Uber hints at subscriptions, rides cost more and a human breaks Waymo. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
UBER HINTS AT SUBSCRIPTIONS
Uber is hinting at subscriptions for drivers. Bloomberg reported:
The company is hiring for a New York-based product manager to “define and execute product strategies that create net-new subscription packages” for its drivers and couriers, according to a listing posted this week. The candidate will also “create a cohesive strategy for global testing and expansion,” and assess how this business model should evolve “given different responses from our competitors,” according to the posting.
It is sharpening its focus on subscriptions at a time when emerging competitors in the US and abroad are tempting prospective drivers with a flat fee that lets them keep more of each fare.
Empower had 682,000 monthly active users as of February, up about 79% from May, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
COSTS OF RIDES INCREASED IN 2025
Costs of rides have continued to increase. Business Insider reported:
The prices that customers paid on these apps rose 9.6% in 2025, according to an annual report on gig mobility from data analytics company Gridwise. The report analyzed information about 1 billion tasks over the past year on apps for ride-hailing, delivery, and other kinds of gig work.
It found that the average ride price rose to $23.66 at the end of 2025, up from $21.58 in December 2024.
Over the same period, a majority of ride-hailing customers surveyed — 60.4% — told Gridwise that they’ve reduced their usage of the apps due to price. That’s a jump of 16.6 percentage points over 2024.
HUMAN ERROR CAUSED WAYMO INCIDENT
A human error caused a major incident for Waymo. KXAN reported:
When a Waymo autonomous vehicle in Austin contacted a remote assistance agent in Michigan — a human — to ask if the school bus in the next lane over was signaling for drivers to stop, the agent wrongly replied “no,” according to a newly-released report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Waymo system went on to illegally pass an Austin Independent School District bus for the 24th time that school year. Video from the Jan. 12 incident shows the bus was displaying red strobing lights at the time and had two stop signs sticking out.
The NTSB opened its investigation in January after a KXAN investigation revealed Waymo driverless cars illegally passed stop school buses more than 20 times that school year. Some of the violations occurred after the company issued a voluntary recall and reported updating its software to fix the issue.
The report points out it was only after the remote assistance agent replied “no” to the car’s prompt that it passed the bus’ stop signs. The NTSB said its ongoing investigation is examining all the reported stop-arms violations in Austin, including a Jan. 14 incident involving a school bus operating on a special needs route.
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