Technology and Computing
It’s been some time since Uber made its full service available inside messaging apps — most notably Facebook Messenger — but now it is rolling out to another one, BBM, with an eye on emerging markets. BBM is virtually dead in Western markets following the decline of BlackBerry phones, but it hasn’t died altogether. Now run by Indonesian telco Emtek, BBM still maintains a decentish following in Indonesia, other parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The ride-hailing company is rolling out…
Along with a new CEO, it looks like Uber is also about to get a little less creepy, as the company has now pledged to stop tracking users after rides. The company's practice of tracking user location five minutes after a ride has ended will be discontinued, according to a report from Reuters citing a comment from Uber's chief security officer. The tracking update, which was pushed to users last year, was meant to improve safety by allowing the company to track how often customers needed…
It’s been happening for months. The value of Uber’s shares has been falling on the secondary market, hammered by a barrage of press attention paid to its real and perceived misdeeds. That slip is widely seen as the reason Uber investors strong-armed CEO Travis Kalanick out of his role as CEO on Tuesday night. As numerous sources confirmed to us yesterday (and The Information first reported in late April), Uber is right now valued at roughly $50 billion by secondary shareholders — a far cry…
Next month, Uber will be testing a flat-fee program that will have commuters paying a lot less to get around town. The flat fare program will bring $2 UberPool rides and $7 UberX lifts to an invite-only group. Interested participants will have to pay to be in the program. Here’s how it works: lucky Uber riders can pay $20 for 20 rides at a flat fare, or $30 for 30 rides. That’s a $1 pre-payment per ride. After that, the…
At WWDC 2016, Apple’s virtual assistant Siri might have gotten its biggest update since it launched almost four years ago. The headliner is that Apple will finally open Siri up to third-party developers. The Siri software development kit brings access to applications and third-party content to Siri. For example, iOS users can send a WeChat message to their friends, by asking Siri to send a specific message in the app, and Siri will show you your message before it sends.…
A new car-sharing economy has already taken root, and it will continue to grow as self-driving vehicles come to market. According to a report today by ABI Research, 400 million people will rely on robotic car sharing by 2030. Robotic cars, like Google's in-house pod car, are completely autonomous. Google's pod car doesn't even have a steering wheel; it uses technology such as exterior cameras to see lanes and LIDAR, a type of radar, that uses lasers to illuminate objects around…
Uber and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have reached a settlement over the company's "God View" tool, which allowed employees to access and track the location of Uber riders and customers without obtaining permission. In 2014, one high-up Uber executive was found to have monitored the rider logs and location of a BuzzFeed Newsreporter without her knowledge. Subsequent reports on the incident led Uber to investigate and eventually discipline the employee, but also got the attention of lawmakers. As a result of…
Getting an Uber is already pretty easy, but soon you may not even have to open the app to request a ride. The app-based car service on Wednesday launched an Uber Ride Request Button that developers can easily integrate into their own iOS and Android apps with just a few lines of code. This feature could be especially handy in apps that help you find restaurant reviews, book reservations, order tickets, and so on. Imagine, for instance, looking up restaurant…
Taxi owners and lenders on Tuesday sued New York City and its Taxi and Limousine Commission, saying the proliferation of the popular ride-sharing business Uber was destroying their businesses and threatening their livelihoods. The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court accused the defendants of violating yellow cab drivers' exclusive right to pick up passengers on the street by letting Uber drivers who face fewer regulatory burdens pick up millions of passengers who use smartphones to hail rides. According to the…