Less than two months after Uber agreed to pay $28.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of misleading consumers about its “industry leading” safety procedures, the ride-hailing company is ready to put another case behind it. The company will pay $25 million to settle a civil lawsuit with the district attorneys in Los Angeles and San Francisco over nearly identical allegations. [More]
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Uber Driver Wakes From Nap To Find Passenger Leading Cops On High-Speed Chase
By 4.5.16
A lot can happen when you take a nap on the job, as one Uber driver found out when he fell asleep while taking a passenger on a 200-mile ride. He awoke to find the car in the middle of a police chase, with his customer at the wheel. [More]
Facebook, Reddit, Wells Fargo, Bank Of America CEOs Among Those Urging North Carolina To Repeal New Anti-LGBT Law
By 3.31.16
Earlier this month, in a hurried legislative process, North Carolina lawmakers passed HB2, a bill that overrides and prevents local governments from establishing anti-discrimination rules against gay and transgender people. This morning, advocacy groups delivered a letter to NC Gov. Pat McCrory signed by top executives from more than 100 companies, all calling for the state to repeal the law. [More]
Uber Ditching Email Support In Favor Of In-App Help Options
By 3.30.16
Uber customers and drivers will no longer be able to reach the company by way of a support email address — a system many customers were frustrated with in the first place — as the company is switching to an in-app tool for troubleshooting and reporting issues. [More]
Harris Teeter Launches Pilot Delivery Program Through Uber
By 3.28.16
Harris Teeter, the grocery chain with the name most likely to make people of all ages giggle hysterically, is currently testing a delivery partnership with car-hailing service Uber. Yes, instead of ordering a ride to bring you home with your groceries, you can simply order a ride for your groceries, combining the store’s existing order-picking service with drivers who are already cruising around looking for fares. [More]
Uber Offers $10,000 “Bug Bounty” To Hackers Who Can Detect Service’s Security Flaws
By 3.22.16
No matter how hard a company works to ensure its secure its product is, someone, somewhere can find a security flaw in it that leaves it wide open to hackers. For these reasons, several organizations have sought the services of white-hat hackers to test for weaknesses in their networks and websites. Today, Uber joined that growing list of companies. [More]
Uber Objects To Atlanta Airport’s Plan For Driver Background Checks, Fare Fees
By 3.18.16
The next time you need a ride at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, it’s not likely going to be an Uber driver who picks you up. The ride-share company has balked at the airport’s proposal that would require Uber and Lyft drivers to get fingerprint-based background checks, as well as impose fees on every fare. [More]
Uber Will Now Take You From San Diego To Tijuana, Won’t Bring You Back
By 3.17.16
Want a one-way ticket to Tijuana? You can get one from Uber now: the ride-hailing company is providing cross-border trips from San Diego to the Mexican city. There’s one catch, though – passengers have to find their own way home. [More]
Uber Now Allows You To Add 10 People To One Account With “Family Profiles”
By 3.16.16
Acknowledging that some Uber customers are using their account to hail rides for people other than themselves, the ride-sharing service has announced a “Family Profile” option that lets multiple Uber passengers bill to the same credit card. [More]
UberEATS Launches As A Standalone App Offering Restaurant Delivery In 5 Cities
By 3.15.16
Uber is stepping outside the bounds of its main app for the first time, launching its UberEATS service as a standalone app for restaurant delivery starting in five of the cities where it operates. [More]
Uber Now Has An 800-Number For Non-Emergency Situations
By 3.11.16
Since Uber began shuttling people from one place to another with the tap of an app, we’ve heard stories about rides gone wrong — assaults, harassment, and hostage situations — that often end with the customer having a difficult time reaching an actual human working for the ride-hailing company. That’s apparently changed, as the company quietly issued an phone number for passengers to contact them back in October. [More]
Customer Claims Uber Driver Staged Vomit Scene To Collect Bogus $200 Cleaning Charge
By 3.3.16
If you own a car that you use to drive strangers around in, it’s a nasty, expensive surprise when one of your passengers vomits up their dinner/night on the town in your car. But one Uber customer says she was hit with a $200 fine for a phantom puking session that never happened while she and her friends were in the car. Instead, she claims the driver faked the whole thing just to collect the dough. [More]
Former Uber, Lyft Drivers Are Selling Their Vehicle Decals Online
By 2.29.16
The bright pink mustaches and the “U” decals used to designate ride-sharing vehicles for Uber and Lyft have found a second purpose: making their owners quick cash on sites like eBay. While selling the insignias might be a good way for former drivers to pad their wallets — sometimes by thousands of dollars, it means the decals might be used for other purposes. For that reason, always be sure to double check the license plate, and driver’s name before getting in a hailed vehicle. [Business Insider] [More]
Police: Woman Attacked Uber Car, Driver With Baseball Bat
By 2.15.16
When you make a living driving people around, you’re likely to run into a bad customer or two, from a driver being attacked by a passenger to a rider commandeering and then crashing the ride-hailing vehicle. A Chicago Uber driver experienced a not-so-great night on the town last week, when someone attacked him and his vehicle. [More]
Uber To Pay $28.5M To Settle Allegations It Misled Customers On Safety Practices
By 2.12.16
Ride-hailing service Uber has agreed to pay $28.5 million to more than 25 million customers, and rename its so-called “safe ride fee” in order to settle a class-action lawsuit that the company misled consumers about its “industry leading” safety procedures. [More]
Police: Drunk Uber Passenger Stole His Driver’s Car, Crashed It Into Curb
By 2.8.16
It’s one thing to hail a car to take you somewhere, but it’s an entirely other, illegal thing to call for that ride and then take the car yourself. Police in Oregon say a drunken Uber customer fought with his driver before making off with his vehicle. [More]
Some New York City Uber Drivers Will Go On Strike At Noon
By 2.1.16
You might remember last week that we reported about Uber’s plans to cut fares by about 15% in New York City. Customers are surely delighted, and some drivers are happy to have less downtime, but other drivers are less thrilled, and around 1,000 drivers are expected to go on strike today at noon. [More]
Uber Cuts Some New York City Fares By 15%
By 1.29.16
Less than a month after Uber slashed its prices in 100 cities around the country, the ride-hailing service implemented similar cuts in New York City. [More]
