Lyft

Lyft Partners With Waze to Pick Better Routes

For ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft with tens of thousands of cars on the road, small optimizations can make rides shorter and shareholders richer. So, Lyft’s announcement today that it’s switching to Google-owned Waze is only a surprise because it’s taken so long. Waze is rapidly becoming the number-one in-car navigation service, thanks to…

7 Great Ways to Spend Obama’s Autonomous Car Cash

Last week, President Obama announced plans to earmark a whopping $4 billion for autonomous vehicle research. These funds will be dispersed to pilot programs all over the country during the next decade—but where and how the money is spent will determine just how big a step forward Obama’s plan really is. Autonomous cars have driven…

Uber (and Lyft) Finally Bankrupted San Francisco’s Favorite Taxi Company

Here’s one we probably saw coming. San Francisco’s largest taxi company is filing for bankruptcy, citing competition from Uber and Lyft. But it’s not too late for Yellow Cab yet. The SF Examiner has a statement from the Yellow Cab Co-Op that points out an interesting reason for their slumping business. It’s not that riders…

GM Just Bet Half a Billion Dollars on Building Self-Driving Cars With Lyft

Detroit is more than a little worried about the tech-centric future of automobiles, namely the ones that drive themselves. So it’s no surprise that GM is investing $500 million in Lyft to build a network of autonomous cars. Why not just buy the whole company?! Well, that’s not a crazy idea. GM’s massive new investment…

California Taxi Industry Finally Has Its Own App, Only Four Years Too Late

The task of competing with logistics giants Uber and Lyft seems more soul-crushing than ever. Uber’s valued at something like $70 billion. Lyft has those pink mustaches. How’s the everyman cab supposed to compete? Government support, of course. A recent ruling from the California Division of Measurement Standards will let a small startup called FlyWheel…

Uber and Lyft Drivers Can Now Unionize in Seattle 

Seattle City Council has unanimously passed a bill allowing drivers for Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing services to form unions. Seattle is the first US city to allow these drivers a way to collectively bargain. This means drivers will be able negotiate their salaries and working conditions as a unit. It does not mean, however,…

Report: Uber Thinks Lyft’s CTO Helped Hack Its Driver Database 

Uber still doesn’t know who hacked iteight months ago, exposing the personal data of 50,000 drivers. But the hunt is increasing tension between rival ride-hailing apps. According to a Reuters report, Uber is closing in on Lyft CTO Chris Lambert as a possible accomplice to its hacker. Sources told Reuters that a suspicious Comcast IP…

Long Beach Is Rethinking Its Taxis to Be More Like Ubers

Cities are doing a lot of hemming and hawing when it comes to the rideshare apps that are devouring their taxi businesses. In one of the more progressive moves, the Southern California city of Long Beach is revamping its taxi fleet with a big design and tech upgrade so they can tackle these startups head…

The FTC Wants Your Opinion On Airbnb, Uber and Lyft

Should cities treat Airbnb rentals like any other hotel room? What kind of insurance should Uber drivers carry to protect passengers? These are just some of the questions that the Federal Trade Commission will (probably) be discussing in an upcoming workshop exploring the so-called “sharing economy.” And it wants to hear from you. Despite fears…

How Much Do You Spend on Uber? 

I need to make a confession. Uber has terrible business practices, but makes up for it by being almost disturbingly less expensive than cabs. And I keep getting “inexpensive” mixed up with “free.” I spent the past year convincing myself that the only reason I use Uber is because it’s so cheap. When I actually…

6 Uber Alternatives Because Uber Is Run By Dirtbags

Have you had it with Uber yet? The company price-gouges customers, screws over its drivers, and now, an Uber exec just publicly outlined a cavalier plan to spy on journalists in retaliation for critical coverage. Good news! You don’t have to use it anymore. You can use these alternatives instead. Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith reports…

Uber Is Currently Fighting the Battle That Jitneys Lost 100 Years Ago

The mid-1910s saw an explosion of people driving unlicensed cabs. They were called jitneys (slang for a nickel, which was also what they typically cost) and cities across the U.S. scrambled to regulate them. Today, cities around the world are struggling to regulate modern-day jitney coordination companies—ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft. But unlike the…

Flytenow Is The Airplane Rideshare Service You Can Actually Afford

Admit it: You’ve always wanted to ride in a private plane. Imagine stretching out your legs and listening to music without headphones. What luxury! Too bad, you probably can’t afford it. But, with Flytenow, you just might. Think of it as a Lyft for airplanes. Flytenow aims to connect pilots looking to rack up hours…

What Happened When Ice Cube, Kevin Hart and Conan Shared a Lyft Car

Hiring you and your car out on Lyft can be an amusing experience—especially if Ice Cube, Kevin Hart and Conan are the people who want to get a lift. The results are, as you’d expect, hilarious. Watch it now, I implore you. You won’t regret it. [Team Coco]

UberX in LA: It’s Illegal. It’s Great. It Needs to Stop.

Despite the fact that it’s currently banned in Los Angeles, UberX is defiantly still up and running. I used it for the first time this weekend. This so-called ride-sharing service from San Francisco-based Uber Technologies is supposedly the future of cabs. Much like similar services Lyft and Sidecar, UberX seeks to “disrupt” the taxi industry…

Sorry Uber, Los Angeles Has Been Banning Ride-Shares For a Century

This week the city of Los Angeles sent a cease-and-desist letter to ride-sharing app companies Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. The city and Los Angeles Yellow Cab claim that these services are “rogue taxis” that are “bypassing all safety regulations created to protect riders and drivers.” But this isn’t the first time that this town has…

Check out this excellent in depth exploration of the world of “ridesharing” and Lyft, the AirBnB of taxi services. Turns out it’s not all wine and roses when people stop being polite and start being livery cabs.