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Uber clashes with London mayor over cap on minicab numbers
While the city's black cab drivers wait for the High Court to decide whether Uber's operation in London is legal, they may soon be given a helping hand by mayor Boris Johnson. The Financial Times reports that the recently-elected MP has backed proposals limit the number of minicabs operating in the capital, effectively blocking Uber's expansion plans. The private taxi company isn't prepared to take it lying down, though, and has already sought to meet with the mayor to discuss the issue. In a letter seen by the newspaper, Uber UK head Jo Bertram argued that action would result in "higher prices" and negatively affect Londoners' ability to move around the capital.
Uber and Live Nation handle your concert transportation this summer
Summer music festivals are just around the corner, and the warmer temperatures offer a good chance to catch an outdoor show at your local venue. Uber's well aware that many music fans plan on doing one of the two, so it's teaming up with Live Nation to make the drive one less thing you have to worry about. The ride-hailing app will help you plan transportation to festivals like Sasquatch! and EDC Las Vegas so you don't miss the artists you want to see most. When the concert you're attending is put on by Live Nation, not only is hailing a ride is easy, but the driver will automatically receive the venue's address from the ticketing app. As you might expect, not every festival, concert hall and amphitheater is in on the offer, so you'll want to consult the full list via the source link below. [Image credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images]
Flywheel wants you to skip the wait for app-friendly taxis
As convenient as ridesharing and app-based taxi services can be, you still have to wait for your lift to show up. Wouldn't it be nice to hop into the first available taxi and then pay through an app? Flywheel is trying just that. Its new Pay by Flywheel service lets you hail a taxi and pay after you're on your way -- the app uses your phone's motion sensors to tell when you're in mid-ride. It's theoretically just as speedy as flagging down a conventional taxi, but saves you the hassle of fumbling with your wallet at the very end. The option is available today in every Flywheel area, including the just-added city of Portland.
Uber complies with German taxi rules to end court ordered ban
Uber has announced operational changes in response to German courts banning its service twice in less than a year. According to a Reuters report, Uber will amend its UberPOP program (the European version of UberX) to charge 35 cents per kilometer. This matches what local taxi services charge in both Frankfurt and Munich. The company had already implemented that pricing scheme in Berlin, Duesseldorf and Hamburg. Uber bemoaned the court's ruling, calling it "a defeat for all those who want more choice for their personal mobility," but complied with the order to avoid a $266,000 fine. The company will continue to operate licensed limos and taxis throughout Germany while it reportedly works on a legal ridesharing alternative that complies with the country's laws.
Uber launches in Newcastle, its sixth UK city
Uber is slowly but surely making inroads in Britain. Today, the company is launching its low-cost UberX service in Newcastle, allowing passengers to request a Toyota Prius (or a similarly specced vehicle) to get around town. It's the sixth UK city for Uber, following London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Wakefield. Only a week ago the company launched its premium UberExec service in Manchester and Leeds, but we wouldn't be surprised if a similar expansion was already being prepared for "the Toon." Where will Uber strike next? If its online job listings are anything to go by, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Now that the company has a foothold in England, it seems Scotland is next on its hit-list.
Maaxi lets you share a taxi across London with up to five strangers
Uber is still pushing for world domination, but in London regular black cabs are still one of the most popular ways to get around town. Ride-sharing is also on the rise, but Uber is yet to launch either UberPool or UberPop in Britain. Spotting a gap in the market, newcomer Maaxi is launching a similar offering with the aid of regular black cabs. The app lets you book individual seats, which means you can share your journey with up to five people in order to cut down your fare. Maaxi says, at least to begin with, it'll be focusing on journeys that follow public transport routes. Drivers will deviate for specific pick-ups and drop-offs, but the idea is to focus on the areas of London with the highest demand from passengers. After all, this kind of service will likely thrive or die based on the number of people using it -- if you find yourself travelling solo for most journeys, the app's key selling point is moot.
Uber will pay for taxi licenses to keep operating in Germany
Uber is only willing to bend German law so far, it seems. The ridesharing outfit tells Wirtschafts Woche that it'll get around a court-ordered ban on its unlicensed services (such as UberX) by creating a new service that both pays for the drivers' taxi licenses and registers them as companies. While it's not clear whether this paperwork will lead to higher prices, the new tier is expected to keep the UberX name and should be ready to roll by the summer. It's hard to imagine the conventional taxi industry being especially happy with this workaround, but it may not have much say in the matter if all of Uber's services are legal. [Image credit: Adam Berry/Getty Images]
Lyft's answer to rideshare safety is befriending your driver
While Uber is doing its best to make sure passengers feel safe with its drivers, Lyft just wants us all to be friends. Next week a new "Lyft profiles" feature is coming to the app that the company hopes will "humanize" the "ride experience," sparking conversations and connecting passengers and drivers in more meaningful ways.
Uber cars now outnumber yellow cabs in New York City
You may see yellow taxis as virtually synonymous with New York City transportation, but you might have to reconsider that image before too long. New Taxi and Limousine Commission data shows that Uber cars now outnumber cabs on NYC streets, with 14,088 black and luxury vehicles versus 13,587 taxis. It's not hard to see why the ridesharing service has grown so quickly since its arrival in 2011, mind you. Uber drivers can earn much more in the right circumstances, and they don't have to worry about fixed schedules, complicated licensing or cheapskates who don't pay. This milestone probably won't thrill city officials, who are worried that Uber is both depriving them of tax revenue (since drivers don't need medallion licenses) and playing fast and loose with regulations. However, it's doubtful that there's any going back now -- Uber is huge enough in New York that commuters would notice if it went away. [Image credit: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images]
China's biggest taxi-hailing services join forces against Uber
Uber is going to have an even tougher time making it big in China now that the country's two largest taxi-hailing services, Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache, are joining forces. According to state-run publication Xinhua, the two companies have marged into a single powerful entity that's worth around $6 billion, though they will continue operating as separate brands. These two used to be bitter rivals, but they must have decided it's bad form to continue fighting when Uber, with its deep pockets (the San Francisco company is valued at $40 billion), wants a bigger presence in the country. Combined, the two apps are used by 95 percent of all taxi-hailing customers China, or around 150 million people in all. While it's true that Uber recently got a $600 million investment from Chinese search engine Baidu, Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache are backed by Alibaba and Tencent, which are both powerful companies in the region, as well.
Uber goes live in Birmingham, its fourth UK city
While there's tonnes of competition between app-based private hire services in the US, if you want to move about UK cities, you'll find the market is largely dominated by local taxi firms. Uber and Hailo are both intent on disrupting the space, though, and are slowly widening their presence. Today, Uber's taken another step forward with its UK expansion, announcing that it's now ready to accept fares in Birmingham. That takes the company's city count up to four, with the Midlands city joining London, Manchester and Leeds. Currently, Uber's footprint in Birmingham is quite small, meaning customers might have to wait for a car. However, with its driver loyalty program now fully operational, the company can offer new drivers more incentives than its traditional taxi counterparts.
Uber and Google to duke it out over self-driving taxis
It's no secret that Mountain View and Uber are friends, what with Google Ventures investing $258 million into the ride-sharing service in 2013. But if both companies really are developing their own ride-sharing services that use driverless cars, as some publications are saying, then these friends will turn into rivals in the future. Now, Uber might be years behind Google when it comes to autonomous cars, but TechCrunch says the company's teaming up with Carnegie Mellon scientists to develop its own technology. While the ride-sharing service didn't go into detail when it announced the partnership earlier, TC reports Uber is building a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh, PA for the newly hired lead engineers, scientists and commercialization experts.
Flywheel has an answer to Uber's NYE surge pricing: $10 rides
Getting to and from your New Year's shindig can be an expensive hassle, even if you're not driving: you're either competing for a conventional (and thus costly) taxi or bracing yourself for the surge pricing of ridesharing services like Uber. Flywheel may have a relatively cheap solution for that night on the town, though. The app-based taxi service is running a promotion that charges you a flat $10 to get to or from your New Year's party in Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco or Seattle. The only stipulations for this low fare are that you travel between 8PM and 3AM, and that your ride wouldn't normally cost more than $50. You may not get from one end of the city to the other on the cheap, then, but the deal could save you from starting 2015 with a gigantic credit card bill.
Singapore tests self-driving cars you use like taxis
One of the greatest allures of self-driving cars is the prospect of never needing your own vehicle -- you could just catch robotic rides whenever you want personal transportation. Well, Singapore is about to explore how well that concept works in practice. The city (with MIT's help) is opening up one of its neighborhoods to autonomous cars next year to see how well they could eliminate traffic congestion. Ideally, you'll use these driverless vehicles like short-range taxis or Uber cars: hail one whenever you need to get to the airport or train station and keep another privately-owned car off the road. That's particularly helpful in Singapore, where the extreme population density (19,725 people per square mile) has led to strong government incentives for using mass transit.
Uber responds half-heartedly to Senator Franken's privacy questions
Uber has at last responded to Senator Al Franken's questions about its controversial vehicle tracking and privacy policies... and if you were hoping for clear answers, you'll be disappointed. The ridesharing outfit's letter mostly reiterates the company's practices and its top-level responses to recent privacy incidents involving journalists. To start, the firm says it collects only basic info (like trip histories) from customers, and that its "God View" ride tracking is "essential" for both balancing car distribution as well as verifying passengers' complaints about fraud or safety. These shed some extra light on the subject, although they mostly echo data privacy policies that were already public.
Chicago's getting its own Uber-like app for ordering taxis
It's basically impossible to ignore the impact that the likes of Uber and Lyft have had on the taxicab industry, and Chicago's given up trying. The city government has approved a package from the local cab-drivers union that, among other things, pushes for unified mobile dispatching apps. As proposed, it'd work a lot like the aforementioned ride-sharing services and, compared to apps like Hailo, this would link potential customers to all of the city's 7,000 taxis instead of just a handful here or there. Additionally, the Taxi Driver Fairness Reforms package would make it easier for cabbies to compete financially as well. Lease rates would drop for fuel-efficient vehicles, saving drivers, as the city notes (PDF), between 15 and 25 percent on electric, hybrid or compressed natural gas vehicle payments over three years.
Ridesharing apps are erasing the value of taxi services
It's no surprise that ridesharing outfits like Lyft and Uber are disrupting the taxi business through lower pricing and technological advantages. However, it's now clear that these app-based upstarts are also hitting taxis where it really hurts: the value of owning a taxi service. A New York Times analysis reveals that the prices of medallions, which are necessary to operate taxi fleets in numerous US cities, have plunged sharply in the past year. In Boston, Chicago and New York City, the price of a medallion has fallen between 17 to 20 percent. Ridesharing is affecting how often cities and owners can sell medallions, too. Philadelphia is cutting prices just to sell these items at all, and half of New York's recent sales (a mere 10) were foreclosures -- the former owners just couldn't afford to stay involved.
Uber launches in Leeds, its third UK city
Uber's UK footprint might be small, but it's already come in for some heavy criticism, especially in London. As competitors ready new services in an attempt to leverage more custom, Uber has decided its ready to expand beyond London and Manchester by heading to Yorkshire, or more specifically, Leeds. As of now, city residents will be able to pull out their smartphone to hail an UberX ride (the company's lowest-priced service) to move about the city. Hailo already operates in the area, but only offers traditional taxi pickups, giving Uber the opportunity to steal a march its rivals with its popular private hire service.
Hailo's app now lets you pay for cabs you've flagged on the street
Hailo reported just last week it was pulling out of North America, where it could no longer effectively compete against its rivals. On this side of the pond, however, Hailo's kicking off its third birthday celebrations with the announcement of more positive news. Firstly, the app-fueled cab-hailing service has just launched in Leeds and Liverpool, meaning it's now available in four UK cities -- Hailo started out in London several years ago, before taking a road trip to Manchester earlier this year. Hailo's Android and iOS app has been updated, too, or rather, completely rebuilt. It doesn't look all that different, but has a slightly cleaner, flatter interface. Debuted in Ireland last month, a new feature called "Pay with Hailo" is now live in London as well. While you've always been able to pay for Hailo-flagged cabs through the app, this new feature lets you do the same with a taxi you've hailed on the street (for a 50p surcharge), assuming that driver is registered with Hailo themselves. Under certain circumstances, iPhone users will also be notified when they can use this method of payment as they jump in a cab.
Uber brings its larger-car option to London and Manchester
We haven't heard much out of Uber since it reduced the price of trips across London in its standard vehicles a few months ago. Today, the disruptive taxi service is back on our radar with the announcement of a new fleet of vehicles intended to serve bigger parties, and those who must bring at least five suitcases on their week-long holidays. Through the new uberXL tier (which debuted in San Francisco earlier this year), Londoners can hail a six-seater motor, while Mancunians can expect an eight-seater to turn up, though Uber warns "availability may initially be limited." As you'd expect, they're a little more expensive than standard uberX vehicles at £2.15 per mile, with minimum fares of £7 in London and £5 in Manchester. If you've got seven mates to split the fare with, though, it'll still work out much cheaper than getting two separate cars. Result.
