As a researcher in unmanned aerial systems, I was asked recently if I would ride on an Uber Air taxi. After a brief ponder, my answer is “yes”.
Uber has sparked protests around the world. It is seen as exploiting its own drivers and harming those employed in regulated taxi industries.
Justin Lane/AAP
Uber’s IPO will value the company at more than $80 billion, yet the data it collects on its users may be worth even more – and creates the potential for dangerous manipulation.
Uber drivers protest outside of the New York Stock Exchange.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
The Uber driver walkout raises questions about how workers can fight for better pay and benefits in the age of the gig economy – a topic frequently on the minds of Conversation scholars.
Drivers for the ride-hailing giant Uber are planning a national day of action to protest labour conditions.
Dan Gold/Unsplash
Drivers for Uber, one of the most successful companies in the gig economy are set to strike by turning their apps off for one day this week as their company prepares for its IPO.
Uber drivers live by the app.
Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
One of Uber’s selling points is that a driver is always available to pick up a rider within minutes. But the drivers who make this possible aren’t being compensated for the time they spend waiting.
Automation can often get ahead of safety regulators’ efforts.
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Government regulators and industry experts often overlook the complexities and risks of human-technology interactions and increasingly rely on companies’ voluntary oversight and self-assessments.
The delivery riders consider that the correction of possible errors is part of their missions, even if they are not remunerated for these additional tasks.
Massimo Parisi / Shutterstock
The sharing economy is often romanticised as a shift away from the evils of capitalism to a more communal and socially conscious way of life. But is this simply clever marketing?
Companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb and Tesla are redefining key aspects of daily life such as work, mobility and leisure, using our cities as laboratories for their innovations.
A race to dominate the emerging tech-driven mobility sector is happening in cities around the world.
Jakub Kaminski/EPA
The rise of superstar companies that dominate their industries may be partly to blame for the lack of wage growth in the US in recent years. It could also suggest a solution.
Ride-hailing services have gone global, and even women in Saudi Arabia – only recently given the right to drive – are getting in on the action. In this June 2018 photo, a female driver for Careem, a regional ride-hailing Uber competitor, is seen behind the wheel.
AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Canada is simply a consumer of ride-hailing services, and has not established any of its own Ubers or Lyfts, even as tiny countries like Estonia get in on the game. That needs to change.
Trump meets with his ‘board.’
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
More people are choosing to work in shared spaces, and there are many benefits of this to the local economy, as well as downsides. Local governments should work with both.