Hacker News Reader

Comment by pengaru | Hacker News Reader

The "subscribed" buses will be privately owned and operated, they'll be increasingly filled with advertising and other predatory bullshit for exploiting the passengers.

View on HN

I think that's pretty unlikely, at least with schoolbuses. The US has laws around child privacy and advertising that companies easily flaunt online, but are much more difficult to flaunt when your product is a physical bus.

OTOH, I would not be surprised to see these buses rusting in a storage lot within a decade because these firms have closed up shop and some random server somewhere is no longer responding to requests. I hope (but am not hopeful) that municipal and state governments take measures during procurement to ensure that they aren't being turned into captive customers.

Captivate screens behind each seat with 'educational' content and pre-roll/banner ads. "We're giving kids extra education through new technology and they also learn about the value of chocolate sugar milk at the same time!"

The average lifetime of a schoolbus is 10 - 12 years, so if they do manage to keep this service going for a decade, that's pretty good -- in 10 years the schol district would have been ready to refresh their fleet anyway, and hopefully the reason this business can't survive long-term is that electric buses become cheaper and ubiquitous.

Part of the reason for the 10-12 year lifespan is that ICE motors are really complicated and at a certain point, it's cheaper to throw out the bus than pay for motor repairs. EV motors last a lot longer and are a lot easier to maintain.

Are batteries going to last this long? And batteries are usually 50% of the vehicle price.

They should really be leasing the batteries and buying buses having easily swapped batteries conforming to a standard a competitive power systems market can cater to.

The electric motor might last, all the electronics, probably not.

Rather than throw them out, I'd say there's an optimal point to sell them off. (A couple of years ago, I bought a bus that was sold by an institution when the mileage reached a certain point.)

In the '90s the dairy industry managed to get "got milk" posters into approximately every US elementary school.

Milk was my one true vice. Swear the stuff is more addictive them anything. Yes I’m boring.

Spent many years thinking it was healthy. Much regret.

I always found it sort of disgusting, but as an adult discovered that 1 tablespoon of Valhrona powdered cocoa, 1 tablespoon of Equal Exchange baking cocoa and 2 tablespoons of sugar in 1.75 cups of grass-fed organic whole milk deals with the bad part.

Was that through private businesses, or through the government?

In my school district, the milk producer just gave a slight discount on the milk they sold to the school. They were still making a profit, just slightly less per unit (and presumably more overall since sales went up).

Don't forget a snack machine with sweets right inside the bus.

Or... A cold drinks machine, with all the bus windows locked shut. I'm sure I remember something about McDonalds putting more salt in the chips [/ food] so people buy a drink.

>they'll be increasingly filled with advertising and other predatory bullshit for exploiting the passengers

What's this based on ? AFAIK many school districts already contract out their school bus service. Are we seeing that in those cases?

“You’re only two bus rides away from your next Robux reward!”

So like city buses?

Not really, no. City busses recognize revenue from advertising and use it to subsidize fares. Being a public service, the public benefits. On the other hand, private bus fleets with private advertisements on loan to school districts will recognize that advertising revenue as profit, benefiting shareholders. Not everything needs a profit motive.

I don't know what the split is elsewhere, but it's worth noting that for BART in the Bay Area, at least, makes something like $10m/yr, compared to nearly $500m/yr in actual fares - so, in exchange for approximately 2% of annual revenues, we get BART trains and stations covered in ads.

Edit: Thought to look this up for SFMTA - 2020 proposed budget (projections as of 2019, chosen because it's the last "normal" year) - total revenue $1.2Bn, "Advertising, interest, and service fees" $54m.

Literally all the school buses in my area are operated by private companies which contract with the local public school districts. None of them are full of advertising.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com