This Week In Rideshare: Lyft gets fined, Tesla hits a deer, and Uber drivers look to unions.
Lyft gets fined, Tesla hits a deer and drivers look to unionize. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
LYFT PAYS $2.1M FINE
Lyft pays a hefty fine after luring drivers with false earnings claim. TechCrunch reported:
Lyft has agreed to a $2.1 million settlement proposed by the FTC over the car-hailing company’s “deceptive earnings claims about how much money drivers could expect to make.”
As documented in the FTC’s complaint document, Lyft systematically inflated the incomes it advertised to drivers it was attempting to recruit in 2021 and 2022. For instance, in LA it suggested drivers would be offered up to $43 per hour. “Lyft failed to disclose that these amounts did not represent the income an average driver could expect to earn, but instead were based on the earnings of the top one-fifth of drivers,” and the difference was up to 30%.
“Lyft claimed that Drivers in New Jersey could earn up to $34 per hour when Lyft’s own calculations put the median earnings at only $25 per hour. In the same month, Lyft claimed that Drivers in Boston could earn up to $42 per hour when median earnings were just $33 per hour,” the FTC wrote in the complaint.
TESLA HITS DEER FULL SPEED
A Tesla using FSD hits a deer without ever slowing or stopping. Jalopnik reported:
Photos and video posted to Twitter by @TheSeekerOf42 show the before and after of a deer strike, during which the poster claimed he was using Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” software. Video shows the car approaching a deer in the road without slowing, and a photo of the front of the car shows the resulting damage: A cracked bumper, and a hood that’s both dented and “shifted almost an inch toward the windshield.”
This is the sort of edge case where LiDAR would have really helped. The Tesla’s computer vision appears to have missed the light-colored deer against the lighter-colored strip of pavement on the road, but sensors with actual 3D detection capabilities would likely have noticed the solid object standing in the car’s way.
UBER DRIVERS LOOK TO UNIONIZE
SouthCoast Uber and Lyft drivers are looking to unionize. The Herald News reported:
Question 3 in the upcoming election would decide whether rideshare drivers can unionize in a collective bargaining agreement with companies like Uber or Lyft.
Fennelly said of drivers like himself, “it’s a little unclear about how we would unionize, or what would be available to us if we unionize. Ideologically, I’m with unionization.”
According to Gill, Uber has reduced the amount of pay per mile a driver pockets for every trip. “The pay is not like it was. Before, it didn’t matter how close the ride was,” he said, remembering the base pay was near five dollars for a 2- or 3-mile ride. “Now, you get a ride, and they pay you four-something for it.”
Tips haven’t gone up to compensate for these deductions. Lately, Gill said, he used to drive for seven or eight hours to make $200. Now, he drives for 11 or 12 hours to reach that amount.
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