Uber the Subject of Controversy Again

Uber, the ridesharing company which was founded in San Francisco back in 2009, has been the subject of a lot of controversy since the first day it was created. From the status of drivers being litigated all day every day, to passengers suing the company for accidents and injuries, it seems like there has not been a week where there was nothing in the news about Uber.

This week was no exception. It began with a video on the internet in which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was seen mistreating an Uber driver. Then we came across this insane report that talks about strategies and tactics that Uber allegedly uses to stay under the radar and avoid government scrutiny. The strategy seems simple but genius at the same time. Basically, when Uber was operating in cities where it was not allowed to operate, it would avoid sting operations by developing algorithms that would identify people who were not actual passengers, but authorities trying to build a case against Uber. It is not clear how the algorithms were developed or what they monitored to identify suspicious passengers, but the article cited above does shed some light on some of the possible factors that could have been considered. Once a suspicious (in other words, undercover) passenger was spotted, they would not be served.

Uber is also experimenting with the idea of having self driving Uber cars drive passengers around. There are many advantages to this. One such advantage is that self driving cars are supposed to be safer, because while humans make mistakes, computers supposedly do not. Therefore, the rate of accidents for self driving cars is supposed to be lower. It is said that once all cars on the road are self driving, the rate of accidents will be close to zero.

The San Francisco based company started testing its self driving vehicles on San Francisco roads a couple of days ago. However, almost immediately after the company began its testing, the DMV informed them that they have to stop, due to not having a permit. The DMV requires all self driving cars to have a special permit, which Uber was refusing to get. The argument by Uber was that since their cars were not self driving per the definition of self driving cars, they were exempt from obtaining the permit. The DMV did not agree, and it quickly revoked the registration for such cars, forcing Uber to remove their self driving cars from San Francisco Roads. Now, Uber has announced that it will begin testing in a different state, in Arizona.
These are really exciting times for Uber and all other ride sharing companies. One day soon, when you order Uber, a driverless car might come to pick you up. If Uber does not have to pay drivers, the rides will be cheaper for them, and hopefully the end consumers will also get better rates.