Mbostic's List: Assignment 2.5

• The aptly named “Sharing Economy Advisory Network” comes as many of its member cities have conducted sting operations and issued citations against companies like Lyft and Uber, which allow users to summon cars with the tap of a smartphone app. These cities say that such firms operate as illegal taxis and should be subject to relevant legislation. Both Lyft and Uber have previously fought and won similar battles in some jurisdictions: California formalized rideshare operations in September 2013.
• Nevertheless, Uber and Lyft are facing numerous lawsuits around the country, brought often by citizens and taxi firms. One by the city of Kansas City, Missouri (a member of the National League of Cities) seeks to halt Lyft’s operations. Houston, Madison, and Pittsburgh are other members of the National League of Cities that have previously clashed with these startups.

• Lyft data show that one person -- identified as an Uber recruiter with 22 Lyft accounts on a single phone number -- ordered and then canceled 300 rides over two weeks this spring. A different Uber recruiter is said to have used 14 accounts to order and cancel 680 Lyft rides.  
• CNN Money says
• All told, according to CNN Money, nearly 5,500 rides were canceled after Uber pledged to “tone down” such tactics, having been caught playing a similar game against a rideshare app called Gett.
• Lyft drivers also say that when these setup callers do actually take the rides they've arranged, it's for short distances during which the rider lobbies Lyft drivers to jump to Uber.
• For its part, Uber accuses Lyft of gaming its commissions and fares to undercut Uber’s rates.
• I don’t mean the kind of behavior for which the Watergate break-in was just the tip of the iceberg, the profoundly vile and possibly criminal forging of material on an official letterhead, the stalking of candidates’ families, investigating Democratic campaign staffers’ lives, stealing confidential files.
• The future of democracy isn’t at stake in fake, anti-competitive and anti-capitalist dial-a-ride shenanigans.
• @pattmlatimes

6 more annotations...

• The disruption Uber brought to the way cities work turns out to look a lot like politics as usual, as full of the crazy and terrible and banal as the rest of the world. While Kalanick might see himself in the middle of a battle with good guys and bad guys, the events of the past few years have made it more and more difficult to pick out heroes and villains.
• Uber and Lyft both appear to follow a pattern in launch after launch. First, they set up operations in a city under a legal theory about how they are allowed to operate under that place's current rules. In the US, at least, regulators often disagree. As Uber and Lyft continue to operate, they build a user base. If regulators haven't cleared the company's drivers to work—and that has often been the case—then fines start to pile up for drivers and possibly even the companies themselves. At about the same time, the companies start sending representatives and lobbyists to meet with regulators. Eventually, lawmakers pass new rules that make room for companies like Uber and Lyft to operate legally.
• Uber has said that UberX drivers are backed by commercial insurance while carrying passengers, but that 2014 New Year's Eve incident has motivated new California legislation that would raise insurance requirements for drivers even when between fares.

1 more annotation...