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Do Hailo and Uber taxi e-hail apps defy a NYC judge’s orders? Nobody knows
TransportNew York City’s much-anticipated e-hail app program was cut short by a temporary restraining order (TRO) just days after launch, but that hasn’t halted the operations of the two startups that were already approved for participation. Hailo and Uber‘s cab drivers continue to pick up passengers via the companies’ mobile e-hail apps every day. Why do they [...]
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Taxi-hailing apps are illegal again in NYC, day after launch
TransportNew York livery car groups won a bid to block a pilot program that would enable people to hail and pay for rides in one of the city’s 13,000 yellow taxis using location-based smartphone applications. The measure adopted by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission in December would run for 12 months and [...]
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Uber CEO calls Reuters funding scoop “completely false”
TransportUber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick says the startup is not raising funding, as an exclusive Reuters story published earlier today states. In response to questions from Skift requesting more details on the startup’s round of funding, Kalanick responded: The Reuters story is completely false and the product of extremely poor reporting and journalistic ethic. [...]
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Uber joins $1 billion valuation club with eBay-like growth
TransportRide-sharing service Uber is raising a new funding round at a valuation of $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation. If the company succeeds, it will join an elite group of start-ups that command 10-figure valuations. The situation underscores investors’ desire to pay premiums for any company they think might become the [...]
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San Francisco’s efforts to make Airbnb, FlightCar and the sharing economy legit
DestinationsSan Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has long been outspoken in his support for new laws that would foster a thriving environment for the emerging sharing economy. How does he describe the laws that restrict the growth and legality of travel startups in the the Valley? “Outdated.” It turns out that other state stakeholders are open to the idea [...]
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Video interview: Uber investor says Uber is growing faster than eBay
TransportToday at Disrupt NY 2013, Benchmark partner Bill Gurley shared an interesting fact about Uber. “Uber is growing faster than eBay did,” Gurley said. In 1997, Benchmark invested $6.7 million in eBay. It was worth more than $5 billion less than two years later. Benchmark is also an investor in Uber. “Uber is probably the [...]
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Uber is first e-hail app to be approved in NYC’s yearlong pilot program
TransportNew York City’s pilot program for e-hail apps officially starts today and Uber is the first provider to be approved, confirms Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky. The one-year pilot program was approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission in December 2012, and okayed by the New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday. “There are several other companies [...]
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Uber’s delicate dance with legality is now an art form
TransportIt seems there are some laws that even Uber, handmaiden to Silicon Valley’s “cult of disruption,” isn’t willing to break — at least until others have broken them first, anyway. The car service for the bourgeoisie today announced that it would roll out its more-affordable UberX service, which relies on untrained drivers instead of the [...]
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Uber to launch ride-share service where regulators won’t hassle them
Transport… Over the last year, new startups have sought to compete with Uber by offering transportation services without traditional commercial insurance or licensing. Uber refrained from participating in this technology sector — known as ridesharing — due to regulatory risk that ridesharing drivers may be subject to fines or criminal misdemeanors for participating in non-licensed [...]
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San Francisco Airport tells six ride-sharing services to stay away
TransportSan Francisco International Airport hit six popular ride sharing services with cease-and-desist orders, barring them from picking up and dropping off passengers at the main airport for which many of these very same companies are based. Such services don’t have to jump through the same set of hoops the state requires of a traditional cab [...]
