Some of the drivers Waymo is replacing are now the ones keeping robotaxis clean. Uber will soon let parents watch their teen’s ride live. Fares keep climbing while driver pay flatlines. Robotaxis have incited a political brawl over who controls them. And a federal appeals court says Lyft does not owe wheelchair users accessible rides nationwide. We break it all down for you.
Former Lyft Drivers Get Jobs Cleaning the Robotaxis That Replaced Them
SOURCE – Business Insider
In October, Lyft’s Flexdrive unit will open its biggest depot yet in Nashville, an 80,000-square-foot facility built to clean, charge, and service Waymo robotaxis. About 70 people will work there, and roughly half of them used to drive for Lyft. It is one of the clearest pictures yet of how robotaxis will reshape work for rideshare drivers.
- Flexdrive CEO John Parks says robotaxis are more labor-intensive than rental cars, because a robotaxi can run up to 100,000 miles a year against about 40,000 for a rental, and crews charge and clean each one two to three times a day.
- Former drivers like Jonathan Baines and Chauncey Thompson say they prefer depot work to driving for the steady hours, the team, and a foothold in an industry they expect to grow. Deciding whether a car is clean enough for the next rider still comes down to human judgment.
- The scale is small so far, about 50 Waymos in Nashville and roughly 70 depot jobs, and researchers caution the new roles are not showing up one-for-one to replace lost driving work. SHRM estimates about 8 million U.S. jobs are realistically at risk of automation by 2030.
Uber Adds Live Video to Teen Rides, Streamed Through the Driver’s Camera
SOURCE – TechCrunch
Uber is rolling out a feature that lets a parent watch a live video stream of their teen’s ride, using the driver’s selfie camera as the feed. It is live in nine markets now, including Atlanta and Cleveland, and Uber says it will reach the whole country in the coming weeks. Both the driver and the teen are notified when a parent tunes in.
- Only a parent or guardian account linked to the teen can view the stream. Anyone else riding along cannot opt out of appearing on the feed.
- No one keeps the video once the trip ends. Uber says the stream is encrypted but would not tell TechCrunch whether it is end-to-end encrypted, which would keep even Uber from accessing it.
- Uber launched teen accounts in the U.S. in 2023 and has since expanded them to more than 50 countries.
New Independent Analysis Shows Driver Pay Hasn’t Increased, Despite Rising Costs
SOURCE – Jalopnik
A new analysis by Columbia Business School’s Len Sherman tracked three long-time drivers and found their pay flat or falling even as prices rose, with a growing share of each fare flowing to Uber’s service fee and a commercial-insurance line item. Uber’s fares have climbed for years, and 2023 brought the company its first profitable year at $1.1 billion. Driver take-home has not followed.
- Before Uber’s IPO, drivers kept roughly 80 to 85 percent of a fare. One Portland driver’s recent test trips for Consumer Reports showed him keeping 52 percent, with Uber taking 46, up from a 32 percent take rate in 2022.
- Consumer Reports found identical trips priced as much as 42.4 percent apart. Uber attributes the swings to marketplace conditions at the exact moment of the request.
- Uber runs its own captive insurer, Aleka Insurance, staffed by former Uber executives, which lets it keep its payout numbers private. A California law passed last year cut rideshare liability limits sharply, yet the insurance charge on driver fares has not shrunk.
Robotaxis Are Real Now, and So Is the Fight Over the Rules
SOURCE – The Verge
As robotaxi fleets grow, The Verge wrote a lengthy piece about the political fight over how to govern them, which is heating up statehouses and city councils across the country. New York shelved a legalization push after taxi drivers and unions pushed back. Washington, DC weighed a 200-vehicle cap and a per-mile fee in a City Council hearing that ran 10 hours. Even San Francisco’s pro-robotaxi mayor is now calling for tougher rules after Waymos snarled traffic during emergencies.
- The Teamsters call autonomous vehicles an existential threat, pointing beyond rideshare to truckers and delivery drivers, and want a trained human aboard heavy-duty AVs. Senator Ed Markey is pushing for mandatory safety-data reporting.
- The companies say they want regulation too. Zoox and Waymo both back federal standards, though Waymo objects to hard fleet caps and warns a steep per-mile fee could squeeze smaller operators.
- Robotaxis are still tiny in context. Waymo runs more than 3,500 vehicles and 500,000 paid rides a week, while Uber handles about 40 million trips a day. The fights now are about the terms of expansion as fleets scale from thousands to potentially hundreds of thousands.
Federal Appeals Court Says Lyft Does Not Have to Offer Wheelchair-Accessible Rides Nationwide
SOURCE – News 12
A federal appeals court has ruled that Lyft is not required to provide wheelchair-accessible vehicles across the country, upholding a lower court’s decision. The suit, brought by Yonkers, NY-based Westchester Disabled on the Move, argued that Lyft’s limited supply of accessible vehicles violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and New York’s Human Rights Law.
- The advocacy group noted that Lyft offers vehicles able to carry fixed-frame wheelchairs in only nine cities.
- The court found that none of the changes the group proposed would actually deliver effective wheelchair-accessible service.
- The group’s attorney says he still expects wheelchair users in Westchester to gain access to Lyft eventually.
QUICK HITS
- DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart each reported robust revenue gains in their most recent quarterly earnings, signaling that consumer appetite for paying a premium on home-delivered groceries and takeout hasn’t cooled off. – Business Insider
- Zipline and Uber announced a strategic partnership that would help scale drone delivery across the United States. – Uber newsroom
- Labor groups organizing Uber and Lyft drivers hold a bargaining advantage most private-sector unions lack, thanks to arbitration clauses embedded in recent state legislation covering gig workers. – Bloomberg Law
- Want to learn more about the robotaxi industry? Subscribe to The Driverless Digest, our new newsletter and podcast dedicated to the future of autonomous vehicles.
Must Listen Or Watch RSG Content
Here are this week’s featured podcast episode and YouTube videos:
- RSG269: This $12K EV Could Change Uber Driving Forever With Bingo Tech
- Uber Can Now Pull Your Ride Recordings Automatically?!
- Uber May Offer Rides For 10 YEAR OLDS?!
- Uber’s New “Rides League” Bonus: Is It Actually Worth Chasing?
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