Latest Sharing Economy Headlines
All the headlines from our Sharing Economy Topic Page, ordered by recency.
D&O Insurance Costs Soar as Investors Run to Court Over IPOs
Jun 18 2019 // Companies going public in the United States face insurance costs that have increased as much as 200% in the last three years to cover their executives against lawsuits alleging they misled investors. A rise in securities...
Uber, Lyft Appeal for Deal on Driver Status as Independent Contractors
Jun 14 2019 // Faced with legislation in California that endangers their business model, Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. are urging a compromise that would keep their drivers from being considered employees. “We can make...
Louisiana Senate Passes Statewide Rules for Ride-Hailing Services
Jun 3 2019 // Efforts to enact statewide Louisiana regulations for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, aimed at expanding the services’ availability around the state, won passage Saturday in the Senate, after two years of...
Report Says Many New York City Uber, Lyft Drivers Fail to Respond to Recalls
May 23 2019 // One out of six Uber and Lyft drivers in the New York City and Seattle areas are driving vehicles with outstanding recalls, according to Consumer Reports. But taking a taxi or limousine isn’t necessarily a safer...
‘Phone Becomes Car’ as Ride-Hailing Services Promote Vehicle Sharing Over Ownership
May 23 2019 // Ride-hailing apps like those of Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc. are expected to alter the state of car ownership towards subscription-based services and shared ownership, auto industry experts said at a conference on...
Court Approves San Francisco’s Uber-Nuisance Probe
May 20 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. was ordered to turn over to the city of San Francisco data about how many of its drivers are responsible for illegal parking, traffic congestion and safety hazards. A California appeals court...
National Labor Board Memo Says Uber Drivers Are Contractors, Not Employees
May 15 2019 // Drivers for ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. are independent contractors and not employees, the general counsel of a U.S. labor agency has concluded, in an advisory memo that is likely to carry significant...
South Carolina Passes Ridesharing Safety Bill Prompted by College Student’s Murder
May 13 2019 // Legislators passed a ridesharing safety act that requires those services to display their license plate numbers on the front of their vehicles. The bill requires ridesharing drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft to...
Uber May Rethink Litigation Avoidance Plan as 60,000 Drivers File Arbitration Demands
May 8 2019 // For Uber Technologies Inc., using legal arbitration to deal with driver compensation complaints — over anything from pay to overtime to mileage reimbursement — seemed like the smart play: it would preclude...
Florida Approves Allowing Rideshare Firms to Deploy Autonomous Vehicles
May 7 2019 // Self-driving vehicles could be operated in Florida without a human on board under a bill going to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Senate unanimously passed the bill with no debate May 1, a move that could pave the way...
Declarations
May 6 2019 // Increased Limits “While we wanted to increase the speed limit on our turnpikes and state highways, we also worked to ensure the safety of Oklahoma drivers. … We will use traffic and engineering studies that...
South Carolina Lawmakers Weigh Rideshare Safety Measures
May 2 2019 // South Carolina lawmakers are considering another proposal to improve ridesharing safety. A bill that would create a new misdemeanor crime of impersonating a rideshare driver was approved Tuesday by a House subcommittee....
Oregon Crash Kills Uber Passenger
Apr 23 2019 // Portland, Ore. police say a man driving a stolen pickup truck 100 mph crashed into a sport-utility vehicle, killing an Uber passenger. Police believe the pickup truck driver was under the influence of intoxicants when he...
Murder of South Carolina College Student Prompts Uber Safety Changes
Apr 22 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc. said it was rolling out new safety features to help riders avoid fake rideshare drivers, two weeks after the murder of a college student who got into her killer’s car mistakenly believing it...
Car Sharing Lobbyists Battle Car Renting Lobbyists, Driving State Lawmakers Crazy
Apr 19 2019 // The bill that turned Illinois into the focal point of a bitter debate over car-sharing last year started as a proposal about what happens when a rental car is stolen. The legislation, which would allow rental companies to...
Investors Sue Lyft, Alleging IPO ‘Overhyped’
Apr 18 2019 // Lyft Inc. was sued by investors who claim the ride-sharing company overstated its market position when it went public last month, leading to a dramatic plunge in its stock price. Two separate class-action complaints...
Brake Complaints Cause Lyft to Replace 3,000 Electric Bikes in 3 Cities
Apr 15 2019 // Lyft Inc. is removing several thousand electric bikes from service in its bike-share program in New York, Washington and San Francisco because of a braking problem, the ride-hailing company said on Sunday. “We...
Why Uber ‘Depends Heavily’ on Insurance
Apr 15 2019 // Uber Technologies Inc., on its way to an initial public offering that some media reports say could raise $10 billion, might not be in the position it is in without insurance. “Our business depends heavily on...
Americans Still Don’t Trust Autonomous Vehicles, Reuters Poll Shows
Apr 15 2019 // Half of U.S. adults think automated vehicles are more dangerous than traditional vehicles operated by people, while nearly two-thirds said they would not buy a fully autonomous vehicle, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos...
Sponsor of S.C. Bill Requiring Lighted Uber Signs Say Just First Safety Step
Apr 12 2019 // A lawmaker sponsoring a bill in South Carolina requiring Uber, Lyft and other ride sharing drivers to have a lighted sign said he knows it isn’t a foolproof way to keep riders safe. But Rep. Seth Rose said it is an...
