>> The question here is, are they CHEAPER than the currently option? That costing is complicated, and it really starts on how the AI companies price each query.

That's the classic silicon valley scam:
- Burn VC money to undercut the existing options.
- Raise prices after everyone has switched over and the other options are gone.

The point I guess is that it still works if the GPS satellite infrastructure goes down, but yeah, that accuracy sucks. I imagine you could get close to that with simple dead-reckoning which also doesn't require any infrastructure.

>>Per TFA,, the restaurant has been keeping notes on guests to better cater to them since pencil and paper days; this is just an expansion of that process. This is a higher end restaurant whose clientele is likely to expect personalized service, just as when they shop at a boutique that caters to their tastes; and the boutique no doubt keeps a notebook on their high value clients as well to better serve them and keep them happy and opening their wallet.

Yes, all businesses that cater to serving the 'unique' tastes of the rich and famous keep detailed lists on their clients. These lists are very important to the business; some might even call them an insurance policy.

Also, hiring someone away from your competitor not only helps you; it also hurts them.

>>[If] everyone just received $xx,000 a year. It just inflates the cost of rent, basic necessitates, and everything else.

Only if the supply of those things doesn't change. When more people can afford things, the economy will produce more of them. Henry Ford understood that the only way automobiles would be anything more than a toy for the rich was to pay his employees enough that they could afford to buy what they were building. More people with extra money = more demand = higher volume = lower cost.

So you preferred David Hasselhoff's version of Nick Fury to Sam Jackson's? The best actor for a roll should get it, regardless of their race/gender/etc. Hiring someone based on their race is a "DEI hire" right? I thought you MAGA shits were against that?

Pretty revealing that you classify all employees as interns.

>>Waymo remains unprofitable despite raising $5.6 billion in funding last year.

That's the plan. Just like Uber ran at a loss for years, undercutting taxi services until they captured the market, then jacked up prices and squeezed their employees (sorry, "contractors") after they had no more competition. Now robotaxis will do the same thing to them.

Airlines up-charge people travelling together via the seat selection fee (so they can sit together). People travelling alone are less likely to pay extra to select their seat so the airlines have to find a different way to up-charge. Baggage, food, drinks; everything is an up-charge now. Can't wait for them to start charging to use the goddamn washroom.

>>We had the same shit with URLs, instead of being happy with plain ASCII domain names we had to find a workaround for unicode, not understanding the serious security implications.

URLs?!? Why can't you just be happy with plain IP addresses?

Just a free plane.

Not surprising in the least. For that last 25 years we've been taught that our data is valuable (and it is, Silicon Valley has made billions off it). Not just our email addresses but our opinions and preferences. Why on earth would anyone give away their data for free to a survey? At least Google and Facebook are offering some service of marginal value in return.

>>Thatâ(TM)s been 20-plus years coming.

Kinda like unicode support on Slashdot.

>>Bananas are the world's most consumed fruit -- and the fourth most important food crop globally, after wheat, rice and maize.

This sounded wrong to me so I looked it up and it is in fact quite wrong. Either by tonnage produced or by dollars generated, bananas aren't even in the top 10 food crops. After rice, maize (corn) and wheat comes soybeans, potatoes, tomatoes, sugarcane, grapes, apples and onions.

Motor vehicles and tractors had almost no impact on the number of PEOPLE employed in transport and agriculture. The truck drivers union is called the Teamsters because before they drove trucks they drove teams of horses.