Sony is using its considerable technological weight to get into the mobility app game in Japan. However, in a country where Uber and Lyft are not widely used and taxis are readily available and affordable in urban centers, the software will use AI to predict the movements of cab fleets. As reported...Read More»
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a so-called congestion charge in an attempt to combat New York City—and specifically Manhattan—traffic jams. If implemented, drivers would face fees of $11.52 to enter the most traffic-prone areas of Manhattan, and trucks would see a daily fee...Read More»
Del Boca Vista may be a fictional community for retired Cadillac drivers like Morty Seinfeld, but one company is set to feature a real-world Del Boca Vista—a retirement community near Orlando—as the setting for the world’s largest self-driving car test. Voyage, a Florida-based...Read More»
As turbulent as 2017 was for Uber, 2018 looks set to start off even worse for the maligned company, as China’s Didi Chuxing says it raised over $4 billion from SoftBank Group in yet another round of funding. The large injection of cash makes Didi the world’s second-largest startup, with...Read More»
To put it mildly, Uber has had a tumultuous year. The company’s highs, which include knocking off the ubiquitous yellow taxi as the most used ride service in New York, have been tempered by scandal after scandal, ultimately leading its CEO, Travis Kalanick, to resign over the summer. Now...Read More»
As Google spinoff Waymo continues its march toward fully self-driving cars, it has reached a significant milepost: four million self-driven miles. On public roads. While that number is impressive—it would take one person three centuries of driving over 13,000 miles annually to match—the...Read More»
Uber will purchase up to 24,000 Volvo XC90 SUVs between 2019 and 2021, the ride-sharing company announced Monday. According to Volvo, the vehicles are an “autonomous driving-compatible base.” As the name suggests, they constitute the next step for Uber as the rideshare company looks for...Read More»
New York is already one of the most hotly-contested rideshare markets, with Uber surging ahead of the city’s famed Yellow Cabs and Lyft registering gains on both, in terms of rides hailed. Now, Lyft is folding the battle for the Big Apple into its overarching strategy, amplifying its East...Read More»
As if Japan's fleet of Toyota Crown and Nissan Cedric taxi cabs wasn't enough of a cultural identifier—they boast doily seats and an automatic rear passenger door—Toyota thinks it can build an even better cab. Not just better, but one that will carry people from all over the world for...Read More»
Just because you're riding in the back seat doesn't mean you're any safer in a crash, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. A report released this week revealed that four out of five adults who admitted that they didn't buckle up in the back said they didn't buckle up in cabs or...Read More»
Love them or loathe them, there's no denying that companies like Uber and Lyft are attractive to many consumers. Unlike most taxi fleets, ride-sharing services are app-based, they provide detailed estimates of when a car will arrive, they facilitate carpooling to cut down on fares, and of course...Read More»
We weren't invited to Uber's New Year's Eve party, but we have to imagine that company execs were double-fisting the Dom Perignon to blot out the memory of 2014. A new upgrade to the ridesharing start-up's smartphone app may signal a more sober approach to doing business in 2015. BACKGROUND Uber's...Read More»
As we've mentioned before, European cab drivers hate Uber. They've shouted, they've protested, they've clogged city streets, but they haven't done much to halt the spread of the world's favorite ad hoc taxi network -- until now, that is. According to Mashable, cab drivers in Germany recently took...Read More»
Lots of people dislike Uber. Many of them are cab drivers, who are suspicious/concerned/angry about the lack of restrictions governing Uber's ad hoc taxi network. Now, however, there's another, much broader group of people frustrated with the start-up: motorists. According to Valleywag, that's...Read More»
There are lots of great ways to make friends: a simple smile, a handshake, offerings of fudge. Upending an entire industry that employs millions of people around the world? Not on the list. But ridesharing/taxi startup Uber isn't here to make friends -- at least, not with cab companies. The San...Read More»
We've all been there: stuck in line, waiting to fork over a toll or parking fee, thinking to ourselves, "Couldn't I zip out of here, while the crossing arm is closing behind the person ahead of me? Couldn't I skip paying, just this once?" ALSO SEE: 2015 Toyota Camry Video: New York Auto Show It...Read More»
On New Year's Eve in San Francisco, a six-year-old girl was killed and her family members were seriously injured when they were struck by a vehicle while crossing the street. According to TechCrunch, the driver of that vehicle, Syed Muzzafar, worked for Uber. Uber has caused a big stir the past few...Read More»
Privacy ain't what it used to be. Just a decade or so ago, most of us paled at the thought of sharing our phone numbers and addresses with corporations, knowing that an onslaught of junk mail and telemarketing calls would follow any slip-up. Today, we distribute our contact info as freely as we'd...Read More»
New York’s iconic yellow cabs are about to get a dramatic makeover. With Ford’s venerable Crown Victoria now officially out of production, Nissan is stepping up to fill the big sedan’s equally big shoes with its NV200 van. That’s right. New York’s current fleet of...Read More»
