Uber announces a new feature, a looming crisis for drivers and Waymo gets friendly with Hyundai. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

Uber gives drivers some peace of mind. The Verge reported:

All Uber customers will have their personal information, like their name and phone number, cross-checked against third-party databases to make sure there aren't any potential red flags. In addition, riders can opt to upload their government-issued ID to the Uber app to further verify their identity. Once they are verified, customers will have a special badge attached to their account that will be visible to drivers before they accept trip requests.

Uber began testing rider verification in a number of cities earlier this year and was satisfied with the results: “the majority of riders” in those pilot markets got verified, and those that were “tend to give drivers 5 stars more often,” the company said. “Riders who are verified also get fewer serious complaints from drivers.”

A looming insurance crisis could affect tens of thousands of drivers. The New York Times reported:

The largest insurer of taxis and Ubers in New York City is on the verge of a financial collapse that could force thousands of cars out of service and lead to higher costs for drivers and passengers.

The insurer, American Transit Insurance Company, provides coverage for about 74,000 for-hire vehicles in the city, or more than 60 percent of the available cars, according to city records.

In its latest financial filing, the privately owned company reported that it was insolvent, with more than $700 million in losses from existing and projected claims from past accidents — a huge hole that has been growing for years in part because of questionable financial practices, according to state officials.

That means American Transit does not have enough money in reserve to pay out those claims despite years of collecting premiums on those policies. Instead, the company has managed to continue operating by using money coming in from new premiums to help cover those costs, essentially leaving its current clients underinsured in the event of an accident, state officials said.

Waymo is looking at Hyundai to build its cars. Reuters reported:

Officials at Waymo and Hyundai Motor have met more than three times to discuss a plan to use Hyundai's Ioniq 5 electric vehicles for Waymo's sixth-generation self-driving technology, the report said, adding that the plan includes replacing offerings, opens new tab from China's Zeekr with the Ioniq 5 models.

The report came as President Joe Biden's administration last week locked in steep tariff hikes on Chinese imports, including a 100% duty on electric vehicles, which will take effect on Sept. 27.

Waymo has purchased vehicles from Stellantis (STLAM.MI), opens new tab and Jaguar Land Rover and integrated its technology into the base vehicles to offer autonomous ride-hailing services in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Waymo is also testing its next-generation self-driving car technology using vehicles from Zeekr, the electric car brand of China's Geely Automobile Holdings.

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

Drivers weigh-in on Waymo, dashers time at work and Tesla integrates with Uber. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

Uber drivers give their thoughts on Waymo. The Register adds:

Tim — a pseudonym as he asked not to be identified — expects Waymo, the leading maker of self-driving taxis, to broadly under-cut Uber's human-operated ride-hailing service in the US city at some point in 2025, and feels that will be the beginning of the end.

“To put it bluntly, we are cooked,” said one person posting to a forum for San Francisco Uber drivers, in response to my solicitation for thoughts about Waymo. “We're done for. In the age of artificial intelligence and automation, we're the first to be impacted in a major way.”

Tim argues that Waymo, which began offering rides to the general public in San Francisco in June, will use the same business playbook that Uber used to beat its competitors — spend venture capital to price rivals out of the market.

“The second Waymo trips are less than Uber, which is going to happen in 2025, everyone including myself, will just start taking Waymo,” he said.

Dashers spend less time on the gig than you think. Business Insider reported:

About 7 million people made deliveries for DoorDash last year. But, surprisingly, most of them averaged just a few hours a week on the gig.

Seventy-two percent of DoorDash's gig workers devoted less than four hours a week to making deliveries, according to the company. That figure includes just the time that gig workers spend on a delivery. Including downtime between orders, about 62% of workers spent less than four hours a week working for the app.

DoorDash's workforce of independent contractors also skews young and female. Fifty-five percent of DoorDash's workers, whom the company calls “Dashers,” were between 26 and 44 years old in 2023, according to DoorDash. And 60% said they identified as women.

Many of DoorDash's contractors are using the service to make ends meet — either to cover their mortgage, pay off debt, or have income between jobs — in addition to working a full-time position, a 2023 report from the company found. As of 2022, 44% of DoorDash contractors also had a full-time job.

Tesla integrates with Uber. Electrek adds:

Uber has announced that Tesla drivers using its rideshare app can now send trip navigation automatically to their vehicles.

On top of the navigation, Uber drivers can make the rideshare app aware of their current battery range in order to only send trip request within that range.

Tesla and Uber have also been working together to share data in order to better deploy charging stations in New York City, where there are a lot of Uber drivers using Tesla vehicles.

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

Lyft verifies in Chicago, Tesla goes Hollywood and bikes get dumped. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

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Lyft adds rider verification in Chicago, but is it too late? Chicago Sun Times reported:

Tesla goes Hollywood for its robotaxi reveal. The Verge reported:

Lyft dumps some bikes. Bloomberg reported:

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

A Waymo goes way wrong, Uber tweaks its teens, and feds pounce on “screwber”. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

A robotaxi got a little confused. AZ Family reported:

In a video now going viral on TikTok, two East Valley women caught a self-driving Waymo headed toward them going the wrong way down the street.

The incident happened last week near Rural Road and Apache Boulevard in Tempe — a busy spot, right near the Arizona State campus.

At first, the women thought the Waymo looking confused was funny but then realized the situation was serious. Recent ASU grads Aiselyn Anaya-Hall and Emmie Wuest say they thought they might get into a crash with a Waymo.

“Oh look, a Waymo. Oh look, it's crossing the street. And then oh look, it is pulling into the wrong way,” said Wuest, who was driving her own car when the two witnessed the incident.

The two say they saw a man in the passenger seat of the Waymo car heading into oncoming traffic.

“He couldn't do anything. He just kinda put his hands up. You can't really see it in the video,” said Hall, who took the viral video.

Uber tweaks its teens. Verge reported:

Last year, Uber launched teen accounts in two dozen cities, in which parents and guardians can create accounts for minors aged 13–17. Since then, the list has grown to over 250 cities in all 50 states. Uber says the latest update is in response to feedback from teen users and their families.

Parents and guardians can now hail a ride for their teenager from their own accounts. Previously, rides could only be hailed from the teen customers' accounts. The ride will feature all the same safety features that are available to teens who book their own trips, including notifications when the teenager has started the ride and real-time tracking of the vehicle.

Feds have charged two people in scheme to swindle Uber riders and drivers. AM NY reported:

Federal prosecutors in New York charged two men with orchestrating a long-running scheme to pocket phony “surge charge” fees and defraud Uber, its drivers, and its customers, in part by using an app called “Screwber.”

The FBI arrested Eliahou Paldiel, 52, of Queens, and Carlos Arturo Suarez Palacios, 54, of Brick Township, NJ. Both appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on Aug. 28 for arraignment on charges of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies that could land each of them in jail for 40 years.

The pair are accused of selling hacked smartphones pre-installed with the “Screwber” app to 800 separate Uber drivers, which allowed them to learn a customer's destination and fare ahead of accepting a ride, and thus only accept the most lucrative of fares. The pair sold Screwber for a $600 one-time fee plus a $300 monthly subscription.

Separately, an app called “Fake GPS” allowed the drivers to “spoof” their location, allowing them to accept rides experiencing surge pricing ahead of closer drivers. The app also enabled drivers to pretend they were in an airport ride-hail queue before they had actually arrived and skip the virtual line.

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

Drivers in Kenya defy Uber to survive. NTV reported:

Uber's big spend in Nevada may be just the beginning. Fast Company reported:

Uber hires an ex-Tesla executive to oversee EV. Bloomberg reported:

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

GenZ joins gig work, Uber fights lawsuits, and issues with robotaxis. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

GenZ joins the gig work movement. NBC Miami reported:

According to Bankrate more than 48% of GenZers and 44% of Millennials has a side hustle. Also, parents or guardians of kids younger than 18 are 45% more likely to have a side hustle.

The study shares that the average side hustler makes more than $890 a month in extra income. Those who identify as side hustlers, more than 50% of them have only been making side money for two years or less.

Bankrate says 37% of side hustlers use their income to fund purchases, 36% for regular living expenses, 31% save a portion of their funds, 20% put a down payment on a home and 16% are hoping to make it their only revenue stream.

Uber is looking to stomp out lawsuits. NY Times reported:

The company is seeking to place a measure on Nevada's ballot that would drastically limit the amount of money that lawyers could collect when they brought successful lawsuits. If the measure passes, it will make it less attractive — and in some cases financially impractical — for plaintiffs' lawyers to file such suits.

The initiative is being spearheaded by Nevadans for Fair Recovery, a political action committee created this year by Uber and its lobbyists. The company has put $5 million into the PAC and is its only financial backer, campaign finance records show.

Contingency fees allow lawyers to take on cases without requiring clients to pay anything out of pocket. Lawyers shoulder the costs of bringing the lawsuit in exchange for a cut of any settlement or judgment. Large payments in successful cases help cover the costs of lawsuits that do not yield any money. But businesses have long complained that high contingency fees drive up costs for the public and exist primarily to enrich lawyers.

Uber's CEO sees major issues with Tesla's robotaxi plan. The Street reported:

Khosrowshahi claimed that Tesla's robotaxi plan, which will allow Tesla owners to rent out their vehicles to be used as driverless taxis for a profit, may not get the thumbs up from Tesla owners.

He said that it is “not clear” to him that the average Tesla owner will want to have their car “be ridden in by a complete stranger.”

He also stated that allowing Tesla owners to rent out their cars for taxi services will make it difficult to manage the “peaks and valleys” associated with supply and demand.

“It just so happens that probably the times at which you're going to want your Tesla are probably going to be the same times that ridership is going to be at a peak,” said Khosrowshahi.

Khosrowshahi also revealed during the interview that he is skeptical about society's acceptance of driverless vehicles due to worries about safety, and how people are more accepting of mistakes from human drivers than robots, which can pose a challenge for robotaxis.

The CEO also highlighted that the rideshare industry is “very” different from the business of building vehicles, which Tesla has expertise in, and that a lot can go wrong such as car accidents, passengers getting sick or losing items in cars or wanting to pay in cash.

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

Educating gig workers, Uber goes AV, and Lyft ‘opens a can of whoop ass'. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

EDUCATING GIG WORKERS

One of the biggest issues gig workers face, is educating gig work. Forbes explains:

While self-employment and the gig economy promise freedom and flexibility, they come with significant costs. Given that a majority of Americans cannot answer basic financial literacy questions, that leaves these 5 million Americans left to navigate the landscape of self-employment in the dark.

Because these workers are “independent contractors,” they are not covered by the basic worker protection laws nor do they receive employment-based health insurance, unemployment insurance, retirement benefits, paid sick leave, or workers' compensation when injured on the job.

It's easy to forget that gig workers routinely are forced to work with broken limbs and severe illness in order to put food on the table. A recent study found that one in five gig workers live in a household where someone avoided a doctor or hospital visit because of the cost, while the Economic Policy Institute found that nearly nearly one in five workers went hungry in the last month, thirty percent of gig workers used SNAP to pay for groceries; and nearly a third could not pay all of their monthly utility bills.

UBER GOES BIG ON AV

Uber drives into AV as Tesla is hot on its tail. TechCrunch reported:

Uber said in its second-quarter results statement that the number of trips performed by autonomous vehicles rose 6x from a year earlier — up from what the company didn't say. And, the first thing Uber highlighted in its presentation deck was AVs in a section titled, “Autonomous Vehicle Spotlight.” It detailed how the ride-hail and delivery giant has the right utilization, consumer experience and go-to-market expertise to “drive the greatest value for AV partners.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly described Tesla's future robotaxi network as having a similar business model to Uber and Airbnb, where Tesla owners could add their properly equipped vehicles to the carmaker's own ridesharing app. In places where there aren't enough people to share their cars, Tesla would provide a dedicated fleet of robotaxis.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Tuesday's earnings call that he's confident Uber will be able to “acquire AV content…on a global basis.”

LYFT OPENS A CAN OF WHOOP ASS

Lyft goes big on curbing surge pricing. TechCrunch reported:

Ride-hail giant Lyft will pilot a new feature called Price Lock that will let a rider purchase a monthly subscription “that caps the price for a specific route at a specific time,” according to CEO David Risher.

The feature is designed to address the inconsistencies of surge pricing, particularly for commuters who use the Lyft app every day. It's part of Lyft's broader plan to “open up a can of whoop ass on primetime,” Risher said Wednesday during Lyft's second-quarter earnings call.

Over the past year, Lyft has made a concerted effort to reduce the number of rides impacted by surge pricing. Risher noted that on a quarterly basis, that number declined by 25%, which he said contributes to better conversion rates.

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LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, gig workers, delivery and e-scooter accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.