If you are posting here on the 'Dope, you can book a ride online with Uber with just your computer - no need for additional devices…
https://www.uber.com/en-NL/blog/how-to-request-an-uber-ride-without-the-app/
That doesn’t work so well when you want to go home. We went through this with my mom. I think dinking around with a tablet is a better option, if it works out.
Yeah I thought about that after posting. I guess you could use someone else’s computer or a public one, but at that point it starts making less sense than just getting a tablet or something for this purpose.
Thanks for the additional thoughts – also totally valid.
One thing I’ve had to make peace with because of my circumstances is the reality that I occasionally have to throw money at some things, where it makes sense to do so.
The few have-to’s where I’d need transportation are things like doctor’s appointments and the grocery pickup. Neither gives much flexibility in terms of arrival time. This means that reliability and punctuality are key – something the local taxi-ish service may have trouble with.
Before they changed ownership, they told me that they can “usually get somebody to me within an hour or so.” This is a pretty limiting number for many needs.
The most vexing day-to-day thing about my cardiac stuff is how unpredictable my capacities might be on a given day or a given hour. What this has meant is that most things get done only when I’m relatively okay enough to do them – often not for a couple days.
And it often means I go … now … or the window closes in a half-hour. My own car would maximize flexibility in that situation. It’s also meant that I sometimes nod off in the car in the 15 minutes I wait for the groceries to be brought out 
The have-to’s are infrequent, and I’ve been shifting them to my (very busy, herself) wife where possible.
But if a Tesla was reliable for those iffy hours or iffy days … then an asset that I had to maintain and insure, but that would retain residual value when I no longer do (!) … may have been worth consideration.
I may just have to take a taxi ride with zTrip, see how it works, and – if it goes okay – then, to your point, make a friend of the driver.
Have you checked your insurance coverage? Many policies as well as Medical have provisions for medical transport. There are a couple of medical transport companies out this way and they brag about how reliable and trustworthy they are. I’ve seen the vans from the outside and the seats look pretty comfy.
Of course I don’t know what is available in your area, but it might be worth checking on.
That’s a fantastic suggestion.
In fact, my Nurse Practitioner wife made the same suggestion this morning, but – me being a Husband – I nixed it because “they only drive patients to and from doctor’s appointments.”
But I was wrong I just checked.
One, locally, serves the needs of the disabled and – for example – seniors who have active lives but can no longer drive.
So … thank you!
I’ll have to explore this option. And you’re right: it could be one way that I can get $ assistance with this.
But even if it’s all out-of-pocket, if they could be my resource for the two priorities (go pick up curbside groceries every couple weeks, get me and the dog to a vet if he ever has an emergency), that would be a huge win.
Thank you!
That sounds like an awesome option, and something all us aging folks should remember!
I’m glad I could help. A lady in our neighborhood uses a medical transport company to take her out to dinner or to the mall and she says it costs about the same as an Uber but are much more reliable, plus the driver always checks the area around her seat to be sure she hasn’t left anything behind.
I hope you can find something that works for you.
Now go apologize to your charming wife for doubting her word!!!
Quick update: your suggestion also led me to this:
They need 3+ days notice, but – in addition to being no cost to the passenger:
Rides may be scheduled for any purpose – such as medical (except post-anesthesia), shopping, recreation, education, work, volunteering, social.
Which – if my life and health allow for any degree of planning – could be really great. I’ve already reached out to arrange an eligibility phone call. I’ll follow up here.
I’d love to also view this as an opportunity to meet good people and chat, but … essentially … I’m kind of like a lump of Jello that may have to be poured out of their car <grin>.
I suspect you and my wife share some endearing qualities. One of hers is that – when I did close the loop with her and apologize – she said, “Oh, I wasn’t even listening when you responded to me.”
Bless my wife 
I am so happy you are finding help with transportation.
Indeed, you are very lucky to have found her
People with no vision whatsoever use smartphones. I feel like we had a thread recently where someone was asking about assistive technology but I’m having trouble finding it.
Much appreciated.
In a really perverse and non-intuitive way, people with no vision whatsoever have advantages that I don’t.
When my vision really got bad, I contacted the Braille Institute, in Los Angeles, and asked if they could teach me braille. Since I am NOT blind – not legally nor totally – they said I shouldn’t bother coming.
They had “never been able to teach braille to a person who was not blind.”
I can do a whole lot of things. What I can’t do … I basically just don’t do, or I do for the bare minimum amount of time.
Meaning: I do not use any adaptive technology. It’s not an easy task – particularly with the cognitive dysfunction associated with my low-output heart failure – to adapt to adaptive technology.
It pretty much all has a learning curve to one degree or another.
Frankly, the same would be true for a smart phone and no adaptive technology. Because I’ve basically never used one, I wouldn’t relish the idea of getting my head around one.
But – sincerely – my thanks for the good idea.
Was it this thread?
Quick “update:”
A lot of you know a LOT more about Teslas and the associated technology than I do, but …
My wife and I watched a video with a guy in his Tesla, via Full Self-Driving, in what had to be San Francisco. He didn’t show the car pulling into or out of parking spaces, but he also had zero ‘interventions’ and the car did almost unbelievably well on something decidedly more than a ‘run to the corner store.’
In this thread, have others been discussing Autopilot only, or has anybody’s experience included Full Self-Driving?
ISTM, that “FSD” currently has – in addition to whatever upfront up charge – a $200/mo subscription fee. All of this, and more, may make it a non-starter for me but I am curious
ETA: This obviously says nothing about improved ability to self-drive on snow-covered roads.
There are two levels of automation with Tesla. “Enhanced autopilot” is the lowest level of self driving. It will keep the car in the lane and the correct speed on the freeway. It will also change lanes on the freeway, and take the appropriate exit. That also has autopark and summon. It should also follow the lane and speed on surface streets.
The next level is the “full self driving” which adds stuff like make turns on surface streets, stop and go for traffic lights or stop signs, etc. I, along with a few hundred thousand others, are in the FSD beta group, where the car is loaded with the most advanced FSD that Tesla has released to the public.
In what may be a bit counterintuitive FSD and autopilot do better in heavy traffic than they do in medium traffic. This (in my opinion and experience) is because the FSD is sort of depending on the car in front to make the right decisions. Full lanes of traffic helps with lane discipline, and the FSD is less likely to decide to move into the wrong lane when there is lots of traffic.
The system is fantastic in stop and go traffic, with the biggest fault being that it is often not aggressive enough when it does need to change lanes.
So trips in heavy traffic can be impressive to watch, because it is a situation that is stressful to a human driver, but easier for the computer.
Very light traffic is also fine, because there aren’t other cars on the road to get in the way or be disturbed when the Tesla changes to the wrong lane, and then back to the right one, just before a turn.
Medium traffic is the worst, though. There aren’t enough cars to “help”, but are enough for me to feel that the erratic behavior disturbs other drivers.
There are currently two options to get FSD. An up front purchase of $15,000 or a monthly subscription of $200 (or whatever it is). The idea for the subscription is to buy it when you need it, and then turn it off when you don’t. I think those prices are far beyond FSD’s value at the moment. I spent $2500 for a FSD, and it’s a fun toy. I don’t feel like I was ripped off. It has gotten much better in the 4+ years I’ve had the car, but may have plateaued. The whole “self driving is years away thread” is full of my opinions on it.
I spent $5000 for enhanced autopilot, and that is extremely useful for freeway driving. It is wonderful in stop and go traffic, where it does all the stressful stopping and going, and is also wonderful on long trips where I can relax and pay attention to the surroundings, instead of the minutia of car control.
Okay. That was a ridiculously well-thought, well-presented, information-dense, and helpful post.
My thanks.
I watched a couple more FSD videos last evening. Your description was a perfect summary of what I saw in these vids of varying length, under varying conditions.
I used to have a BMW on/off-road motorcycle. They were notorious for having fuel gauge problems that often led to erroneous readings. I griped to BMW North America frequently that “bad information can be far more harmful than no information.”
There are, of necessity, trust issues at play here.
The drivers I watched were hyper-vigilant as they used FSD mode, for exactly the reasons you outlined. At least at this stage, it looked – in some ways – harder to use FSD (ie, requiring more attention, and in rather novel ways compared to The Olden Days) than driving an analog car.
Which – coupled with the economics – is a non-starter for me.
I’m glad Tesla has you in their beta program. I’m sure your feedback is just the sort that they find useful.
Out using the electric (as close as I get to a Tesla) snow thrower, in Larimer County, at 5am this morning. Bad, but … not what we were told about … yet. Hope you guys are faring okay, and that – if you’re heading out – your spaceship knows which way to go.