[hilbertseries]

Taxis have basically no recourse if you just ditch. Waymo has a video of you, your full name, your billing address and your credit card on file.

[bamboozled]

Waymo has a video of you, your full name, your billing address and your credit card on file.

The future is awesome

[ModernMech]

So do hotels, I guess that’s why no hotel room has ever been trashed.

[x-complexity]

> So do hotels, I guess that’s why no hotel room has ever been trashed.

The point is when there's damage, it can be billed to the malicious actor in question.

[miki123211]

Unlike Waymo, hotels can't really bar the bad actors from staying in any hotel ever again.

At some point, the people who tent to leave a mess in Waymos just... won't be allowed to ride in Waymos any more.

[x-complexity]

> At some point, the people who tent to leave a mess in Waymos just... won't be allowed to ride in Waymos any more.

This would reductively mean a more effective form of punishing vandalism, which would in of itself be a slight net good overall.

In the ideal case, there would be a recompense program to pay for the damages made + extra, in return for being able to ride them again.

Meta-point: This discussion has significant overlap with busses/trains/public transportation. How we deal with bad actors in that space would translate well into this space.

[bamboozled]

At some point, the people who tent to leave a mess in Waymos just... won't be allowed to ride in Waymos any more.

Starting to sound a bit like a credit system or some other dystopian shit show. You do something dumb, drunk while in college and you're cut off...sounds amazing.

[ModernMech]

No, the point was that billing the damage to the malicious actor in question will prevent damage.

But for some people, a fine is just the cost of doing the thing. And for every bad actor you ban, there's another bad actor willing to take their place.

[Anotheroneagain]

I guess that's why no hotel lets you pay cash.

[crazygringo]

I've never been to a hotel that didn't require a valid credit card as a hold for security when checking in.

Sure you can pay in cash at the end if you want.

But you can't get a room in the first place without a credit card, even if they never charge it.

(I mean I'm sure there are some exceptions somewhere, but generally speaking, no, cash isn't sufficient.)

[gambiting]

What? Plenty of hotels let you pay cash. Or is that sarcasm?

[vkou]

They'll accept cash if you fork out a $300 deposit, and the people who are likely to both pay cash and trash a room rarely have that much extra money on hand.

A friend of mine works night audit in a rough part of the valley. As soon as he says the magic words 'we require a major credit card or a $300 deposit', they immediately hang up.

[miki123211]

This heavily depends on the country, plenty of places in the US and other credit-card-loving countries are credit (and specifically credit, NOT debit) card only for this reason. Plenty of tourists from countries where such cards aren't as popular get bitten by this.

[immibis]

Some taxis have that too. Where does it get them?

[x-complexity]

> Some taxis have that too. Where does it get them?

The keyword there being "some". If an account is tied to the person, recourse for negligent/malicious behavior can be applied, but that only works if there's an account to add the penalty to.

On Waymo's part, requiring an account to use the service would be in the benefit of the service as a whole.