Uber’s past keeps giving headaches to Uber’s present management. This time, the company is banned in Tel Aviv, Israel. Uber has been ordered to halt a trial service in Tel Aviv that the U.S. ride-hailing company had hoped would pave the way for full operations in Israel. Given that Uber is in more than 600 […]
Month: November 2017
Tomorrow is the day existing Uber investors find out whether the drama has been worthwhile: Tuesday is when a multi-billion dollar “tender offer” from Japanese investment giant SoftBank is expected to begin, according to sources tracking the process, giving Uber shareholders the chance to sell some of their stock or hold fast until the company […]
Everyone is testing autonomous vehicles in California these days: Ride-hailing company Lyft has received permission to test autonomous vehicles in California by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, according to a report from Reuters. Lyft is the latest to receive permission in California and joins companies like Waymo and Apple, as well as automakers Subaru, Ford, Volkswagen, […]
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Uber’s Eternally Bad Weeks
Pity Dara Khosrowshahi, who has done yeoman’s work neatening the Uber business in the wake of its uproarious startup years. He can’t get a break from the previous mischief committed by the company’s founder. Yet, I suspect Khosrowshahi is satisfied with his work to date, as the Uber board probably is, as well. Last week, […]
Amazon today introduced AWS (Amazon Web Services) Elemental Media Services, a suite of video production and distribution tools that demonstrate, once again, the growing importance of video to local marketing and engagement. Elemental Media Services, like Azure Media Services from Microsoft and others, provide professional grade tools for virtually any organization to use. Enterprise capabilities […]
Insurance by the hour. A billing cadence or a business model? Founded by Harry Franks, Sten Saar and Stuart Kelly in 2016, Zego has set out to re-invent commercial insurance for self-employed people, with a particular focus on contractors powering various parts of the gig economy. Its first product is pay-as-you-go scooter and car insurance […]
A “strike” in on-demand is failing to show up for work, something that is very hard to enforce in a virtual community. With Instacart’s “commission” structure, which provides the base pay for a delivery, local factors can bring compensation way down, to “just $1” in Evansville, Indiana. One of the strike’s leaders is Matthew Telles, […]
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We’re joining Lyft! – Kamcord
Kamcord, a game streaming developer, has been acquired by Lyft and announced it is closing existing services to focus on video engagement in autonomous Lyft vehicles. Interesting. The transportation space is very different from mobile live streaming but we see a lot of parallels. Prior to Kamcord, broadcasting your mobile screen involved cables and desktop […]
Uber and Volvo move to deliver the first fleet of autonomous ride-sharing cars. This comes sooner than many expected, and raises a very important question about Uber, which has relied on drivers to supply, clean, and maintain cars in the past: Is there any margin in autonomous vehicles? The acquisition of 24,000 self-driving cars for […]
U.K. politicians have made gig work a hot-button issue as Tories and Labour vie for post-Brexit influence. This will spread to the U.S.,. and companies need to get ahead of regulators by finding solutions for on-demand work benefits and safety net services. Companies should face punitive fines for falsely classifying workers as self-employed and denying […]