Lofty goals, and needed. However I can't help but mourn that at least in Chicago, all of the taxis I've ever taken in the past several years have been hybrid vehicles. I think I can count on one hand the number of hybrids/electric Lyfts and Ubers I've taken. So in Chicago (like everywhere else) ridesharing is decimating the taxi industry, but here when you take a rideshare instead of a taxi there's a greater chance your ride is not climate-friendly today.
So while it's nice that Lyft is targeting 2025, in this specific case you could have already been saving carbon by taking regular taxis instead.
I don't know if Lyft/Uber already have a feature like this (someone else always calls one for us) but it would be nice if they allowed you to only take rides in hybrid/electric vehicles, or if they would otherwise incentivize drivers who had such vehicles.
AFAIK they don't allow a feature like this. If they implemented one, I would gladly use it (even if it cost slightly higher or came with worse availability). That would be an easy way to allow consumers to vote with their actions and support electric vehicles.
I'd be more impressed if this wasn't puffing future tech, and was instead committing to ratcheting efficiency requirements across their drivers' vehicles.
When I requested an Uber for pickup from the Seattle airport's rideshare stop I saw a line of about 20 Priuses all in a row. In LA, from my sample size of several dozen Uber rides, I've seen roughly 50% hybrids.
Sea-Tac airport has a minimum MPG requirement that vehicles must satisfy in order to do rideshare pickups, and it is high enough that almost all cars being used are Priuses.
With Peter Thiel and Carl Icahn as both close Trump advisors and Lyft investors[1], I wonder if the damage done on one side will equal the benefit of these lofty climate goals on the other? As a concerned citizen, I applaud their effort, but I think companies like Tesla are doing far more to drive the conversion to electric cars. That being said, we need every company to do their part, so kudos Lyft!
Is Trump's bail form the Paris Agreement going to be his most positive legacy?
It seems like it has sparked a much bigger interest to double down on its goals by a lot of actors than it would otherwise have been if Trump just pretended to be on board.
Hmm, is all you need is a pink-tinged blog post on long term climate goals to PR your way into convincing the world you aren't harming it?? It's pretty obvious that the current so-called "ridesharing" product is increasing CO2 emissions. But good on you Lyft for embracing that good-guy-stance. Keep it up
Didn't lyft shut down their carpool commute feature, because nobody wanted that?
If you're "ride sharing" without actually stopping to pick up/drop off additional passengers, it's just a taxi. An unlimited, unregulated number of taxis. More cars on the road, fewer people on public transport, more pollution.
It's possible I misunderstand how these taxi companies work. I'm invisible to them. I don't have their apps. I'd rather they not track my movements every half minute for the government to subpoena, for a fee of course.
If you care about the police, they can subpoena your phone's location no matter what app is running on it. They can also find your car with license plate readers.
Would you please stop posting like this? Hacker News is for thoughtful, intellectually interesting discussion and we ban accounts that continue to abuse the site.
So while it's nice that Lyft is targeting 2025, in this specific case you could have already been saving carbon by taking regular taxis instead.
I don't know if Lyft/Uber already have a feature like this (someone else always calls one for us) but it would be nice if they allowed you to only take rides in hybrid/electric vehicles, or if they would otherwise incentivize drivers who had such vehicles.