Google can't even compete on search with it's own search engine of 15 years ago in terms of the quality of the product. The entire front page is made of ads for many common searches these days, and for most searches everything above the fold is a first-party or 3rd party ad.
As a long-time Googler and now X-Googler, I've seen the operation from the inside. Google is now a fat and arrogant monopoly that is unwilling to take risks with employees more interested in getting the next promotion than building the next big thing. They still hire amazing talent thanks to their brand and compensation, but the focus of this talent is on getting promoted or playing politics not on building products that people love.
As an example, a few years ago they tried to take on Amazon and Instacart in a similar market - home shopping delivery. After several failed iterations, they abandoned the market, fired everyone on the project and moved on as if nothing happened. I expect a similar outcome in this case.
Amazon alone does 200B+ in product sales each year (with another 200B+ in services). The idea that google is going to be competitive with that with this "last mile fleet solutions" offering is ridiculous.
Google should be worried that that amazon trucks will be delivering google products more than amazon worrying about being taken out by google in this space.
Google pay has been a hot mess. Google shopping has been a hotter mess (I stopped using the variants of this). The idea that layering on last mile fleet solutions to this mess is going to "take on" Amazon. Sorry, but no.
I recently replaced my iPhone 12 Pro with a Pixel 5a. I never had any issues with Apple Pay, but I'd say that about 30% of the time I try using Google Pay at stores and restaurants in my city, something goes wrong. Usually I get a green checkmark on my Pixel, bit the reader doesn't agree, and I have to try again. In fact just this afternoon the reader gave some arcane error message that looked like it belonged in a log file rather than on the screen of a consumer-facing payment device. The clerk told me, "Apple Pay seems to work fine. Google phones always have trouble. Do you just have a card you can use instead?"
I ended up throwing them away and ordering directly from Home Depot. At least I can be reasonably sure that they will sell me something I can trust to give me drinking water.
(Disclaimer of course, my opinion is mine alone)
