Uber - The Verge

Uber adds another way to compliment drivers without actually tipping them

by @andyjayhawk Nov 21, 2016, 3:24pm EST

Uber is rolling out a new feature today that allows riders to send compliments to drivers beyond leaving them a 5-star rating, according to Wired. Of course, most people would reward excellent service by tipping a few extra bucks. But Uber is...

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Uber

Uber made a restaurant guide based on riders' trip data

by @nattgarun Nov 17, 2016, 1:42pm EST

If big data dining sounds like your cup of tea, then Uber’s new restaurant guide might be right up your alley. Instead of relying on user-submitted reviews like on Yelp or one critic’s assessment from The New York Times, Uber is hoping to use its...

Uber driver charged with raping unconscious teenage passenger

by @amartoo Nov 11, 2016, 4:58am EST

An Uber driver in California has been arrested for allegedly raping an unconscious teenage girl, the Orange County district attorney's office announced this week. The suspect, Samer Alaaeldin Mahran, was charged with four felony sexual assault...

Don't vote against mass transit just because Uber is so cheap

by @andyjayhawk Nov 8, 2016, 5:02pm EST

It’s Election Day, and there are dozens of ballot proposals across the country that could potentially raise up to $200 billion for public transportation. But some opponents are using the rising popularity of ride-sharing services like Uber and...

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Lyft will give you a 45 percent discount for one ride on Election Day

by Chris Welch Nov 4, 2016, 3:08pm EDT

This coming Tuesday, Lyft will offer a 45 percent discount on one ride between 7AM and 8PM in 20 markets. The promotion will make it slightly cheaper to reach your local polling place if you’ve got no other way of getting there besides hailing a...

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Uber sued by San Francisco’s oldest cab company for ‘predatory practices’

by @andyjayhawk Nov 2, 2016, 3:18pm EDT

Uber was sued in federal court Wednesday by Desoto, the oldest cab company in San Francisco that recently rebranded itself as a ride-hail company called Flywheel. In it’s complaint, Flywheel alleges that Uber used “predatory pricing tactics” to...

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Uber just streamlined the hell out of its app

by Andrew J . Hawkins Nov 2, 2016, 12:00pm EDT

Uber is rolling out a major redesign of its app today — the most significant update since 2012. The changes, which are only for users and not drivers, are supposed to offer a much cleaner interface, less confusion around which service to request,...

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From Recode

Uber is partnering with GM’s mobility arm on a car rental program for drivers

by Recode Staff Nov 1, 2016, 4:44pm EDT

Uber is partnering with General Motors’ car-sharing service, called Maven, for a 90-day car rental pilot program, the companies announced on Tuesday. Through Maven, Uber drivers in San Francisco will be able to rent a GM vehicle that qualifies to...

Uber and Lyft can be just as bad as taxis when it comes to racial discrimination

by @andyjayhawk Oct 31, 2016, 2:11pm EDT

A new study reveals that African-American passengers who use smartphone apps to summon a ride had higher wait times or a higher rate of cancellation than non-African-American customers, according to Bloomberg. Also, female passengers were taken on...

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Uber loses right to classify drivers as freelance in the UK

by @andyjayhawk Oct 28, 2016, 10:34am EDT

A panel of employment tribunal judges in the UK ruled that Uber drivers should not be considered freelance, but instead should be paid a living wage, according to The Guardian. The ruling is a blow to the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company,...

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Surge pricing is coming to UberEats in select cities

by @andyjayhawk Oct 27, 2016, 12:06pm EDT

UberEats, the ride-hailing giant’s standalone food delivery service, is about to get more expensive for some customers. Uber announced Thursday that it would begin applying extra charges to some food deliveries in times of high demand when...

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Of course Uber is working on a flying car project

by Ben Popper Oct 27, 2016, 11:09am EDT

Uber just published a massive white paper detailing its plan to launch an “on demand aviation” service called Uber Elevate. Yes, that’s right. Uber is working on a flying car project. We should have seen this coming. The ambitious project, which...

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Elon Musk makes cryptic comments about Tesla competing with Uber

by @andyjayhawk Oct 26, 2016, 6:57pm EDT

Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested Wednesday that he can create a car-sharing network that’s so good, customers will abandon Uber and other ride-sharing companies in droves to adopt it. During an earnings call Wednesday, Musk was asked to explain...

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Uber’s new self-driving Volvo SUVs have been spotted in Pittsburgh

by @andyjayhawk Oct 25, 2016, 12:24pm EDT

One of Uber’s self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs has been spotted out in the wild. A tipster in Pittsburgh sent us this image, as well as the video below, that confirms that Uber is in the process of testing out the newest member of its self-driving...

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Uber’s self-driving truck company just completed its first shipment: 50,000 cans of Budweiser

by @andyjayhawk Oct 25, 2016, 6:00am EDT

In the early morning hours of October 20th, an 18-wheeler tractor trailer pulled into Colorado Springs, Colorado, bearing 50,000 frosty cans of Budweiser beer. Normally, this would not be a noteworthy occurrence, but this truck was driving itself,...

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Tesla won’t let you use your self-driving Model X to drive for Uber

by @andyjayhawk Oct 20, 2016, 2:38pm EDT

Last night, Tesla announced that all of its vehicles going forward will (eventually) have full self-driving capabilities. But buried in the fine print is a warning to customers who may be seeing dollar signs in Tesla’s new driverless upgrades...

Uber CEO says self-driving cars won't replace human drivers in the near term

by @nickstatt Oct 19, 2016, 9:22pm EDT

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says his company’s efforts to automate vehicles is an "existential" decision to be able to survive the next big shift in transportation. Yet when speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco this...

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Uber drivers in London will have to pass an English exam

by @amartoo Oct 18, 2016, 7:45am EDT

Uber drivers in London will have to pass an English language proficiency exam to obtain a license, under new rules announced by Transport for London (TfL), the city's transportation agency. Unlike an earlier proposal, which would have applied to...

Uber used drones to advertise carpooling to drivers stuck in traffic in Mexico

by @andyjayhawk Oct 17, 2016, 5:08pm EDT

A few months ago, drivers stuck in Mexico City traffic were greeted with a strange sight: drones carrying signs advertising UberPool. “The city would be for you, not 5.5 million cars,” one drone’s sign read. “Driving by yourself? This is why you...

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Didi, the ride-hail company that beat Uber in China, is working on self-driving cars

by @andyjayhawk Oct 6, 2016, 10:45am EDT

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hail behemoth that is a key ally of Apple and most recently took over Uber’s business in China, is working on developing self-driving cars, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The company is reportedly scouring...

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New Jersey town decides to pay Uber instead of building a parking lot

by @andyjayhawk Oct 3, 2016, 10:56am EDT

Lately, Uber has been positioning itself as the ultimate solution to the eternal challenge of shuttling people between transit hubs and their homes, also known as the “last mile challenge.” To that end, the ride-hail giant announced today that it...

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Uber wants to let brands feed you content during your next ride

by @andyjayhawk Sep 29, 2016, 8:00am EDT

Uber is partnering with Yext, a New York-based startup that specializes in location data for businesses, to help online shoppers book rides to their favorite store or restaurant. The partnership will also allow corporations to serve up marketing...

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Yellow taxis have a new weapon in their war against Uber: gadgets

by @andyjayhawk Sep 26, 2016, 1:14pm EDT

Riding in a yellow taxi used to be a miserable experience, which helps explain why Uber and Lyft were able to swoop in and so thoroughly disrupt the industry. Fed up with unreliable and dirty taxi rides, passengers migrated en masse to ride-hail...

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Uber now requires drivers to take selfies for added security

by @andyjayhawk Sep 23, 2016, 1:00pm EDT

Uber announced today that it’ll require drivers to snap selfies before signing on to the platform and accepting ride requests. The new feature, called Real-Time ID Check, is described as a way to prevent fraud and protects drivers’ accounts from...

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Flywheel, the app that makes taxis act like Uber, is coming to New York City

by @andyjayhawk Sep 22, 2016, 12:00pm EDT

Flywheel, a Bay Area-based e-hail app company, announced Thursday that its “TaxiOS” technology was approved by New York City regulators for use in the city’s iconic yellow taxis. Flywheel offers two main products: an e-hail app for riders, and...

The five issues holding Uber and Lyft back in big states

by @andyjayhawk Sep 21, 2016, 10:57am EDT

Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft have been Silicon Valley’s big disruptive success story of the last five years. They upended the market, beat the policymakers, won over consumers, and saved democracy. Or at least that’s the story Uber and...

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Self-driving car makers don't sound super excited to share data with the federal government

by @andyjayhawk Sep 20, 2016, 4:22pm EDT

Today, the federal government released major new guidelines for self-driving cars. But for anyone waiting for the reaction of big companies like Google and Uber, don’t hold your breath. The chief lobbyist for those companies just convened a press...

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New rules of the road for self-driving cars have just been released

by @andyjayhawk Sep 19, 2016, 8:00pm EDT

So far, manufacturers of self-driving cars have operated in uncharted waters, with regulations governing the rules of the road varying from state to state. Now the federal government is stepping in with a major new effort to bring order to the...

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Uber is coming to Detroit, possibly to test its self-driving cars

by @andyjayhawk Sep 19, 2016, 3:33pm EDT

Uber is planning on opening a new facility in Detroit, aka Motor City, which appears to be geared toward growing the ride-hail company’s self-driving car efforts. The news of the new engineering space comes a few days after Uber rolled out its...

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Uber will repay thousands of riders for misleading them about tips

by @andyjayhawk Sep 15, 2016, 4:32pm EDT

Uber won preliminary approval to settle a claim that it misled riders about a 20 percent gratuity for drivers. According to Bloomberg, US District Court Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco gave an early thumbs up to a deal that would have Uber...

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You can now ask Siri and Apple Maps to hail you an Uber

by @andyjayhawk Sep 14, 2016, 5:01pm EDT

Thanks to the recent arrival of the iOS 10 update, iPhone users can use both Siri and Apple Maps to hail an Uber car. Uber announced back in June that these integrations would be available to customers soon, and now here they are. ...

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Behind the wheel of Uber's new self-driving car, which hits the road today

by @andyjayhawk Sep 14, 2016, 6:00am EDT

On Monday, I found myself behind the wheel of a Ford Fusion driving down a Pittsburgh street lined with gorgeous Romanesque brick factories. The sky was a cloudless blue, the Allegheny River sparkled seductively through the trees, and I was able...

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