other side of San Francisco (say, North Beach to Stonestown), it will be $33-35. I've never seen it in the $40s-50s as I often do with Uber / Lyft for long distance trips during surge pricing. But that's just anecdotal.

Why is that? Waymo has lower labor costs right?

Not if you count the billions that have been sank into developing the product. Also, there's no incentive to undercut market rate for rides, that's just leaving money on the table. Collusion but also not.