Uber - Page 12

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.

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.

“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.

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.

The all-Republican Board of Supervisors of Orange County in California is poised next Tuesday to adopt one of the nation’s most aggressive and enlightened policies to open the doors for all passengers flying in and out of John Wayne International Airport to be able to arrive and leave the airport easily via ride-sharing companies such as Uber, Lyft and Sidekick.

Uber, the ride-sharing service that lets customers summon transportation using a smartphone application, has announced it will make good on its threat to cease doing business in San Antonio, Breitbart Texas has learned. The San Antonio City Council passed a new ordinance last December in a 7-2 vote, to be effective on March 1, and Uber says that if the ordinance is allowed to go into effect, they will leave the city.

The Chicago Police Department arrested 30-year-old driver Uber driver Maxime Fohounhedo and charged him with one count of criminal sexual assault and one count of criminal sexual abuse for allegedly assaulting a 22-year-old woman in his apartment on November 16.

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said when he forced a weekend vote on President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration he was “not trying to play the Washington rules,” but instead

11.35 AM UPDATE by Jordan Schachtel: Channel 7 Australia reports gunman, one hostage killed in exchange that ended the siege: Seven News has been told that the two dead are the gunman and a hostage. The hostage killed by the

AUSTIN, Texas — The San Antonio City Council is considering regulations that may force ride-sharing company Uber to cease its operations in the city, according to a letter Uber emailed to the City Council on Sunday. According to a report

The number of taxi rapes and sexual assaults–in which largely immigrant, mainly Muslim drivers have raped or sexually harassed infidel girls and women, have been on the rise in Europe, particularly in England, Sweden, and Germany.     But there have been similar taxi rapes and/or sexual

Delhi’s government on Monday banned Uber from operating in the Indian capital after a passenger accused one of its drivers of rape, dealing a fresh blow to the online taxi company’s public image. The popular but controversial service has come

The Uber ride-sharing app suffered its first U.S. state-wide ban last week when a Washoe County, Nevada court made a preliminary ruling that the company operates “in all ways” like a taxi business. Uber suspended all operations in Nevada and

“Events in the course of the war have today taken a turn not necessarily to the advantage of the Empire of Japan.” In those uber-euphemistic words, couched in court Japanese to soften their brutal meaning, Emperor Hirohito broadcast to his

AUSTIN, Texas — The Lone Star State has a well-deserved reputation for being business-friendly, but when it comes to regulating ride-sharing services — the alternatives to traditional transportation options like taxis and shuttles — Texas cities get only mediocre grades.

Some people call it “renewable energy” but I prefer to call it “alternative energy” because that’s what it really is: an alternative to energy that actually works (eg nuclear and anything made from wonderful, energy-rich fossil fuel.) Now a pair

The fallout is still mounting over the November 17 BuzzFeed piece alleging that an executive of Uber said that his company should do opposition research on recalcitrant journalists and release their personal information to the public. But now the scrutiny

Fancy predicting the future under an Ed Miliband administration? Well, look no further than Labour-run Camden Council at present. Proudly serving their 229,000 constituents (or just 56 of them, as we shall read later) since gaining control of the Town

On Monday night, Ben Smith’s BuzzFeed ran a lengthy hit piece against car service Uber. Smith smacked around senior Uber executive Emil Michael for supposedly claiming seriously that Uber would monitor the private lives of journalists: A senior executive at

A few days ago, BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith had a big scoop revealing that a senior Uber executive thought it would be a good idea to do opposition research on journalists and expose their private information to the public. But it