Uber - Page 12

Last week New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a move to put a cap on the growth of the popular smartphone app-based transportation company Uber. He planned to limit the number of cars Uber would be allowed to field across the city. But this week, in the face of criticism, de Blasio has abandoned his plan.

(Ferenstein Wire) — Self-driving cars will save the average driver about $1,000 annually, or cost $250 a year total, according to estimates from auto insurance startup Metromile.

A city ordinance banning the use of horses to pull the traditional carriages around Rome went into effect Thursday, in response to a wave of 100+ degree weather that is said to threaten the horses’s lives.

Former Florida Governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush arrived in San Francisco on Thursday as part of his latest fundraising binge, during which he met with members of the tech sector and reportedly fielded “tough questions” from those present.

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Chief Administrative Law Judge Robert Mason recommended that ride-sharing service Uber be suspended from operating in California for 30 days and fined $7.3 million for wilfully violating its 2013 CPUC settlement by failing to provide data proving that Uber and its California drivers do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, neighborhood or medical disability in picking up passengers.

In a blatant attempt at protectionism for the Big Apple’s taxi companies, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced plans to put the breaks on the growth of the Uber on-demand car service. Uber’s response was immediate and clever.

Hillary Clinton just laid out her economic agenda, and ambiguous statements about companies like Uber and Airbnb leave the entire sharing economy industry in limbo. Clinton said she “vows to crack down on employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors.” She also noted that the “so-called gig economy offers exciting opportunities but raises hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future.”

Ferenstein Wire—China’s taxi-hailing monopolist, Kuaidi, has raised a whopping $2B to compete with the surging presence of Uber. Kuaidi controls 99.8 percent of the taxi hailing app market, after it recently merged with its Chinese competitor, Didi. Even with about

French taxi-drivers have had a kicking from the free market as travellers reject the unionised, expensive traditional cabs and instead joined the Uber service in record numbers. French taxi drivers rioted against the insurgent Uber taxi app last week, inadvertently

As Uber and other Silicon Valley startups come under legal pressure for employing an army of full-time freelancers, a well-funded new startup has decided to completely switch its workforce to staffed employees with full benefits (“W2” workers).

Uber Europe GM Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty and Uber France CEO Thibaud Simphal were both taken into custody Monday in Paris according to AFP News. The police started an investigation of Uber in November 2014 and raided their Paris offices in March. But the arrests came after Paris police failed to intervene last week as French taxi union thugs trashed Uber cars and threatened passengers.

The CEO of Uber France and the general manager of Uber (Europe) have been arrested amidst violent protests in Paris against the app-based taxi service. The arrests mark the latest skirmish in the war between the French government and Uber. According to

On June 28, an UBER driver stopped his car to pick up a passenger and ended up shooting the man after allegedly being attacked and choked.

The Internet’s biggest companies celebrated Saturday after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling Friday making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.

On Wednesday, an Uber driver in Queens was robbed by a man who allegedly got in his car, pointed a rifle at him, and demanded his money.

Courtney Love, the 50-year-old rock singer and widow of Kurt Cobain, was today held hostage with her driver during a taxi drivers’ demonstration in Paris. Claiming to be “safer in Baghdad” Love witnessed angry protestors she likened to a “French Taliban” disrupting

A nationwide strike by French taxi drivers against the American-based ride service Uber turned violent Thursday, and alternative rock singer Courtney Love got caught up in the chaos.

On June 19, Uber announced it has banned both drivers and law-abiding passengers with concealed permits from having guns with them for self-defense while in Uber vehicles.

Former Uber driver and male-to-female transsexual Barbara Ann Berwick is making headlines after winning a potentially game-changing employment case against the tech firm. But former employees of a phone-sex company run by Berwick in the 1990s claim she is guilty of the same violations of employment law of which she is now accusing Uber.

“Millennials” are suddenly realizing that government is something other than “the name we give to the things we choose to do together,” as former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said. On the contrary, government is often the name we give to what one group of people does to another group by force of law.

In what may the most expensive employee labor claim in history, the California Labor Commission ruled Wednesday that an Uber California drivers is an “employee,” rather than an “independent contractor.” Uber could potentially be on the hook to pay about $200 million in employee taxes and benefits for 2014 alone.

The California Labor Comission just ruled that Uber must treat its drivers like normal employees, rather than independent contractors, potentially forcing the company to pay benefits and cover expenses. The decision is being hailed as a victory for worker rights and a major blow to the growing billion-dollar transportation startup.

London Mayor Boris Johnson struggled this morning after a confrontation with a black cab driver on his LBC ‘AskBoris’ radio show. Johnson used the question and answer session to set out how his administration was tackling the problems of black

Democrats and Silicon Valley are locked in a head-on collision course; this week, New York City regulators proposed rules requiring Uber and other ride-hailing startups to get pre-approval each time they make major changes to their apps and pay $1,000 to cover the government’s labor costs. The battle between Uber and New York is a perfect example of the fundamental conflict between Democrats and Silicon Valley.

This week it was Silicon Valley versus the entire transportation sector. Scrappy startups and tech behemoths battled entrenched industries and government regulators throughout the globe, in what has become a fascinating illustration of how an entire social sector responds to

If Robin Leach visited the headquarters of Uber today, it would be all “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” as the ride-hailing service that just closed a $2.8 billion venture capital deal three months ago at a $40 billion valuation is on track to slurp up another $2 billion of venture capital pixie dust at a valuation of $50 billion or higher.

Britney Spears fans in Los Angeles got to hear the pop star’s latest song before everyone else–if they used Uber to get around town.

Uber is systematically wiping out taxis in San Francisco. As of last year, average taxi trips per month had reportedly plummeted 65 percent in just 2 years. In an effort to save the industry, a new startup, FlyWheel, has begun outfitting taxis with the Uber-like convenience of smartphone hailing and payments.

A fascinating new simulation finds that self-driving cars will terraform cities: 90 percent of cars will be eliminated, acres of land will open up, and commute times will drop 10 percent.

On Friday, an Uber driver with a concealed carry permit thwarted an attempted mass shooting by pulling his own weapon and shooting a gunman who had opened fire in Chicago’s Logan Square.

In what may be a very bad sign of a deteriorating defense posture for Uber Technologies’ argument that its drivers are independent contractors versus employees, a San Francisco federal judge denied Uber’s summary judgement motion and the case is now

Taxi unions are not the only government protected industry that ride-sharing companies are overhauling. Auto dealerships are indirectly feeling the heat, as American teens skip getting their driver’s license. Once an established past-time in American culture, in the last 30 years, the number of 16-year-olds with driver’s licenses has plummeted 40%, according to a 2012 article published in the journal of Traffic Injury Prevention.

Uber’s largest rival in Southeast Asia, GrabTaxi, has reportedly announced the launch of an R&D center in Singapore this week. The move marks the latest battle in the global expansion of ride-sharing turf wars as companies seek to draw talent from overseas.

Uber’s popularity overtook traditional taxi service for San Francisco and Dallas business reimbursements in the first three months of 2015, reflecting an overall nationwide trend toward the innovative transportation company, according to analysis of millions of receipts processed through expense management software provider Certify.

In just a few years, a handful of Silicon Valley ridesharing companies have created a new market that’s worth multiple times the entire U.S. Taxi industry.

If you are coming in for a landing at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, it’s time to pull out your smartphone and use an app to get matched with a driver to pick you up curbside.