Welcome to the latest edition of AFT NewsWatch, a weekly service of Advocates for Fairness in Transportation, an ad hoc group of regulated transportation service companies dedicated to informing and educating the public on threats to public safety from new so-called ride-sharing or ride-booking services such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. Visit the Archive to read previous editions.

Privacy getting taken for a ride

It's as if they can read your mind: Before customers even ask to be picked up, apps let Uber or Lyft know you'll need them. That's because personal data housed in smart phones tell ride-sharing companies when and where their customers most frequently need rides. It's innovated the car-service industry, critics say, at the expense of users' privacy. 

Read more from Capitol Weekly

Uber must face lawsuit claiming bias against blind riders

Uber Technologies Inc must defend against a lawsuit accusing the popular ride-sharing service of discriminating against blind people by refusing to transport guide dogs, a federal judge ruled. In a decision late Friday night, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins in San Jose, California, said the plaintiffs could pursue a claim that Uber is a "travel service" subject to potential liability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Read more from Reuters

Judge refuses to dismiss Orlando International Airport lawsuit against Uber

An Orlando judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority against Uber, the ride-sharing company. The authority filed it Nov. 14, asking a judge to permanently block Uber drivers from picking up passengers at Orlando International Airport and to pay more than $150,000 in damages. Neither Uber nor its drivers pay to pick up airport passengers, something the authority alleges is unfair to it and to traditional cab companies that do. 

Read more from the Orlando Sentinel

What strippers can teach Uber

Shannon Liss-Riordan rolls a small black suitcase out of the ugly federal courthouse in San Francisco. She's smiling, just a fraction. No wonder: She just won a little victory against Uber. Minutes earlier, in an oak-paneled courtroom 17 floors above the city's streets, she tried to cut in - May I? May I? - as Uber's attorney bobbed and weaved and attempted to persuade the judge that he should slow down the case that Liss-Riordan is working. 

Read more from Matter

Uber competitor bans surge pricing

Uber may dominate New York's ride-sharing economy, but that's not stopping smaller players from trying to muscle their way in. One of those competitors, Gett-formerly known as GetTaxi-is putting pressure on Uber by banning surge pricing throughout Manhattan. In a direct attack on Uber's oft-complained-about pricing techniques, Gett's "surge-free guarantee" promises the on-demand black-car service will never raise prices, regardless of changes in demand. 

Read more from CNBC

Uber fails to win first round in push for new Miami-Dade rules

Uber and Lyft failed to win preliminary support for a change in Miami-Dade's taxi and limousine laws that would legalize the companies' fleet of freelance drivers hailed by cellphone apps. County commissioners on Tuesday declined to endorse a legislative package that would give Uber, Lyft and other app-based car services permission to run competing services against Miami-Dade's taxi companies. 

Read more from the Miami Herald

Uber driver deliberately ran down cyclist near wharf, police say

A bicyclist suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and a broken collarbone after he was mowed down by an Uber driver Sunday afternoon near San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, police said. The driver, 38-year-old Emerson Decarvalho of Daly City, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, said Officer Albie Esparza, a San Francisco police spokesman. The trouble started around 1 p.m. 

Read more from The San Francisco Chronicle

Taxi drivers refuse to pick up fares during anti-Uber protest

The blast of dozens of taxi horns rose above the normal downtown cacophony as cabbies protested the ride-sharing giant Uber. Dozens of cabbies, their hazard lights flashing, cruised downtown and ignored potential fares during a planned four-hour protest near City Hall. Peter Enger, a cabdriver for 10 years, said he hopes the protest "sparks a conversation" about how ride-share services are devastating his industry - and the need to create what cabbies say should be a level playing field.

Read more from the Chicago Sun-Times

One Uber driver's story: How he was trapped by auto-loan program

Richard Brunelle says he feels trapped. He says he has to drive for Uber. The San Leandro man needs to make money for car payments. His 48-month loan is costing him $1,000 a month and has a 22.75 percent interest rate. He says he got into this mess through a vehicle financing program Uber created for drivers with poor or nonexistent credit. Since November 2013, Uber has been signing up drivers without cars or the credit to get one. 

Read more from KQED

Uber, Lyft refuse to require driver fingerprints

Popular ride-hailing firms like Uber and Lyft are fighting lawsuits in Atlanta and other cities from cab drivers, taxi and limousine companies claiming the techno upstarts are siphoning off passengers and profits by skirting regulations that ensure consumer safety. The 2015 Georgia Legislature recently passed bills aimed at protecting passengers and requiring insurance coverage, which are to be signed into law May 6. 

Read more from The Associated Press

Can one woman change the way Uber operates?

The night of December 5, 2014, an Indian woman in her mid-20s sent an email to Uber support: I was raped. She'd just been deposited on a street corner on the outskirts of Delhi, India, bleeding, bruised and covered in bite marks, according to her court documents. Her assailant, she claims, was a man named Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, an Uber driver she'd hired to take her home after she'd had dinner with a friend. 

Read more from CNET

Uber makes an uber mistake, accidentally charges a customer $12,000

Thought that last drunken Uber ride all the way home really added up? We'll, we guarantee you got a great deal compared to this rider. Uber accidentally charged a New York City customer $12,000 for a lift recently...to go seven miles. Traveling from East Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Mid-town, Manhattan the passenger, Jaime Hessel, wrote Uber to contest a $56.40 fee after the driver took a number of wrong turns, resulting in a longer drive time than normal. 

Read more from Road Warrior Voices