This Week In Rideshare: Pot, Fees, and Ads.
Uber Eats delivers pot, Lyft increases fees and Uber launches ads. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
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MONDAY 10/17/22
Uber Eats will start delivering pot in Toronto. Axios reported:
Uber Eats customers in Toronto will be able to order cannabis starting Monday, thanks to a new partnership with Leafly.
How it works: Those in Toronto aged 19 years old and over will be able to order in the app as they would from a restaurant, although when searching for cannabis users will be warned they must be of legal age.
However, deliveries will be made by the cannabis retailer’s staff rather than an independent driver.
TUESDAY 10/18/22
Lyft charges more per ride. TechCrunch reported:
Lyft is increasing the service fees its riders in the U.S. pay for each ride. The rise in cost, which will go directly to Lyft, aims to cover the higher costs of insurance, reports Reuters.
The spokesperson said the increase averages less than $0.50 per trip nationally, but YipitData’s numbers showed the service fee went up by an average of about $0.60, or an 18% increase, which implies a 3% increase in the cost of an average ride.
The data also showed Lyft increased its service fee for riders in almost all 150 U.S. markets, except New York, in the first week of October.
WEDNESDAY 10/19/22
Your next Uber ride may come with ads. CNN reported:
Uber is launching an in-house advertising division and rolling out its own form of targeted digital ads as it seeks to develop new revenue sources.
Uber (UBER) at the same time unveiled its new in-app “Journey Ads” service, which lets marketers place ads within the Uber app to reach customers at each step on their trips. This means the customers will be served ads when they check to see how far away their driver is, or follow the route of their journey via the app.
Users can opt out of targeted ads on the Uber app at any time, Grether told the Wall Street Journal.
THURSDAY 10/20/22
The verdict of the former Uber ex-CSO raises more questions than answers. Cyber Security Dive added:
The former chief security officer of Uber was convicted in a historic federal trial earlier this month, after the defendant was charged with covering up a ransomware attack while his firm was under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for prior lapses in data protection.
Sullivan paid the two hackers $100,000 in bitcoin and made them sign non-disclosure agreements to keep the attack a secret, despite not knowing their real names — their identity was later discovered.
Another key question raised by this case is, if Sullivan could be convicted on these charges, why are other senior executives, C-suite officials and corporate board members allowed to walk away without any culpability?
If a decision was made to limit the information disclosed about the incident, Vezina argues the CISO was not acting alone.
FRIDAY 10/21/22
Uber and Lyft drivers are pressing lawmakers for change. Minnesota Reformer reported:
Drivers say the companies continue to gobble up more of each fare — more than 60% by their estimates — even as they bear the burden of rising prices for gas, cars and insurance. Drivers also complain the companies have unfairly terminated drivers and done little to protect them from dangerous passengers.
Ali, whose group now includes 1,000 members after starting about four months ago, said drivers would rather remain independent contractors if the state enacts protections for them. Ali pointed to Washington state, which now requires Uber and Lyft to provide workers with a minimum wage, paid sick leave and access to a third-party appeals process for deactivation.
“Drivers cannot solve these issues individually,” Ali said. “If we don’t organize and come together and unite our voices, there is no way we can lay a finger on any of these issues.”
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