This Week in Rideshare: Chicago, Tesla and Reports.
Chicago drivers adapt, people tip in Teslas and Uber releases another safety report. LegalRideshare breaks it down
MONDAY 6/27/22
Chicago gig workers are adapting to challenges in gas and expenses. Chicago Sun-Times reported:
Quintanilla — who also works in the hospitality industry — drives a Toyota Prius, which uses a gasoline engine and electric motor to power the car, to save on gas and stays in the Loop during peak hours to draw better tips and tries to take trips under 30 minutes. It’s part of his strategy to make as much as he can in the gig economy while trying to maximize his fuel.
“I go to work picking up people, and I usually make $40 to $50,” Quintanilla said in Spanish. “Going back home, I make another $50 to $60. This is taking advantage, especially now, of the gas prices. I don’t waste a mile.”
TUESDAY 6/28/22
The former Uber security chief is facing driver fraud charges. Bloomberg reported:
Prosecutors “adequately stated that obtaining money from Uber drivers, in the form of service fees, was an object of Sullivan’s alleged scheme,” Orrick wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “There may have been other objects of the alleged scheme,” the judge wrote, adding that the revised indictment including the wire fraud charges “sufficiently asserts that this was one.”
Orrick said at a June 2 hearing that while he might be blocked under the law from throwing out the fraud charges, he also had misgivings about the legitimacy of the counts — and the government’s case more broadly.
WEDNESDAY 6/29/22
An Uber driver has doubled her tips…by switching to a Tesla. Yahoo! news reported:
Barnes said she made $2,600 in tips during a 25-day period of driving the Tesla. She usually made around $800 to $1,000 over the same period in her Camry, she said.
“They’re a lot more generous,” Barnes said of her customers, per Bloomberg.
Barnes, who drives mostly around Los Angeles, is one of nearly 15,000 Uber drivers to have leased a Tesla since the company signed a deal with the car rental firm Hertz in October 2021, per Bloomberg. Uber also offers drivers a $1-per-ride zero-emissions incentive if they opt for an electric car.
Barnes told Bloomberg she swapped her Toyota for the Tesla because the cost of filling up the Toyota jumped from around $60 to $100.
THURSDAY 6/30/22
A man who shot at his Lyft driver has been arrested. 5 News reported:
Van Buren Police Chief Jamie Hammond says a Lyft driver picked up 34-year-old DeAngelo Lee in Fort Smith and when they drove to Van Buren, an altercation took place and both the driver and Lee “went for” their own guns. Lee allegedly “jumped out, shot at the car and fled.”
FRIDAY 7/1/22
Uber released another safety report with more concerning stats. NBC news added:
Uber reported 141 incidents of rape and 998 incidents of sexual assault overall in 2020, even as the business was crippled by the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic and ridership plummeted, according the company’s 2019–2020 U.S. Safety Report released Thursday.
Uber received 3,824 reports of sexual assault and misconduct from 2019 to 2020, according to the report, the second of its kind.
That number is a 38% decrease compared to the 5,981 incidents reported from 2017–2018, according to company data released in 2019.
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