Harry here. Thanks to everyone who joined our Youtube Live event this week; you can find a replay here. One topic we didn’t touch on though was Uber’s new pilot program with cash payments in Colorado. Today, senior RSG contributor John Ince takes a look at that story, a strange Miami heist involving an Uber driver and a new program that allows the public to see more data on ridesharing.
Ride-sharing giant Uber is trying a “new” technology for the first time nationwide in Colorado Springs – cash [The Gazette]
Sum and Substance: Drivers will start accepting cash Jan. 17 from riders, who still must use the smartphone application to seek a ride and will get any change as a credit to their Uber account, which can be cashed out through online cash service PayPal, Uber spokeswoman Taylor Patterson said Tuesday. The system will be gradually rolled out in other cities in coming months, she said.
Uber already uses the cash system internationally in 150 cities and is launching the cash option to appeal to customers who don’t have a credit or debit card or don’t want to use them through a smartphone application, Patterson said.
The San Francisco-based company is launching the option in Colorado Springs because the city is a “solid market” for Uber and company officials believe “a number of people here who have never used Uber who would benefit from a system like this, including those without a personal vehicle, those who may not want to drive in bad weather and those who use the bus and need to bridge the last mile between the bus stop and their home or work,” she said…. “to serve more people we have to meet them where they are in ways that meet their needs,” Patterson said. “Not everyone has a credit card or feels OK handing one over to a service they’ve never used. We get that, so we developed a solution using technology to enable people who want to pay with cash to do so with our app.
Uber drivers have the option of using or declining to use the cash system. Riders who book an Uber vehicle are told what fare they will pay in advance, so they can make sure they bring enough cash to pay for the trip, Patterson said.
My Take: Legally this is a risky move for Uber. Much of Uber’s regulatory stance relies on a subtle and tenuous distinction between being a technology company (as Uber says it is) and a transportation company (which Uber denies it is). But if Uber is accepting cash payments, and if taxis now can use an app to match with passengers, then what’s really the difference between an Uber and a taxi?
Taxis will suddenly have a much stronger argument that Uber is essentially a taxi company – and should be regulated as such. This also places Uber drivers in much greater jeopardy, because would-be robbers will now see every Uber driver as a moving cash register when their looking for things to do in Colorado. If I were a thief, I would be salivating at the prospects of hopping into the privacy of a unwitting driver’s car, quietly telling the driver to hand it all over and then calmly getting out at my destination having accomplished a heist with minimal risk and hassle. All the thief has to figure out is how to create a fake account to throw police off his or her trail. In this day and age, that’s a piece of cake.
For the moment, Uber says it’s optional. But when Uber says it’s optional, they don’t specify whether it’s opt in or opt out – a big difference. These companies have a way of forcing drivers to do things they don’t really want to do. Will this encourage more drivers to start packing heat for self protection? Will it make the entire platform less safe for both drivers and passengers?
Kidnapped Uber driver streams bank robbery. Suspect then gives cash away, makes bomb threat [Miami Herald]
Sum and Substance: A man who says he’s a hostage broadcast another man robbing Navy Federal Bank in Brickell around 5 p.m. Mon., Jan. 9, 2017 on Facebook Live. The robbery suspect says he plans to surrender after giving the money away and makes statements about how he believes the allegations of Russian hacking during the U.S. presidential election will lead to war.
Apparently riled up by allegations that Russian hackers interfered with the U.S. presidential election, a man in Miami appears to have forced his Uber driver to broadcast him robbing a bank on Facebook before giving away the cash in South Beach.
Then the would-be Robin Hood, a bald man dressed in a suit and tie, made a bomb threat. The bizarre scene on Ocean Drive ended late Monday with Miami Beach police, Miami-Dade’s bomb squad and agents from the FBI and ATF descending on the party street. Both men were hauled off in U.S. Homeland Security SUVs. Officials did not confirm much other than saying both men are being questioned by the FBI in connection with the robbery — and that the Facebook stream is part of the investigation.
The strange incident occurred just hours after bomb threats disrupted Jewish Community Centers in Miami Beach, Kendall and across the eastern U.S. on Monday. Just before 5 p.m., a man who identifies himself as “Mikebilly So-Focused” began streaming the robbery. The bald man calmly walks up to an attendant at the Navy Federal Credit Union in Brickell and starts talking. They then approach the counter. After some uneasy conversation, the teller hands the man a pink envelope with stacks of cash. After he asks a stranger to take his picture and attempts to take one of the women hostage, he tells a second teller to empty her register. The he goes on a rant.
“I’m going to surrender once I give away this money to people who are poor, then I’ll surrender. I’ll answer to the judges. I’ll answer to the media. I just want to speak before Congress,” the man said. “I want people to listen to me and for them to stop lying to us. they’re lying to us. They’re telling us that Russia hacked the election and they’re trying to start a war. They’re going to kill us all.”
During the stream, as other Facebook users comment, Mike posts that he is a hostage. Miami Herald news partner CBS4 reported that the driver is an ex-Marine who drives for ride-sharing service Uber, according to friends. In the car after the robbery, the driver broadcasts again twice while his passenger rants about the government and shows off the spoils. In the last video, the driver states that the bald man has a bomb.
Shortly after, the pair arrived in South Beach, where the man climbed onto the car’s roof and started handing out wads of cash to passersby. Some witnesses said they thought a film was being shot.
My Take: This is a bizarre, fascinating, surreal story that I had to check several times to make sure it wasn’t fake news. It seems like a made-to-order fabrication, but several major news outlets are reporting essentially the same set of facts – a white bald guy who claims to have a bomb hijacks an Uber, broadcasting the entire episode while he robs a bank, then is driven to Miami’s South Beach where he stands on top of a car and gives the money away to random strangers.
The sub plot here is that this would-be Robin Hood’s goal was apparently to attract attention so he could protest Russia’s alleged hacking of the U. S election- to prevent a possible nuclear war between U. S. and Russia. The bank robber’s objective so far has only partially been achieved.
Thus far, this appears to be largely a local Miami news story. Working against this guys goals, his bomb threat mostly got lost in the news cycle because there were so many other bomb threats going on at the time. If his objective were to steal money (which apparently it isn’t) the guy might have done better by hacking Miami City Hall’s bank account – which netted someone millions, until somebody noticed. Strange times we live in, and if you drive an Uber you never know when you’ll find yourself the star of your very own Facebook live news feed, or bank robbery, bomb threat, public protest…
Uber is finally releasing a data trove that officials say will make driving better for everyone [Washington Post]
Sum and Substance: The combative ride-hailing giant Uber is extending an olive branch to cities — in the form of data that transit wonks have coveted for years. The San Francisco-based company shared a vast trove of transportation data Sunday that it said local officials could use to help cut down on commute times and improve traffic flow. The data, on a public website that shows the time it takes to travel between neighborhoods in various cities, is derived from the company’s extensive logs of trips taken by millions of Uber riders each day.
The timing of the data release — which will be launched on a website and called “Uber Movement” — coincided with another fight over data that the company is engaged in New York. Uber is blocking New York City officials’ efforts to collect drop-off times and locations from its drivers — a move the city says will enable it to determine whether drivers are working too many hours but Uber says violates passenger privacy.
In addition to the New York City fight, Uber is sparring with cities around the world on issues ranging from self-driving cars to working conditions for its network of freelance drivers. Sharing data could help build some goodwill in cities, said Linda Bailey, executive director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials, which is working to establish a shared data standard for cities where ridesharing companies operate. But it continues a pattern that has proven irksome to regulators — that firms like Uber decide when and what data to release, on their terms, in defiance of cities’ requests for specific sets of information…. Still, city planners say they are excited by the possibilities for the new data, including the ability to analyze travel patterns during major traffic disruptions such as the presidential inauguration, sporting events and concerts — and plan for them.
My Take: Good move for Uber, especially from a PR standpoint. They’ve gotten tons of free publicity that reflects well on the company and their intentions. Since the data is anonymous, privacy concerns are minimized.
Rough ride for Uber as Morocco cabbies sabotage app [Yahoo]
Sum and Substance: As their smartphone screens lit up with ride requests last month, Uber drivers in the Moroccan city of Casablanca must have thought that business was booming. Instead, they found themselves surrounded by irate local taxi drivers, who forced them from their vehicles and handed them over to the police, the latest in a string of protests in the kingdom against the controversial travel app. “After the tramway, illegal drivers and now Uber, they are trying to kill us off,” said Abdelouahed, who works for a small local taxi firm.
Uber launched in Morocco’s economic hub in 2015 but was banned by local authorities after just one month. It has recently found itself the target of increasingly brash protests organised by owners of Casablanca’s famous tomato red cabs. “When you open Uber on your phone, you see drivers swarming around you like a virus,” said Nordine, a fifty-some thing driver sat on the hood of his taxi. “And like a virus, you need radical solutions. Trap them.”
In one protest last month, dozens of taxi drivers posed as would-be passengers, flooding the app with requests before forcing the Uber drivers from their vehicles, much to the bemusement of onlookers. The management of taxis in Morocco normally falls to local government. The transport ministry has so far kept quiet as to why Uber continues to operate in the streets of Casablanca. – ‘Illegal and unauthorised’ – “Our position hasn’t changed,” a senior official from Casablanca’s local administration told AFP. “We see (Uber) as an unauthorised and illegal company.” Local media said recently that as many as 30 separate protests against app drivers had been held, ranging from threats, car chases and even ambushes such as the one in December.
My Take: So you think you’ve got it tough because a passenger put their pin down wrong or they rated you low for no good reason? Think again. You’ve got first world problems. Drivers in other countries have real problems. You could be surrounded by an angry mob of taxi drivers. Where does Uber, the company, stand on all this? They continue to flout local laws and operate on the margins in other countries, but drivers face a lot of the day to day risk.
Readers, what do you think of this week’s round up?
-John @ RSG
Save
Save
