UBER UPDATE INTL
PASSENGER DRIVES OWN CAB AS DRIVER TOO DRUNK
An Uber passenger in India was forced to take the wheel last month when his driver arrived to collect him from the airport three sheets to the wind. According to posts on his Twitter account, Surya Oruganti had to drive himself home after his inebriated chauffeur was unable to keep his eyes open, Yahoo7 News reported. Oruganti was picked up at Kempegowda Interna- tional
Airport in
Bangalore, but said the ride home “was not quite what I expected.” Posting on Twitter on September 9, the traveller said he had to push the driver into the passenger seat and drive the 20-mile homeward journey himself. “The driver was drunk and drowsy. I had to pull the car over to the side and I drove all the way home.” He also said the man behind the wheel did not match the profile displayed on that app, raising more questions about who he was and why he was driving an Uber vehi- cle, let alone why he was so drunk while doing so. Tagging the company in his tweet, Oruganti demanded they “fix this” and described the failure as a “serious safety issue.” Indian news site The News Minute received a statement from Uber, which said the drunk driver - or whoever he was standing in for - had been removed from the company’s database of workers. A spokesperson went on to describe the bizarre journey as a “regret- table and concerning incident.” “While we take all possible measures to ensure that drivers behind the wheel match the person shown on the app, in rare instances, when this doesn’t happen, we encourage riders to cancel their rides immediately and report the issue on the app,” the statement con- tinued. “Upon learning about this incident, the driver profile was removed from the app and we are looking into the matter.” Uber did not respond to a Newsweek request for comment.
UBER SELECTS INDIA TO BE ONE OF FIVE COUNTRIES FOR FLYING TAXI
ber has selected India as one of the first five shortlisted finalist
countries that could be home to the first international Uber Air City within the next five years. According to Firstpost, after evaluating countries across the globe, Uber Elevate - the ride-hailing platform’s aerial taxi arm - announced Japan, India, Australia, Brazil and France as shortlisted countries at the first “Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo” in Tokyo. Uber will choose one of the cities from these five shortlisted coun- tries as its third launch city for flying taxis - after Dallas and Los
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Angeles in the US. “Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru are some of the most congest- ed cities in the world, where traveling even a few kilometres can take over an hour. Uber Air offers tremendous potential to help create a transportation option that goes over congestion, instead of adding to it,” the company said in a statement. “We are proud to host the first ever Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo. We are announcing a shortlist of five countries where Uber Air can immediately transform transportation and take our technology to new heights,” said Eric Allison, Head of Uber Aviation Programmes. In the next five years, Uber customers in launch cities will be able to push a button and get a flight on demand. To enable this, Uber has assembled a network of partners that includes vehicle manufacturers, real estate developers, technology developers and more. Dallas and Los Angeles were previously announced as the first two US launch cities and at the second annual Uber Elevate Summit in May, Uber announced it was seeking an international city as a third partner. “The Uber Elevate team is now inviting conversations with stake- holders acrossmajor cities in these countries, and will announce the chosen Uber Air international city within the next six months,” said the company. Uber Elevate has established a criteria framework to select the third city, anchored around three priority principles: sizable market, local commitmentand enabling conditions.
QUEBEC DRIVERS TO GET UP TO $45K FOR UBER LOSSES
Taxi drivers in Quebec will soon be eligible for financial compensa- tion for losses suffered as a result of ride-sharing services such as Uber. Nearly $250 million has been allocated to the taxi industry in the province's annual budget. Individual drivers may receive up to $45,000, depending on the region where the driver operates. Taxi drivers in good standing as of last March 27 will receive at least $1,000. Urban areas have seen the value of permits plummet over suburbs and outlying regions, so permit holders in Montreal, for example, are likely to receive the maximum amount. "We think it's totally within the realm of public policy for the gov- ernment, for the state to compensate the loss of that value as the government would do with any other industry," Finance Minister Carlos Leitao told CTV News. The province estimates there are 7,600 taxi licences in Quebec and that more than 4,500 will receive the maximum compensation. It's worth noting that the compensation amounts to a fraction of what many drivers have lost — some cab drivers have paid $200,000 for permits that are now worth approximately $75,000. The province says the money is part of a financial assistance pro- gram and not part of an agreement with the industry itself. Drivers will receive their cheques in the coming weeks, according to Leitao,
OCTOBER 2018
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