With cancelled Spirit Airlines flights resulting in fisticuffs at the nation’s airports, a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the union representing Spirit pilots, hoping to get passengers moving again. [More]
Transportation & Infrastructure
Amid Cancelations & Delays, Court Orders Spirit Airlines Pilots To Halt Alleged Work Slowdown
By 5.9.17
Uber Settles Charges Of Sending Unwanted Texts With No Opt-Out
By 5.5.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
If you’re interested in signing up as an Uber driver, a friend or driver can have the site text you a mutually beneficial referral code. Some consumers in Washington state reported receiving referral text messages from the ride-hailing app that they didn’t ask for, though, with no way to opt out, and now the company and the state have settled those charges. [More]
Feds Launch Criminal Investigation, Want To Know If Uber’s “Greyball” Broke The Law
By 5.5.17
Uber’s expansion throughout the country and the world has been extremely rapid. Sometimes that’s meant going places where its service isn’t legal, in the hopes that it may eventually be — and using a secret tool, dubbed “Greyball”, to fool law enforcement and avoid getting caught. Until, of course, they did — and now the feds are wondering if Uber crossed a criminal line. [More]
Congress Asks Airline Industry To Explain Why It “Hates The American People”
By 5.2.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
While no one was forcibly dragged out of room 2167 of the Rayburn Office Building during this morning’s Congressional hearing on the airline industry, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle appeared to be united (but not United) in their distaste for byzantine booking systems, lack of options, and the billions of dollars in add-on fees collected by carriers. [More]
Samsung To Start Testing Self-Driving Cars
By 5.2.17
Another day, another tech giant getting into the self-driving car business: This time it’s Samsung, which has received approval to test autonomous vehicle technology on its home turf. [More]
Why Is Subaru Telling Me To Keep People Out Of The Passenger Seat For The Next Year?
By 5.1.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
For the better part of two years, carmakers have been notifying owners of vehicle included in the massive shrapnel-shooting Takata airbags recall. Given the sheer volume of and airbags involved, it’s understandable that not all repairs can be done right away, but some drivers are finding out that they may not only have to wait a year for the fix, they shouldn’t have anyone else in the front seat with them during that time. [More]
AAA Takes On Zipcar With New ‘Gig’ Car-Sharing Business
By 5.1.17
Long in the business of rescuing drivers and offering repairs on the spot, AAA now wants provide cars on demand for folks who find themselves in need of some wheels. [More]
Apple, Uber, Tesla Ask California To Revise Rules For Self-Driving Cars
By 4.28.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Now that California has proposed rules intended to make it easier for tech companies to test self-driving vehicles on public streets, those companies are calling on the state to make additional changes that would further favor the industry. [More]
Uber Makes It Easier To Delete Accounts, Control Use Of Location Data
By 4.28.17
Until now, deleting the Uber app from your phone did nothing to cancel your account with the ride-hailing platform. To do that, you had to contact customer service. It’s still not that easy to end your relationship with Uber, but at least now you can do it without assistance from the company. [More]
Reality Check: Airlines Won’t Stop Overbooking (And You Won’t Get Rich Being Bumped)
By 4.28.17
Despite promises from United Airlines and Delta Air Lines to boost compensation for bumped passengers and Southwest Airline’s vow to do away with the practice altogether, you probably aren’t going to score $10,000 the next time you fly — and there’s still a chance your flight will be overbooked in the future. [More]
Toyota Recalls 228,000 Trucks Over Concerns About Loss Of Control
By 4.27.17
Toyota is recalling 228,000 late model Toyota trucks over concerns that a leak may cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles. [More]
United Airlines Ups Compensation For Bumped Passengers To $10K
By 4.27.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Over the past several weeks, United Airlines has taken steps to put an April 9 incident in which a passenger was violently removed from a flight behind it: revising crew travel policies, discontinuing the use of law enforcement to remove passengers, compensating passengers on the controversial flight, and, of course, issuing several apologies. Now the airline is revamping how it compensates passengers being bumped from flights and answering lingering questions from lawmakers. [More]
Uber Driver Charged With Raping Passenger
By 4.27.17
An Uber driver in California has been charged with raping a female passenger in his car in March, after he picked her up from a company function. [More]
New Law Would Ban Airlines From Bumping Passengers Involuntarily
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
United Airlines’ decision to forcibly remove a paying passenger to make room for an airline employee has led to increased pressure for carriers to change their policies. A new piece of legislation wants to stop make it illegal for airlines to bump a passenger without their permission. [More]
Uber Drivers Accuse Cabs Of Poaching Their Customers
By 4.26.17
In a reversal of the normal narrative of the fight between ride-hailing app drivers and traditional taxi drivers, an organization of Uber drivers in Atlantic City is suing the companies that operate yellow cabs in the region, claiming that they’re stealing customers and transporting those customers without insurance coverage. [More]
Uber’s Flying Taxis Could Take To The Skies By 2020
By 4.26.17
If Uber has its way, in a few short years you’ll be able to hail a flying taxi: During a conference this week for its Uber Elevate project, the company and its partner said they’re planning to get their new aircraft into the sky by 2020. [More]
UPDATED: Consumer Reports Restores Some Points To Tesla Ratings After Return Of Automatic Braking
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.23.17
UPDATE: Now that Tesla has remotely activated the automatic emergency braking feature on newer Model S and X vehicles, Consumer Reports has restored some of the points it had taken away after the disappearance of AEB. However, the two Tesla models are not getting all the points back since this AEB currently only works at speeds of up to 28 mph, a significantly lower limit than what Tesla had previously offered. For instance, the AEB in earlier iterations of the Model S functioned at speeds of up to 90 mph. [More]
United Airlines Investigating After Giant Rabbit Dies During Flight
By 4.26.17
If you have a soft spot in your heart for animals, you might want to pass on this one: United Airlines is investigating the death of a giant rabbit that had been stowed in the cargo hold of a flight from London to Chicago. [More]
