Latest Sharing Economy Headlines
All the headlines from our Sharing Economy Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Safety Sharing Economy: Toyota Offers Its Driver Assistance Technology to Competitors
Jan 8 2019 // Toyota Motor Corp. — in an unusual move for the cut-throat car business — has decided to share with rivals an automated safety system that uses self-driving technology to keep cars from crashing. The system,...
Judge Blocks NYC Law Demanding Airbnb Disclosures
Jan 8 2019 // A New York City law forcing Airbnb and HomeAway home-sharing platforms to reveal a “breathtaking” amount of information about their businesses seems unconstitutional, a judge decided Thursday, forcing the law...
How Big Tech Flirted with Insurance in 2018
Jan 2 2019 // The almost weekly headlines about insurers and venture capitalists investing in insurtechs and tech-savvy insurance startups sometimes blocked the view of what established big technology firms were doing in...
Uber Pledges to Fight UK Court Decision that Drivers Should Be Treated as Workers
Dec 27 2018 // Uber pledged [on Dec. 19] to challenge a U.K. Court of Appeal decision that drivers should be classed as workers rather than self-employed employees, a verdict that has potentially wide-ranging implications for the rapidly...
Pennsylvania Says Uber Can Resume Self-Driving Car Testing on Public Roads
Dec 19 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc received approval from Pennsylvania to resume self-driving car testing on public roads this week, state records show, nine months after it suspended the program following a deadly accident in...
Carmakers, Ride-Hail Firms Stress Digital Even As Vehicle Cyber Risks Worsen
Dec 18 2018 // Hopping into an Uber or a Car2Go is a great way to get around. Unfortunately, hackers agree, exploiting weaknesses in apps to go on “phantom rides” with someone else’s profile. From such trips—like a...
A Cautious Uber to Try Self-Driving Vehicles on Roads Again
Dec 17 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc. is plotting the return of its self-driving cars, but the company known for its hard-charging style is taking a much more conservative approach as it tries to recover from a fatal accident that...
Georgia Claims Uber Owes State $22M in Sales Taxes, Other Charges
Dec 10 2018 // Uber could owe tens of millions of dollars to Georgia if the state is successful in a legal battle. The Georgia Department of Revenue has billed Uber $22.1 million for sales taxes and other charges that it maintains are...
Chinese Manufacturer Ninebot’s Dominance Has Startups Sharing Scooter Product Risks
Dec 6 2018 // Scooter-sharing company Lime recently relayed a troubling message to its users: a portion of its fleet was at risk of bursting into flames. The startup recalled about 2,000 vehicles, less than one percent of its scooters,...
A Cautious Uber to Try Self-Driving Vehicles on Roads Again
Dec 6 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc. is plotting the return of its self-driving cars, but the company known for its hard-charging style is taking a much more conservative approach as it tries to recover from a fatal accident that...
Waymo Self-Driving, Fare-Generating Taxis Hit the Road in Arizona
Dec 5 2018 // Alphabet’s Waymo on Wednesday launched a significant development in its costly, decade-long quest for autonomous transportation: self-driving taxis that actually generate fares. With little fanfare, the company has...
The Hartford Acquires Sharing Economy Insurance Specialist Y-Risk
Dec 3 2018 // The Hartford has purchased Y-Risk, a managing general underwriter that specializes in serving sharing and on-demand economy risks, from Allstar Financial Group, an Atlanta-based holding company with multiple specialty...
Insurance Brokers Sharing in the Sharing Economy
Dec 3 2018 // As more and more consumers click for services and borrow rather than buy, the sharing economy is benefitting. According to Harvard Business Review, the sharing or on-demand economy is attracting more than 22.4 million...
British, Dutch Regulators Fine Uber for 2016 Cyber Attack
Nov 30 2018 // British and Dutch regulators on Tuesday [Nov. 27] fined ride-hailing service Uber for failing to protect customers’ personal information during a 2016 cyber attack involving millions of users. Names, mobile phone...
Waymo’s First Driverless Car Service Seen Right Around the Corner
Nov 13 2018 // In just a few weeks, humanity may take its first paid ride into the age of driverless cars. Waymo, the secretive subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is planning to launch the world’s first...
Airbnb Generates $1.1M in Wyoming Taxes, 56k Visitor Stays
Nov 13 2018 // Online hospitality company Airbnb says its hosts generated about $1.1 million in tax revenue during the first year of its agreement with the state of Wyoming. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that Airbnb started...
Airbnb Will No Longer Require Arbitration for Employee Bias and Harassment Claims
Nov 13 2018 // Airbnb Inc., following Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., said it would not force employees who filed sexual harassment claims to settle those cases in private arbitration. Airbnb also...
Uber and Lyft Could Reach 31M Trips in Seattle This Year
Nov 9 2018 // The two ridesharing giants provided more than 91,000 rides in the Seattle, Wash. area on an average day in the second quarter of this year. The Seattle Times reports Uber and Lyft are on pace to provide more than 31...
Uber Asks to Resume Self-Driving Tests in Penn., Improves Vehicle Software
Nov 5 2018 // Uber Technologies Inc has asked Pennsylvania for permission to resume self-driving car testing on public roads and has improved the autonomous vehicle software, the company said on Friday, more than seven months after it...
Winning, Sharing, Trusting, Failing, Losing: 10 Insuretech Connect Takeaways
Nov 5 2018 // Pulling together some loose threads from October’s Insuretech Connect Conference, here are 10 takeaways: Innovation Rap. “I actually feel the industry gets a bad rap in terms of innovation,” Dan Glaser,...
