Waymos getting wild, Instacart sues NY and Uber’s room for growth. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
WAYMOS GONE WILD
Waymos are starting to get wild. Cryptopolitan reported:
Two white Jaguar sedans weaved through a two-lane tunnel last September, switching lanes together in synchronized moves. Both were Waymo vehicles, the self-driving cars once famous for being overly careful on the road.
Sophia Yen, who runs a startup and was driving behind them, couldn’t believe what she saw. “I had never seen anyone switch lanes in that tunnel,” she told Wall Street Journal. “It’s driving more like a taxi driver — an aggressive, New York taxi driver.”
A Waymo vehicle drove dangerously close to a police felony stop in downtown Los Angeles early one Sunday morning following a vehicle chase, creating a tense moment captured on video.
The driverless car made a left turn and passed within feet of a white truck that police had pulled over at the corner. Several police cruisers had their lights flashing, and the suspected driver was face down on the street.
The company has been working to make its vehicles “confidently assertive,” according to Chris Ludwick, a senior director at Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. “That was really necessary for us to actually scale this up in San Francisco, especially because of how busy it gets.”
Ludwick explained that when the cars are too passive, they cause problems. Regular software updates keep them from becoming troublesome or causing disorder.
INSTACART SUES NY
Instacart sues NY. Reuters reported:
Instacart sued New York City on Tuesday to block enforcement of five laws affecting the grocery delivery company, including rules governing minimum pay for app-based workers and disclosures to customers about tipping.
According to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Congress forbade state and local governments from regulating prices and services for customers who use platforms such as Instacart, while New York’s state legislature “has long taken charge” of minimum pay standards.
Instacart, based in San Francisco, also said the U.S. Constitution prevents states and cities from discriminating against commerce by out-of-state companies.
The laws will take effect on January 26, and, absent an injunction, would harm consumers and grocers by raising delivery costs, Instacart said.
The lawsuit targets Local Law 124, opens new tab, which requires companies to offer grocery delivery workers the same minimum pay that restaurant delivery workers are eligible for.
Instacart also objected to Local Law 107, opens new tab, which requires consumers to get options to tip at least 10% of the purchase price or manually enter what to tip. The other laws require additional recordkeeping and disclosures.
According to Instacart, the laws are an outgrowth of laws affording more rights to restaurant delivery workers, who saw business surge during the pandemic.
UBER GROWTH
Uber claims it has a lot of room for growth. Business Insider reported:
Across the 10 largest countries where Uber operates, about 15% of adults use either Uber for ride-hailing or delivery, Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah said during a presentation at UBS’ Global Technology and AI Conference on Wednesday. Uber and other consumer-focused companies often refer to this metric as “market penetration.”
Uber’s market penetration in the US “is right in line with that 15% average,” Mahendra-Rajah said. That means that Uber has yet to reach many customers in the country where it was founded, he said.
Among Uber investors, “it’s often a view of: ‘There is no way I could use Uber anymore than I am, and there’s no way my children can order Uber Eats more than they already do,’” he said.
“But you are really a unique case compared to the US average,” he said. “That’s why we remain very optimistic.”
While many urbanites already use the app, Uber is also trying to get more users in the suburbs to turn to the app for rides to dinner or deliveries from Costco. Ride-hailing trips from suburbs — or “sparser markets,” as Uber executives have called them — make up about 20% of Uber’s total trips, Mahendra-Rajah said earlier this year.
Rural areas, where ride-hailing trips and delivery distances tend to be longer, have also been relatively recent focuses for the apps.
...
LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, robotaxis, Waymo, and gig worker accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.