Thursday, October 5, 2017

3 Things Why Uber Is One Of The Most Innovative Companies Of 2017





While experts debated whether self-driving cars would be commercially available in 5 or 10 years, Uber raced ahead and put vehicles on the road. Last August, it launched a program in Pittsburgh that allowed people to summon a self-driving car from their phones. At the same time, Uber acquired autonomous-trucking startup Otto. Together, these moves put the company, valued at $68 billion, at the forefront of transportation’s next wave. “The biggest asset and advantage [of our self-driving efforts] is being part of the larger Uber network,” says Raffi Krikorian, engineering director at the company’s Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh.

1. A SMART PILOT

Uber deliberately chose Pittsburgh for its first fleet because of the city’s erratic weather and winding roads. “If we can drive in Pittsburgh, we [know we] have the features we need to go and drive in other cities,” Krikorian says. The project has since expanded to Phoenix.

2. AUTOMOTIVE ALLIES

Last summer, Uber signed a $300 million deal with Volvo, which provides the company’s current fleet of human-assisted self-driving cars. The partners intend to debut a fully autonomous one by 2021.

3. CONNECTED ROADS

In October, Otto completed the first self-driving 18-wheeler delivery (of 50,000 cans of Budweiser). “[One day] our self-driving Ubers will [be able to] drive highways because the truck team is tackling it,” says Krikorian, “and the trucks will drive in cities because Ubers are [there].”
This article is part of our coverage of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2017.FCS

Cher: No Money to Treat My Asthma after House Obamacare Repeal





Pop icon Cher took to Twitter Thursday to blast the House’s passage of the American Health Care Act, lamenting that the bill’s signature into law would threaten to cut funding to treat her asthma.
In her signature tweeting style of using emojis for words, the 70-year-old singer called the passage of the AHCA on Thursday “insanity,” and called President Donald Trump a “mad King George III president.”
In an earlier tweet, the singer called GOP representatives in the House “inhumane” and predicted millions of people would die as a result of the legislation, which has not yet cleared the Senate or been signed by the president.

Cher also urged New Yorkers to “show this idiot what he’s in for.” The president visited his hometown Thursday evening for the first time since he took office in January following the vote on the health care bill.
The pop star was just one of numerous celebrities to use their social media accounts Thursday to voice their displeasure with the House’s passage of the AHCA.
Cher — a vocal supporter and fundraiser for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign — has taken on Trump both on and offline since he announced his run for the presidency.
At a fundraiser for Clinton in August, the “Believe” singer called Trump a “f*cking idiot” and compared him to dictators Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
“Consummate liar, doesn’t care who she hurts, insane, and you know, sociopathic narcissist,” she said of Trump at the time, further comparing him to child actress Patty McCormack from the 1956 movie The Bad Seed. “I just wish he’d fall off the face of the earth.”
In January, the singer joined other celebrities at the anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington.
On Wednesday, the Billboard Music Awards announced that Cher would receive the Icon Award at its upcoming ceremony in May. The singer is expected to sing her hit song “Believe” in her first awards show performance in more than 15 years.
Source: http://www.breitbart.com

UberX vs taxi – which is best?

We trial UberX and taxi services to find out which performs best on price and reliability



Uber has well and truly entered the market in Australia. However, the app-based transport service's journey hasn't been without controversy and opposition from the taxi industry. Initially, much of the kerfuffle circled around the legality of UberX, a ride-sharing service that links passengers with private drivers through an app. But as regulation has been, or is planned to be, introduced in most states and territories, the legality of ride-share services is more or less resolved.
UberX first made a splash in Australia back in April 2014. Since then, a number of other ride-sharing services, such as GoCar and even the female-only service Shebah, have launched. In that time the ride-sharing industry has seen a steady increase in passenger demand, while it appears taxi use has remained consistent, according to figures from an Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. For example, as of November 2016, one third of Sydneysiders had used a ride-sharing service compared with one tenth two years prior.


How do these services work?

Taxi

Taxi drivers are essentially self-employed businesspeople, working under the umbrella of one of a number of taxi companies. Drivers will pay a set amount to lease the taxi or give a percentage of the takings. Taxis can be booked in a number of ways – online, over the phone, hailed off the street or through a range of booking apps. Payments can be made via cash, credit card, or Cabcharge.

Uber

UberX operates wholly through the Uber app, linking up passengers with private drivers using their own cars. Riders can also book a taxi through the app, or use the more premium service, UberBlack. The app detects your location via GPS and connects you with the nearest available driver. The vehicle's approach can be tracked through the app and the driver's details are sent to the passenger. Payment is cashless – passengers must enter their credit card details when signing up. If you need to cancel, you have up to five minutes after the driver accepts before you'll be charged a cancellation fee. Uber takes a 20–27.5% cut of the driver's fare depending on when they signed up.

Our user trial

Amid the controversy back in 2015, we set out to test UberX and taxi services and find out which was cheapest and most reliable. We conducted a total of 56 trips across Sydney – 28 UberX rides and 28 taxi rides. All trips were taken in pairs – one test rider in a cab and one in an UberX, both travelling from and to the same place – and distributed across seven different time bands to ensure we captured variations in pricing. 

Midweek

  • 6am–10am/5pm–10pm
  • 10am–5pm
  • 10pm–6am

Weekend

  • 6am–midday
  • Midday–5pm
  • 5pm–midnight
  • Midnight–6am
Trips were conducted in the inner areas of Sydney between 27 August 2015 and 11 September 2015 (after UberX drivers were required to start paying GST). Prices were compared based on the end cost to the user. 

Uber: You Can Tip Your Driver But You Really Shouldn't



After settling two big lawsuits where drivers claimed Uber did not allow them to accept tips, Uber agreed to not get in the way of the practice any more. There was even speculation that Uber might start encouraging the act. Today, the on-demand ride app has answered that speculation with an unequivocal middle finger to its drivers: “Tips are not included nor are they expected on Uber.”
In the two class-action lawsuits, drivers accused the company of violating labor laws by discouraging tipping. As part of the settlement, Uber agreed to allow its drivers to ask for and receive tips, a seemingly big stride for a company that has a terrible track record for poor labor practices.
But in an email that went out to some customers today, which is also posted on Uber’s public policy blog on Medium, the company asserts that tipping has never been part of its policy:
Nothing has changed. As we’ve said for many years, being Uber means you don’t need to tip. Of course, if you want to tip your driver—we estimate riders offer tips on only a very small number of trips—you’re free to do so, and drivers are free to accept.
When Uber started six years ago, we thought long and hard about whether to build a tipping option into the app. In the end we decided against including one because we felt it would be better for riders and drivers to know for sure what they would pay or earn on each trip—without the uncertainty of tipping.

Today, riders tell us that one of the things they like most about Uber is that it’s hassle-free. And that’s how we intend to keep it.
The post on Medium goes on to explain why tipping is troublesome for any type of service-based industry—which is true—but in Uber’s case the company claims it engenders inequality: Tipping might mean that two drivers make substantially different amounts for the same trip, or that drivers might spend more time picking up passengers in wealthier parts of town.
Okay, maybe. But sending an email to customers effectively telling them not to tip their drivers is also a problem.
Uber has built its business model by discouraging the practice of tipping at the expense of workers. Beyond the obvious losses drivers incurred because they didn’t receive the customary gratuity for their work, the suits claimed that Uber enriched itself by marketing its service as gratuity-free: Passengers were led to believe that gratuity was included in their cheap fares—when in fact this isn’t true.
The life of an Uber driver is very precarious. The company treats drivers as contractors to avoid paying benefits, and it routinely discounts fares while subtracting higher fees. Drivers don’t have any control over how much they make, and like chronically underpaid workers in other industries, tipping is a way to make up some of the difference.
Of course the ideal situation would be that Uber would pay its drivers a fair wage (and benefits) so riders wouldn’t have to tip at all. Although the settlement last week keeps drivers in California and Massachusetts classified as contractors and not employees, the idea that Uber was officially encouraging the practice of tipping was a promising step forward. But sending an email to its customers that basically tells them they don’t have to, well, that totally undermines the spirit of the agreement.
[Uber]

16 Things You Might Not Know About Uber



Uber Technologies, the increasingly popular yet controversial ridesharing app, has so far infiltrated 58 countries around the world in its five-year lifespan and shows no signs of slowing down. The number of new drivers joining the ranks of Uber chauffeurs doubles every six months, and last week the company officially surpassed the $50 billion mark in funding. But for all its popularity, the upstart has had (and will probably continue to have) a bumpy ride, enraging established taxi companies by elbowing its way onto their turf and demonstrating the potential problems with the still nascent sharing economy. While commuters and government decide how to deal with Uber, here are a few things you might not know about the company and the drivers that make it go.

1. Drivers don’t get discounts.

When Barrett, an UberX driver in Tennessee, answered his phone to speak with me, he was walking a mile to the airport to avoid having to pay for a cab. Uber drivers don’t get any discounts or special treatment when they’re passengers, although Barrett does say the company sends drivers discounts for car maintenance like tire rotations and oil changes. 

2. It made life hell for a design firm.

A NYC design firm registered the name Uber Inc. way back in 1999. When the car service with a nearly identical moniker joined the scene, the design firm’s founder became inundated with phone calls aimed at the taxi company, which didn’t (and still doesn’t) provide a customer service phone number. Uber Inc. received 500 phone calls in four months from frustrated passengers and even drivers looking for their paychecks, according to the New York Post. One driver even accidentally sued the design firm for an on-the-job injury. The steadfast Uber Inc. has kept its name, but owner Herta Kriegner told mental_floss she is “still handling phone calls for Uber Technologies and still receiving mail (court orders, requests for wage garnishment, etc.) regarding their drivers.” A Google search lists the company as “not the uber technologies ride share or car service company.”

3. Uber babies get special onesies.

At least one human has breathed its first gulp of air in the back seat of an Uber cab. In March of this year, Zanna Gilbert gave birth to her daughter in a Nissan Altima, which her husband hailed through the Uber app. The baby and mother were both fine, and Uber gave the driver free Knicks tickets for his excellent handling of the situation. The company also paid to have the car cleaned. The baby got a special Uber-branded onesie

4. Cars can be no more than 10 years old.

And they must have at least four doors. “They do a personal inspection of the vehicle before you can drive,” Barrett says. “They check for exterior damage, cleanliness, wear and tear.” In some cities, the inspection is performed by a fellow Uber driver with a high rating who’s been deemed responsible enough to deserve the title of “Pro Driver.” 
“If someone signs up as a potential driver within the vicinity of your turned-on app, you'll get notified and be tasked with going to ‘vet the driver,’” Barrett says. “This means we take their picture, inspect their vehicle, snap pics of their insurance and driver’s license. We essentially serve as the middleman to corporate to ensure they're who they say they are after the background check passes. We're the final step as they also do a test drive with us to officially clear them for driving. It's a 30 minute or so process and we get $20 for our time in vetting the drivers.”