A passenger gets assaulted, epic robotaxi fail and Uber pays $15M. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
A rideshare passenger was assaulted in Chicago. CBS News reported:
According to Chicago police, the 29-year-old woman was assaulted in the 800 block of West Superior Street, just west of Halsted Street and close to the Bally's Chicago casino construction site, around 2:30 a.m.
Police sources said the suspected the victim was a rideshare passenger. She was taken to St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital for an evaluation.
The driver of the gray Toyota Prius in which the woman had been a passenger tried to pull away and flee, but he struck a pole and was taken into police custody, police said.
“Ultimately, we want to make sure that people to have the tools necessary to arm themselves with safe practices anytime that they use a rideshare,” said Bryant Greening of Legal Rideshare, the first firm in the U.S. entirely dedicated to Uber, Lyft and other rideshare-related accident and injury claims.
“If something feels off about the ride, don't get in the car. If during the ride, something goes wrong, contact the police or contact a loved one right away,” Bryant said. “Those senses we have that something seems slightly off? They're usually right.”
Tesla's robotaxi has an epic fail. The Street reported.
Frank Downing and Sam Korus, two of Ark's research directors, filmed themselves taking a field trip (or a “real world use case,” as Korus puts it) in the Robotaxi in Austin.
Our Ark hero Frank Downing gets into a third Robotaxi (it's easy to keep track, since the safety monitor keeps changing), and that's when the trouble starts.
The autonomous vehicle pulls into the left turning lane on a two-way street before it glitches and starts jerking aggressively, as if it didn't know what to do next.
The video is edited after that, but from what can be gathered, the safety monitor turns on the hazard lights and calls for live support, as Tesla Robotaxis are designed for remote supervision.
The vehicle is stuck in the left turning lane despite being otherwise fully operational, as the passenger and monitor wait for tech support.
Uber Eats pays up. King5 reported:
The company will pay $14,991,841.49 in back pay, interest, damages and civil penalties to 16,120 affected workers by Sept. 1 as part of the settlement, which was reached July 18. It will also pay the city of Seattle $33,680.26 in fines.
The first investigation found Uber Eats violated the city's Independent Contractor Protections law. A worker complained about the company's Boost promotion, where Uber Eats advertised Boost earnings multipliers during busy times and locations. It said workers could multiply their base fare by a specific number on a map and add earnings to delivery fares. However, the OLS investigation found Uber Eats didn't disclose that the Boost multiplier only applied to part of the worker's fare and that the dollar amount shown already included contributions from the promotion.
The investigation also found Uber Eats paid workers less than the amount shown on pre-work offer cards.
The majority of the settlement — more than $13 million — was related to alleged violations of the Independent Contractor Protections law.
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