Just asking, how do you wish to spend those 40 mins you are likely to save per month? Which you will likely get in installments of 20 minutes per 15 days(avg 1 minute/day).
Sure, makes perfect sense for anything that goes beyond >1hr a day.
But lets do the math here. Lets say some one charge $15-$20 per hour do your chores(Going by the minimum+ wage). For two hours you are now looking at $450-$600/month expenses for that. If you can afford that and are willing to spend that kind of money, then it makes perfect sense.
To be fair, this is probably a trade-off people in SF are already making. I know I am in NYC - if I was willing to spend an extra hour/day commuting (and that's only weekday, of course), I could easily save $500/month or more on rent.
Say if you started when you were 21. By the time you are 46- just the savings would be $180,000. Progressively invest that in a good fund. That could mean a home right there or a 401k equivalent, Just on your travel expenses. To me, that's a decent nest egg.
I don't believe the parent poster was serious when he said he'd like to spend it all because he refused to believe he would be alive in a few decades. In most cases the person would generally be alive, live long, and be poor in old age. What follows next is blaming government, youngsters, immigrants, bankers and what not for your predicament while very clearly it was your choices at work all the time.
Now don't tell me spending extra time on commute is hard. Obviously it is, you don't get to an extra 401k by 46 by walking in the park.
25 years * 5 days a week * 48 working weeks a year = 6000 hours spent commuting.
Assuming 8 hours sleeping and 8 hours working, those 6k translate to 375 days worth of waking hours and 750 days worth of non-work hours.
Alternatively, you could devote those 6K hours entirely to working and get the equivalent of 3.125 extra working years over that time (6000 / (48 * 8 * 5) = 3.125), which should exceed a nominal $180K pretty easily.
Its not like they track your car through GPS and show up at the exact place where you are empty.
At a minimum, I should be able to open my Yoshi app and say "My car will be [here] for the next 4 hours. Make sure it gets full".
"Rather than delivering “on-demand,” Yoshi users schedule refueling one time, typically at a place of work where they park for hours during the day without needing their vehicle."
and
"This “set it and forget it” approach allows Yoshi to optimize their delivery routes, explains CEO and co-founder Nick Alexander."
I don't think it works like Uber, where you can order for something and get it on demand. You need to tell them where you will be a few days in advance for them to chart our their route to finally reach you. You need to be aware/anticipate that you will run out of gas a few days before and then schedule the refill and keep your car unused for a good few hours.
That makes much sense for the 1.0 version, but I have to think my GPS vision is on the 2.0 roadmap.
I also don't get these 40 minute estimates. On one of my little motorbikes I used to fuel up and back on the road in no more than 3 minutes, and my truck doesn't take more than 5-8.
First world problems for sure, but I'd happily pay to be rid of that inconvenience. And while they're at it, I'd pay an extra $10 for them to do a quick wash of my car once a month.
is French for the demand is inelastic
The only two situations I can imagine is if you are poor and work more than one job and have to often rush. Which in case it doesn't make sense to pay more for something like this. Or if your time is worth in thousands of dollars an hour/minutes. Which in case you anyway have drivers and servants to do that for you.
Or may be if you are meeting your kids once in a few days/weeks and you just can't wait anymore to meet them not even a few minutes.
Either way the service requires you let them know a few days in advance and keep your vehicle unused for a good few hours. If you need to plan out things like filling gas a few days in advance, I'm very sure you wouldn't end up surprised not having gas in the car in the first place.