Latest Sharing Economy Headlines
All the headlines from our Sharing Economy Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Uber Tells Judge Not to Trust Cab Companies in Battle Over Safety
May 13 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc. fired back at taxi operators accusing it of lying about superior safety, telling a judge the cab companies “fabricated” a customer endorsement with a photo of MySpace’s co-founder...
Lyft Raises Offer to Drivers to $27M in Contractors V. Employees Suit
May 12 2016 // Lyft Inc. raised its proposed payout to 163,000 California drivers to $27 million in their lawsuit to be treated as employees rather than contractors. The revised settlement comes after a San Francisco federal judge...
Uber, Lyft Suspend Service in Texas Capital Because of Background Checks
May 11 2016 // Uber and Lyft have suspended ridesharing service in Austin, Texas after voters decided against overturning city requirements that include fingerprint-based background checks for their drivers. Nearly 56 percent of voters...
Background Checks For Uber, Lyft Drivers Established in Iowa
May 11 2016 // Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has signed a bill into law that creates new statewide rules for ridesharing companies such as Uber and Uber to do business in Iowa. Branstad signed the bill this week following approval this...
Uber to Start Guild for 35K Drivers in New York City
May 11 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to start a guild for 35,000 drivers in New York that will help them negotiate with the ride-hailing company, though the group will have less power to resolve disputes than a full-fledged...
Voters in Texas Capital Keep Fingerprinting for Rideshare Drivers
May 10 2016 // Fingerprinting drivers for ride-hailing companies must continue in Texas’ capital city after voters rejected a $9 million campaign by Uber and Lyft to overturn the safety measure. Both Uber and Lyft threatened to...
Uber Drivers’ Unpaid Mileage Expenses Total $730 Million, Lawyers Claim
May 9 2016 // Drivers who worked for ride-hailing service Uber in California and Massachusetts over the past seven years would have been entitled to an estimated $730 million in expense reimbursements had they been employees rather than...
Pennsylvania Officials: $11M Fine Against Uber Could Stunt Tech Growth
May 9 2016 // Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh-area officials want the state’s regulators to greatly reduce their record-setting $11.4 million fine against ride-sharing company Uber. The Public Utility Commission fined...
New Orleans Uber Drivers Let Riders Hail Illegally on Street, Say Cabbies
May 6 2016 // New Orleans taxi drivers say competitors with ridesharing service Uber illegally let passengers hail them on the street. In papers filed this week in Orleans Parish Civil District Court,The Times-Picayune reported that 26...
Judge Rejects Uber’s Independent Contractors Claim in Sex Attacks Suit
May 5 2016 // Uber Technologies Inc.’s denial of responsibility for sexual assaults by drivers failed to derail a lawsuit brought by two women who say they were attacked last year. A San Francisco federal judge on Wednesday...
Uber Settles with Blind Riders over Service Animals
May 2 2016 // Uber and advocates for the blind have reached a lawsuit settlement in which the ridesharing company agrees to require that existing and new drivers confirm they understand their legal obligations to transport riders with...
French Startup Drivy (‘Airbnb for Cars’) Raises $35M to Expand; Insured by Allianz
Apr 28 2016 // Drivy, a French startup that lets people hire out their cars in much the same way Airbnb runs a market for houses, said Thursday it raised 31 million euros ($35 million) to fund its continued expansion across...
Uber’s $100M Class Action Settlement Falls Short for Some Drivers
Apr 28 2016 // Uber’s proposed settlement of a high-profile class-action lawsuit last week has drawn opposition from some drivers and other concerned parties as the ride-hailing service seeks to avoid reclassifying drivers as...
Port Authority of N.Y.-N.J. Could Block $10M Newark-Uber Deal
Apr 26 2016 // A tentative deal between Newark, New Jersey, and ride-hailing company Uber has hit a roadblock. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International Airport, is raising concerns about...
Who Wins, Loses In a Driverless Car Economy?
Apr 26 2016 // The automotive and tech companies pursuing the driverless car share a utopian belief: Autonomous vehicles will benefit society, eventually saving most of the nearly 33,000 people each year killed in road accidents in...
Uber Hit With $11M Fine in Pennsylvania
Apr 25 2016 // Pennsylvania regulators fined Uber $11.4 million on April 21 — a record for the utility commission — for operating for six months in 2014 without the required approval. The company said it would appeal. The...
California Public Utilities Commission Oks New Ridesharing Regulations
Apr 25 2016 // The California Public Utilities Commission has approved new regulations for ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft, including where identifying logos should go and stricter vehicle inspections. The San Francisco Examiner...
Hawaii Teenager Says Uber Driver Sexually Assaulted Her
Apr 25 2016 // A man who worked as an Uber driver is charged in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old passenger in Hawaii. Uber deactivated the driver, who was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of...
California Uber and Lyft Car Rental Decision Delayed
Apr 25 2016 // The first major product of General Motors Co.’s $500 million investment in Lyft Inc. was a short-term car-rental program. Last month, the companies began leasing Chevrolets in Chicago for up to eight weeks as part of...
4 More Upstate New York Mayors Join Call to Let Uber Expand
Apr 22 2016 // The mayors of four cities in upstate New York have joined an effort to allow Uber to expand outside of New York City. Mayors in Ithaca, Utica, Rome and Hornell on Thursday endorsed a proposal before the state Legislature...
