Uber

Ride-sharing giant Uber is reportedly attempting to strike a deal with government transit agencies to replace certain elements of public transport in major cities around the world.

Ride-sharing giant Uber has lost its final appeal in a long UK legal battle over whether its drivers are self-employed contractors or legally-recognized workers. The ruling draws an end to a five-year-long legal fight and is a major setback for Uber that could affect all gig workers in the United Kingdom.

Uber has remained silent after John Sullivan, who the company showcased in an advertisement, was arrested and charged in connection to the Capitol Hill riot on January 6.

President-Elect Joe Biden’s nominee to head the State Department, Antony Blinken, formerly advised the nation’s largest tech conglomerates and Wall Street firms, financial disclosure reports find. 

A California judge ruled this week that the ridesharing service Uber must pay a $59.1 million fine for repeatedly refusing to turn over data related to its 2019 sexual assault report to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Uber issued a report last December which revealed that it had received 3,045 reports of sexual assault in the U.S. in 2018, an average of more than eight per day.

Ridesharing giant Uber has reportedly shut down its self-driving car business, selling its Advanced Technologies Group division to self-driving startup Aurora.

The UK government has formally announced it will ban the sale of combustion-engine vehicles by the year 2030 as part of its “Green Industrial Revolution.”

Ride-sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft are expected to prevail as California counts votes on Proposition 22, a ballot measure supporting the gig economy that exempts drivers for app-based transportation and delivery companies from being classed as employees.

A recently filed lawsuit accuses Uber of discriminating against minority drivers through its rating system. A former driver claims that he was unfairly terminated after his “star rating” dropped below a certain threshold after negative reviews from riders.

Uber drivers are reportedly suing the ride-sharing firm for allegedly pressuring them to support Prop 22, a ballot initiative to make gig workers independent contractors instead of employees as mandated by a recent state law. 

In a recent article, Uber software engineer Kurt Nelson explained why he would be voting against California Prop 22 despite being employed by the company pushing it. Prop 22 seeks to classify gig economy drivers as independent contractors, a cause Uber has spent many millions of dollars supporting. It would in effect reverse the recently passed AB 5 law that forces gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees instead of contractors.

This week, Seattle’s city council passed an ordinance that will require Uber and Lyft to pay their drivers a minimum hourly wage of $16. Lyft has already pushed back at the new policy, claiming that it may force them to lay off 4,000 drivers in Seattle alone.

A recent report from the Information details internal turmoil at Uber surrounding the company’s $2.5 billion investment in self-driving cars, which has yet to produce any usable products.

Tim Cook stated in a recent tweet that the Masters of the Universe at Apple stands with NBA players who recently boycotted a number of games in protest of the recent shooting of Jacob Blake. Apple supports “those who refuse to accept the status quo” because “we must do better.”

Federal prosecutors have reportedly charged former Uber Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan with covering up a massive 2016 data breach by paying hackers $100,000. The personal data of 57 million Uber passengers and drivers was stolen in the breach.

Uber and Lyft narrowly avoided shutting down their California rideshare services late Thursday after an appeals court granted the companies a last-minute extension in their legal battle against the state over a new law that requires them to reclassify their gig economy drivers as employees.

Uber could shut down services in California as early as Friday as the ridesharing company continues to fight the state over a new law that requires its gig economy drivers to be re-classified as employees. The threat of a stoppage comes after Uber posted a whopping $1.8 billion loss during the second quarter as the Chinese coronavirus pandemic continues to take a financial toll on the company.

Uber claims it may have to temporarily shut down in California after a judge ruled earlier this week that Uber and Lyft must classify their gig drivers as employees.

Uber is handing over contact tracing data to public health authorities to assist in tracking down people suspected of coming in contact with someone who has the Chinese virus, according to a report from Reuters.

Some Lyft drivers are reportedly upset that the ridesharing company is making them purchase their own personal protective gear in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the company ought to provide PPE for free.

Ridesharing giant Uber is reportedly set to purchase the fourth-largest food delivery service, Postmates, for $2.65 billion in stock. Postmates is a direct competitor for Uber Eats, the Silicon Valley company’s food delivery subsidiary.

According to a recent study analyzing the pricing algorithms of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, prices for rides to or from non-white areas are higher, leading to accusations of racial bias.

Uber Eats is offering free delivery from black-owned restaurants for the rest of the year as part of the company’s response to the #BlackLivesMatter protests that have engulfed major cities during the past seven days. But questions about the promotion’s legality have arisen, with some experts saying that it violates civil rights laws.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s pay package has come under fire from a group of shareholders who are questioning why his sign-on deal potentially entitles him to $100 million while employees are facing layoffs in the wake of the Chinese virus pandemic.

Ride-sharing giant Uber has announced that it will be laying off 3,700 employees, or around 14 percent of its workforce, due to the drop in its business suffered during the Chinese virus pandemic.

In days past, if you were risking your life for low pay, that likely meant you were a soldier. The upside: survival skills, high status, a free college degree, and good benefits. These days, though, you can risk your life for low pay and get none of those benefits, as a member of the pandemic “Gig Economy.”

Rideshare company Lyft said it is laying off 982 employees, or 17 percent of its workforce, and is furloughing hundreds more due to financial pressure from the Chinese virus pandemic.

An Uber driver in Memphis, Tennessee, recently made it her mission to help feed healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

A recent report from AP News investigates how the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has forced Silicon Valley’s most popular companies, including Airbnb, to face a number of harsh truths.

In a surprising turn of events, it seems that online meal delivery services are having a hard time dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Analysts at Deutsche Bank commented, “Whilst the COVID-19 outbreak could intuitively be seen as beneficial to online food delivery players, with millions of people under lockdown, we conclude that this is not the case.”