Uber brushes off Waymo breakup, Philly has choice words for Waymo and drivers being used for surveillance. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
UBER DENIES WAYMO BREAKUP
Uber is brushing off the Waymo breakup. The Verge reported:
“Waymo is a very important partner of ours, and we continue to operate in Austin and Atlanta,” Khosrowshahi said in an earnings call today. “We believe we’ll continue to operate next year in those marketplaces. It’s a terrific product, and the on-the-ground partnership continues to be very strong.”
There’s been plenty of evidence that points to a weaker relationship than Khosrowshahi would like to admit, like Uber’s CTO tweeting about a “scary Waymo moment” and an Uber white paper that emphasizes a hybrid model of human- and robot-powered rides over an AV-only model. Last month, the two companies found each other on opposite sides of a bill in Washington, DC, that would legalize robotaxi services, with Waymo supportive and Uber pushing for a hybrid model.
Indeed, Uber has made a big to-do about linking up with a variety of AV partners, including Zoox, Wayve, Avride, Nuro, Motional, and Waabi. Basically, if you’re a startup with some autonomous driving experience and a few vehicles in the field, chances are you’ve received a call from Uber. The company has said it plans on spending upwards of $10 billion to build out its robotaxi business over time.
But Waymo is really the only one doing it at scale. And since the company has shown it can work in markets both with and without Uber’s imprimatur, it really seems like Uber needs Waymo more than vice versa.
PHILLY TELLS WAYMO TO CHILL
Philly has choice words for Waymo: Don’t rush this. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
Waymo’s driverless cars have been rolling through Center City for almost a year now. Still with a trained specialist behind the wheel, still without a commercial launch date.
Some of our local elected officials have expressed concerns about driverless vehicles on Philadelphia streets. Based on what has happened in other cities, their concerns are not unfounded. When it comes to deploying robotaxis, Philadelphia should slow down, not speed up.
Councilmember Nina Ahmad gave voice to concerns after a City Council hearing in May. “Progress for the sake of progress isn’t enough. We need to look at the impact of that progress,” she said during a news conference. She wasn’t the only Council member who expressed reservations, or whose questions for Waymo went unanswered at the hearing.
Under state law, PennDot holds the authority to certify these vehicles for full commercial service. City officials have said Philadelphia is preempted from regulating this technology at all.
Here is the question I’d ask before this moves one step further in Philadelphia: Have the police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who will be on the street been trained, specifically and verifiably, to handle a car that will not pull over for a siren, will not respond to a hand signal or a flare, and has no driver to negotiate with?
UBER DRIVERS AS SURVELLIENCE VEHICLES
One company looked into turning drivers in surveillance vehicles. 404 Media reported:
Flock planned to use dashcams installed in hundreds of thousands Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers’ vehicles to scan license plates those drivers travelled passed, essentially turning Uber and Lyft drivers into roaming surveillance vehicles, according to a Flock presentation shared with 404 Media.
The document provides more details on Flock’s planned partnership with Nexar, a popular dashcam company. 404 Media first revealed the intended partnership last August when multiple sources provided information on the plan. The presentation shows Flock was actively pitching this partnership, and its use of Uber and Lyft drivers, to potential customers right around the time 404 Media reported on it.
Flock told 404 Media in an email it never executed the partnership with Nexar. But the presentation still shows Flock’s ambitious plan to conscript rideshare and delivery drivers to collect license plate data for its network. It is not clear whether Uber or Lyft, or drivers working for those apps, would have been aware of the data collection.
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