NewsWatch
Keeping a critical eye on Uber,
Lyft and other transportation
network companies
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Uber, Lyft resist plan to fingerprint
New Jersey already legally mandates fingerprint background checks for Little League coaches, charter school trustees, mortgage brokers, school bus drivers, blackjack dealers and private eyes. Now, a pitched battle among lobbyists and lawmakers is raging over whether to add one more group: drivers for mobile-app ride-hailing companies like Uber Technologies and Lyft. As the services have grown, some passengers have reported assaults amid media accounts of drivers with criminal histories.
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Uber driver accused of hitting passengers with car
A woman says when a passenger told her Uber driver she was ending the ride, the driver lost it and attacked her. Doctors told Tylasha Strother she has a fractured back, and has to wear a neck brace, after, she says, her Uber driver hit her and another woman with her car. "It's not like she hit me and then she stopped. She hit me and then she kept going," Tylasha Strother said. Strother says she flew into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from New York for the holiday weekend and used Uber's ride sharing option.
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Mexican human traffickers using Uber to shuttle migrants through country, official says
Human traffickers in Mexico are purportedly using Uber to shuttle Central American migrants through the country's northern border with the United States. Early last month, Mexican authorities stopped a caravan of five vehicles carrying 34 Central American migrants between the northern Mexican states of Zacatecas and Coahuila. A Coahuila state official at the National Migration Institute (INM) told Reuters that four of the five vehicles were linked to the popular app-based taxi service, although it is still unclear whether or not the traffickers had hailed the cars themselves.
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Uber driver tweets at senator: 'I can't wait to shoot you'
A Virginia man who threatened on Twitter earlier this month to shoot a senator will remain in police custody until his trial commences. A judge ruled that Kyler Schmitz, a driver for the ride-sharing app Uber, had made a "direct threat" when he tweeted at Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and another unnamed senator earlier this month, according to a published report. The graphic messages prompted an investigation by U.S. Capitol Police, who also discovered Schmitz's cryptic message, "I can't wait to shoot you in the face one by one."
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Here's what happens when your Uber driver gets arrested for drunk driving
When Katie Gallion's Uber driver started swerving across the road's rumble strips only 15 minutes into her ride near Durham, North Carolina, on June 3, she decided to give him a pass. At 10 p.m., it was dark outside and raining hard, she told BuzzFeed News. She didn't know he'd polished off four beers before starting to drive for Uber that night. When the car crossed over a grass median, coming precariously close to the oncoming traffic lane, Gallion began considering her options.
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Commentary: Why I won't use Uber (or Lyft)
I live in Chicago and I won't use Uber or Lyft. Crazy? Here's why I'll remain a holdout and keep using taxis. In part, it's because I can. As a white woman who lives and works north of the Loop, I have far more transportation choices than many other Chicagoans - and I have never felt the sting of being denied a ride because of how I looked or where I needed to go. I appreciate that Uber, Lyft and whatever innovative system comes next are making it easier for people throughout the city to get around - and to earn some quick cash.
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Uber, Lyft could get new overseer in California
Almost two years ago, the California Public Utilities Commission broke new ground when it established rules for upstart ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft. When the two San Francisco companies have battled with regulators nationwide, they've often pointed to the California rules as a model, and many other jurisdictions have followed similar frameworks. Both companies have flourished in California and elsewhere under rules more liberal than those for taxicabs, allowing them to set their own rates, for instance.
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Uber, drivers in battle over the right to opt out of UberPool trips
Uber mistakenly let some drivers in New York opt out of making carpool trips after they asserted their independence from the app as contractors, a company rep confirmed. Drivers who hate taking pickups from UberPool had been writing to the app's support team demanding they no longer get the requests, which the app pushes as a congestion-busting, Earth-friendly way to get a low-cost trip. The drivers argued they are independent contractors who can decide for themselves the types of trips they make.
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Judge holds up Uber settlement with drivers
A federal judge withheld approval of a settlement of $84 million to $100 million for hundreds of thousands of Uber drivers in California and Massachusetts and questioned whether the deal would compensate drivers adequately for the claims they were giving up. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco did not definitively reject the agreement, negotiated by a lawyer for plaintiffs in a class-action suit against the ride-hailing company, and said he might ultimately find it to be fair and reasonable based on further information or changes in some of its terms.
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On the road to a gig economy, litigators take the wheel
Just four years from now, up to 40 percent of American workers will be independent contractors navigating the so-called gig economy, an Intuit Inc. study predicts - and it's going to take a lot of lawyers to realign the rules for a profoundly altered social landscape. Already at issue in California courtrooms and at regulatory agencies are major changes in the state's $28 billion transportation sector, as ride-sharing platforms like Uber and Lyft plus the self-driving vehicle market disrupt today's car culture.
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Lyft hires M&A banker Qatalyst Partners
Ride-hailing startup Lyft Inc. hired Qatalyst Partners LP, the boutique investment bank best known for helping tech companies find a buyer, according to people familiar with the matter. Frank Quattrone, the founder and executive chairman of Qatalyst, has contacted companies including large auto makers about acquiring a stake in Lyft, the people said. It isn't clear whether Lyft is aiming to sell itself or raise new funding.
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Uber will stop showing the surge price that it charges for rides
Nobody likes to be told that they're paying more than the regular price. Uber seems to have gotten the message. Starting on Thursday, consumers who order an Uber ride will no longer see the infamous "surge" rate - the premium Uber charges above its normal rate when demand for rides exceeds the number of drivers available. Instead, Uber will show consumers the total price as soon as they order a ride.
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