Tag Archives: Uber
Judge Shreds Uber; Says Company Can’t Prove Riders Are Giving Up Right To Sue
by Chris Morran, Consumerist
With regard to the Uber app, [U.S. District Court Judge Ned] Rakoff notes that there is no requirement for the new user to even check off a box that they read the terms of service; one could easily finalize their registration without reading, or even knowing about, these terms — let alone the restrictive arbitration clause. Read More ›
Uber And Lyft Have Devastated L.A.’s Taxi Industry, City Records Show
by Laura J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times
Since the ride-hailing services began operating in Southern California three years ago, the number of L.A. taxi trips arranged in advance has fallen by 42%, according to city records, and the total number of trips has plummeted by nearly 30%. … The decline mirrors what’s happening across the country. … In San Francisco, the corporate home of both Uber and Lyft, the number of trips taken per taxi dropped by more than two-thirds over a two-year period. Read More ›
Uber Agrees To Settle DA Suits Over Safety Practices
by Jason Doiy, The Recorder
Uber Technologies Inc. will pay up to $25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys’ offices over how it has touted safety measures. … Uber agreed to change the way it describes its driver checks and safety practices and to cooperate with the Division of Measurement Standards to certify that ride charges are accurate and fair. [The complaint claimed] the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company misled consumers by advertising the “safest rides on the road,” coupled with “industry leading background checks.” Read More ›
Lyft Drivers, If Employees, Owed Millions More – Court Documents
by Dan Levine and Heather Somerville, Reuters
Drivers who worked for ride-hailing service Lyft in California during the past four years would have been entitled to an estimated $126 million in expense reimbursements had they been employees rather than contractors, court documents show. … The judge asked for the estimates as part of his oversight of a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by California drivers. … Lyft agreed to settle the class-action lawsuit in January. Under the proposed deal, Lyft would pay $12.25 million, with drivers receiving an average of $56 each after attorneys’ fees and other expenses, documents show. Read More ›
Garcetti Pushes Fingerprint-Based Background Checks For Uber And Lyft Drivers
by Laura J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times
Last year, The Times reported that four Uber drivers ticketed by [Los Angeles] airport police had criminal histories that would have barred them from becoming city taxi drivers. Last year, the top prosecutors for Los Angeles and San Francisco identified 25 Uber drivers with convictions for murder, assault, driving under the influence and other offenses. That information emerged as part of a lawsuit filed by the cities that alleges Uber misled consumers over background checks. Read More ›
Uber Agrees To Settle Class-Action Suit Over Safety Claims
by Mike Isaac, New York TImes
Uber has agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that took issue with the company’s claims that its driver background checks were “industry leading.” The terms of the settlement, filed on Thursday in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California, require Uber to pay roughly 25 million riders across the United States … Uber passengers who used the service in the United States between Jan. 1, 2013, and Jan. 31, 2016, will be notified by email and have the option to accept a refund in the form of a rider credit or a charge back to their credit card on file. Read More ›
State Legislators Call For Drastic Overhaul Of California’s Utility Regulator
by Melanie Mason and Jeff McDonald, Los Angeles Times
Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) said his measure would decentralize the California Public Utilities Commission’s oversight of myriad utilities, including electricity, railroad safety and ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft. … Gatto, chairman of the Assembly’s utilities committee, would give the Legislature two years to divvy up the functions of the commission among other agencies, which Gatto said would result in a more logical assignment of responsibilities. Read More ›
Stolen Uber Accounts Worth More Than Stolen Credit Cards
by Harriet Taylor, CNBC
Uber, PayPal and even Netflix accounts have become much more valuable to criminals, as evidenced by the price these stolen identifiers now fetch on the so-called “deep Web,” according to security company Trend Micro. … A quick search for tweets with the hashtag #uberaccounthacked reveals a number of complaints related to “ghost rides,” in which users claim their Uber accounts have been charged for rides they did not take. These are often in far flung locations across the globe. Read More ›
California Regulators Fine Uber $7.6 Million
by Bryan Goebel, KQED/California Report
California regulators slapped Uber with a $7.6 million fine Thursday, voting unanimously to affirm an administrative judge’s ruling that found the ride service company in contempt for failing to meet reporting requirements. … The detailed information that Uber failed to provide in 2014 had to do with driver safety, access for people with disabilities and how it was serving neighborhoods by zip code. Regulators have said Uber defied the reporting requirements and that the zip code information the company initially submitted was “useless.” Read More ›
In Reversal, Some Drivers Ditching Uber And Lyft For Cabs
by Jon Brooks, KQED
[One taxi driver] drove on the side for both Uber and Lyft for about a year, but stopped around seven or eight months ago. The main reason: the extra cost and “wear and tear” of using his own car to do business. … Customers became angry at the inflated fares they had to pay during a surge pricing period and slammed [the driver’s] car door so hard he had to have his automatic windows repaired. But hadn’t those customers agreed to accept the surge price when they ordered the ride? “[Passengers] are still mad, even though they know in advance,” he said. Read More ›
Google To Make Driverless Cars An Alphabet Company In 2016
by John Lippert, Bloomberg
The race to develop a self-driving vehicle fleet has intensified since February when Bloomberg reported that Google was developing a rival to Uber Technologies Inc., most likely in conjunction with its driverless-car project. Uber is pursuing its own autonomous capabilities, while automakers are deploying semi-autonomous technologies while experimenting with so-called shared mobility. Uber is spending some of the more than $10 billion it has raised in private markets to develop self-driving cars. … Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said Tesla could triple its revenue by 2029 by launching its own on-demand mobility service. Read More ›
Uber Seeks To Head Off Lawsuits With New Binding Driver Agreement
by Carolyn Said, San Francisco Chronicle
One East Bay driver, who asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation from Uber, said he had not immediately understood that he could opt out of the [binding arbitration] provision. “That wasn’t obvious to me,” said that driver, who graduated from UC Berkeley and worked in a professional job for many years. … Retaliation by Uber against drivers for opting out of the arbitration clause or for pursuing First Amendment rights to criticize the company would be illegal, but numerous drivers commenting on social media seemed unaware of this. Read More ›
Uber Drivers Get Big Boost In Lawsuit Against Company
by Carolyn Said, San Francisco Chronicle
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that even drivers who accepted mandatory arbitration in their Uber contract should be included in the [class-action suit], saying that clause was unenforceable. That means the majority of the 160,000 people who have ever driven for Uber in California are now part of the class. … If the drivers win, [their lawyer] has said she’ll next seek a nationwide class-action. … The Uber class-action is the furthest along of a bevy of lawsuits against companies such as Lyft, Postmates, Instacart, Caviar and Handy in which gig workers are seeking the protections and rights of employees. Read More ›