30 minutes with a stranger

Pretty sure I read somewhere that many people prefer Waymo over Uber because there's no driver, which kinda contradicts these findings.

How about HN users? Do you typically enjoy chatting with an Uber driver?

If this "30 minutes with a stranger" experiment was performed during the pandemic, it could be that people were short on human connection at the time, and that explains why they valued it so much.

It doesn't necessarily contradict the findings. People in this study also predicted that they would hate interacting with a stranger.

I've had interesting conversations with uber drivers and not so interesting conversations. I prefer to use one of those charge-by-the-minute rental cars if they're available, because they tend to cost 1/3 as much and I'm perfectly capable of driving myself.