Women Drivers hits Chicago, Uber told to stop using AI and Tesla battling robotaxi rules. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
“WOMEN DRIVERS” FEATURE
A “women drivers” feature hits Chicago. ABC7 reported:
It is called “women drivers,” a new option for adult women riders to choose when getting an Uber ride. It is already being used in some cities, but the I-Team just learned that it is debuting in Chicago and 25 other cities on Wednesday, and it is the largest rollout yet.
Here is how it works: Women can reserve and pre-book trips with women drivers for that extra sense of security by hitting the “woman driver” option.
There is also a second option. Women riders can say it is their preference to get a woman driver in their app settings, but that second option does not guarantee a woman driver will match.
UBER AI-DRIVER PAY SYSTEM
Uber is told to stop using AI. The Guardian reported:
Uber has been hit with legal demands to stop using its artificial intelligence driven pay systems, which have been blamed for significantly reducing the incomes of the ride hailing app’s drivers.
A letter before action — sent to the US company by the non-profit foundation, Worker Info Exchange (WIE), on Wednesday — is understood to allege that the ride hailing app has breached European data protection law by varying driver pay rates through its controversial algorithm.
James Farrar, the director of WIE, said: “Uber has leveraged artificial intelligence and machine learning to implement deeply intrusive and exploitative pay-setting systems that have damaged the livelihoods of thousands of drivers.
“Through this collective action, we intend to get a fairer deal for drivers and ensure Uber is held financially accountable for the harm caused by this unlawful use of AI.
The academic paper found that many Uber drivers were earning “substantially less” an hour — while the company was taking a significantly higher share of fares — since the ride hailing app introduced a “dynamic pricing” algorithm in 2023. Dynamic pricing variably sets pay for drivers and fares for passengers and is a later iteration of Uber’s “surge pricing”, which increased fares during periods of peak demand.
The Oxford University research said: “Our findings suggest that post-dynamic pricing, many aspects of Uber drivers’ jobs have gotten worse. Average pay per hour on the app is stagnant, and is lower in real terms in the year following the introduction of dynamic pricing.”
The WIE argued that Uber had trained its algorithms “by using the drivers’ own historic personal data by observing their working practices.
TESLA BATTLES ROBOTAXI RULES
Tesla is battling with Uber and Waymo over robotaxi rules. Business Insider reported:
In comments filed with a California regulator and published on Monday, Tesla pushed back against a proposal backed by Waymo that could require Musk’s company to disclose more data about its ride-hailing service.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is drafting new rules governing robotaxi passenger services and has invited companies — including Tesla, Uber, and Waymo — to comment.
The EV giant lacks the necessary permits to offer fully driverless rides in California, however, so its Bay Area vehicles have safety drivers who monitor Tesla’s assisted driving system, called Full Self-Driving. Tesla also has human safety drivers sitting in the passenger seat for its Austin service.
Waymo, by contrast, offers fully driverless ride-hailing in San Francisco and Los Angeles, while Uber is planning to launch a robotaxi service with autonomous vehicle companies Nuro and Lucid in the city next year.
In its filing, Tesla disputed Waymo’s suggestion that operators who offer ride-hailing services with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) — which can handle some actions autonomously but require human supervision — should be required to submit quarterly reports detailing the number of miles traveled, passenger trip time, and information about collisions and other incidents.
Under current regulations, Tesla’s ride-hailing service in California does not have to report this information, while robotaxi operators like Waymo.
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