Mobility – Mosh as a NFT in Silicon Valley

When you are drunk, but have driven your car, what would you do? Now we have a solution called “Daiko”

When you have a party at night, but you drove your car to the venue, and eventually if you are getting drunk (or even shitfaced), what would you do??

Driving your car back home is dangerous and illegal (No DUI please!), but leaving your car in a public lot is VERY RISKY too since car break incidents are increasing based on pandemic unemployment etc.

Using Uber/Lyft round-trip is a reasonable solution, but when the round trip is long, it can be pricy – especially nowadays Uber can rip you off in the “peak time” or whatever they call. (Yes, I had experienced it in evening when I went to Angel Stadium of Anaheim to watch Shohei Otani: frigging $60 for 2 miles! Thank Uber for make me learn the dark side of ride share service!!)

And sometimes you have to send your kids to schools and come to the office for meetings ASAP in the morning: that is a kind of typical scenario you have to drive your car even you have appointment of party in the evening – and sometimes you can’t stop drinking beer 🙂

Don’t worry anymore. Now we have a solution: Daiko by Rigle Tech

https://www.rigletech.com/daiko

Daiko sounds like daikon (radish) in a salad bowl, but actually meaning “replacement” in Japanese. In this case, “hey, I drive your car for you and bring you back home, you can just sit and relax or even take a nap in a passenger seat”.

Currently it would take 20 minutes-ish to have a Daiko car to pick you up, but when you foresee the closing of the party, just send a request to them in advance. At the time when you say goodby to your drunken friends, you’ll see the Daiko driver right in front of the restaurant.

When you get to your home, the driver leaves with his e-scooter etc. Pretty handy isn’t it?

Technologies and services are something you never understand if you don’t use them. This is my long-lasting belief and I’m following this principle especially while I’m in Silicon Valley.

So, experimentally I got totally shitfaced in Yakitori Gaku that I love to come with my best friends. (My wife allowed me to do so when I said this is a kind of tech PoC) (Additionally, there was an executive of my company coincidentally who made me more tipsy)

After the couple of hours of cheerful yakitori dinner, I asked Daiko driver to drive my beloved Tesla Model 3 in lieu of me, and he carefully and nicely drove it on Highway 280 and San Antonio Road, and in 20 minutes I was safely home and nicely greeted by my daughter saying “Dad, you are drunken, you didn’t drive your car, did you?” “Honey, not at all, don’t worry about it, I’m good”

And the driver said good night to me, disappeared into the darkness of night.

It was a great UX and DX for me as a party lover who can easily get drunken with fun conversations with business partners and best friends.

Mobility, Technology

Uberで似た名前の人と相乗り / Uber pooling with a guy of similar name of mine

飲み会が急になくなり、行きに続き、帰りもUberとなりました。（最近日本企業は飲むときはUber乗車を義務付けているところが多い）
Suddenly my dinner appointment was blow out, still I had to take Uber from my office to home, since I came to the office by Uber.. (Recently Japanese companies oblige employees to take Uber when they drink even a bit)

普通のタクシーより安いとはいえ、そこそこコストはかかります。SunnyvaleからSanta Claraで$15とか。。　なので、帰りはお金の節約のためにUber Pool（相乗りUber）にしました。
Although it is cheaper than normal taxi, it cost me to take Uber. $15 from Sunnyvale to Santa Clara. Thus, I took Uber Pool to go back home.

Poolは普通のUber（UberX）の半額近い！
Pool is nearly as half as the cost of UberX!

注意事項は、新しい同乗者が追加されるかもしれないこと、目的地は変えられないことなど。

UberXよりピックアップ予想時間計算に時間がかかる。
It takes more time for them to calculate estimated pickup time

ココらへんは、いつものUberと変わりません。
This is as usual as normal Uber before a pickup

家に帰る前に２つ寄ると。（同乗者のピックアップ、ドロップオフ）
いつもは15分くらいだから、5分強時間が余計にかかるけど問題なし。
Before arriving home, the Uber driver would stop two spots including co-riders’ pickups and drop-offs
Usually it takes 15 mins, thus additional 5 mins, but it is not a big deal

問題はここからです。
A problem occurred right after I got picked up.

アプリ上、「Pickup Mahesh」と書いてありますが、僕は「Masashi」です。
プロフィール登録を再確認しましたが、Masashiになっているので、これはバグです。
The app says “Pickup Mahesh”, but I am Masashi. I checked my profile again and it was for sure Masashi. A glitch in the app.

ただ、次のpickupポイントに行ってみると、インド人のMaheshさんが乗ってきました。
まぎらわしい。バグではなかった。。
But in the next pickup point, I was greeted by Indian Mahesh. Confusing. But it was not a bug..

とにかく、似た名前の人の話はちょっとした小話ですが、①相乗りのアルゴリズムを見事実装して　②ルート計算にちょっと時間がかかるものの　③実用的にぜんぜん問題ないレベルで市場投入して　④利用料を大幅に削減することで　⑤人々の役に立っている　というところが素晴らしいです。
All in all, aside from having a similar name co-rider, 1. implementing a pool ride algorithm beautifully 2. although route calculation takes a bit of time 3. the UX of using pool ride is good 4. and by reducing the cost of ride significantly 5. serving people’s daily life are really awesome.

シリコンバレー界隈では、高いバリュエーションでエクジットしたスタートアップの話や、大した技術でないのに一時的な流行りでちやほやされるC向けアプリの話など、いろいろな話題が「踊る」わけですが、こういう地に足がついたテクノロジーやソフトウェアが実際によく人々に使われるようになるところまでいくのが本当にすごいことだと感じさせられます。
In Silicon Valley, there are a lot of talks about startups which exited with ultra high valuation, B2C app buzzed just temporarily with mediocre technology and so on and so forth to make a kind of fad all the time.
However, whenever I see technologies and software which used by normal people in everyday life, I feel the real power of technology.

e-bike, IoT, Mobility, Technology

Lime E e-assist bikeに乗ってみた / Rode Lime-E e-assist bike

上司のホームパーティーに呼ばれ、「美味しい酒と日本食が食べれる」と息巻きましたが、SunnyvaleからMountain ViewまでUberで20分と中途半端な距離です。ワークアウトを兼ねて「基本的に歩き（＝2時間20分）、途中でLime バイクが見つかったらそれに乗って距離をかせぐ」という作戦としました。

Invited to a home party by my boss, pleased with “good drinks and Japanese food”, to go there it would take 20 minutes with Uber, which is not too long and not too short. I set a strategy that “basically walk there (which would take 2 hours and 20 minutes), but if I find Lime Bike on the way, I take it and ride to shorten the time”.

先日LimeのCEOとカンファレンスで会い、日本での事業展開の可能性を聞いたところ、「ぜひともやりたい」とのことでしたので（どっちかというとeスクーターの方だと思いますが）日本で流行るといいなあとも思っています。
I met a CEO of Lime the other day in a conference and asked him the possibility of their business in Japan. He was positive in going to Japan. I hope someday I can ride their e-scooter and bike there.

30分位歩いたら、まんまと見つかった。
With 30 minutes walk from my home, found them as I planned.

使い方。まずアプリをダウンロードして、登録して、その上でアプリからQRコードを読み取るだけです。
How to use the bike. First, download Lime app and unlock the bike by scanning the QR code from the app. That’s it!

GPSでチェックしていますよ、というある意味警告が・・
停めていいところについてが非常に分かりにくい。この部分がビジネスがスケールする肝ですが、事業拡大のためにわざと曖昧にしている気がする。「Bike rack」はなかなか無い中、「pavement between sidewalk and curb」は非常に分かりにくい。
“GPS Tracked” is a sort of warning for users for parking. The parking instruction is really hard to understand. This is a core of their business model. I guess they made it vague so that they can expand their business. “Bike rack” is rarely found in towns and “pavement between sidewalk and curb” is super hard to understand.

Eバイクなわけですが、スピードを抑えるためか、そんなに速くはないです。車体もそこそこ重い。漕ぎ出しがちょっと遅い。ただ、ノッてくると快適です。上り坂のアシストはそこそこ、といったところ。
Although it is an “E-bike”, it is not that fast. Probably in order not speed up too much. The body of bike is heavy and first pedaling is heavy and slow. However, after the some pedaling it becomes comfortable. Assist in the uphill climbing is so-so.