Category Archives: business trend

INTERIM. Sharing Economy + Self Driving Cars. Tesloop.

What comapny is offering ride share of self-driving cars? Tesla

How does long range ride share work? 

  • Instead of ride share drivers, Tesloop uses “pilots”
  • Las Vegas to Los Angeles is less than $100 each way

Where is tesloop operating? Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona

Tech Crunch | Tesloop offers city-to-city autonomous travel in a Tesla

TRENDING. Port. Trucker Classification.

What’s the issue about Ports and trucking companies? Whether drivers of trucks at ports are employees of the trucking companies or independent contractors

What’s the big deal whether truckers at ports are employees or not? 

  • It is a legal issue that has wrapped up ride share companies & FEDEX
  • Uber paid more than $100 M to settle claims
  • FedEx settled at $228 Million on a driver classification suit

Where is this issue hitting the cost of goods at ports & trucking costs? 

  • Ports of Long…

New Kid on the block: Self Driving Car Coalition

What companies are members of the new self-driving car coalition? Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Ford Motor Co. and Uber Technologies Inc.,

What is the goals of the coalition?

  • advocate for safety regulations for self-driving cars
  • bring self driving cars to American roads

What are their arguments supporting self driving cars?

  • Self driving cars will prevent accidents
  • Self driving cars will save lives by preventing accidents
  • Self driving cars will reduce road congestion

Fuel Fix | Coalition…

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. Uber Ultimatum to Houston. 3 Reasons Uber May Leave.

What ultimatum did Uber issue to Houston? Change your ordinance or Uber is out…

What are 3 reasons behind the ultimatium?

  • Bureaucracy isn’t the answer. City regulations are too onerous on drivers 
  • Safety Checks should be Use Modern Tech. Uber thinks its background checks are better for rider safety
  • Houston Stands in the Way of Economic Opportunity for Drivers. City regulations are harming part time drivers that could benefit most from flexible economic opportunities

Houston…

2016 Attorney General Opinion. License Plate Readers. Insurance Enforcement. Procurement FAIL.

What is the question answered by Attorney General Opinion KP-0076? Whether Bowie County can engage a private company to use a license plate reader data looking for vehicles that don’t have liability insurance?

Is there a fee splitting arangement in this scenario? Yes, the vehcile owner will get a letter from the District Attorney office, and fees will be split 50-50 between the County and the company.

Can this fee splitting arrangement with automatic license plate readers…

INTERIM. Ride Share Data. New Report. Government Data Requests Impact 11+ million.

Where did the ride share data report originate? UBER produced its first ever transparency report

The numbers of data requests from July 2015 to December 2015:

  • 33 requests from government agencies
  • 11,644,000 riders affected
  • 583,000 drivers affected
  • California, NYC, and Chicago governmental entities requested the most data
  • 517,000 riders & 14,000 drivers impacted by a Houston, TX data request
  • 370 riders & 370 drivers impacted by a San Antonio, TX data request

Uber | Transparency…

The $2.2 Million + Ride Share Local Election. Ride Share Ordinance Campaign by the Numbers

  • 5 weeks of fundraising left
  • Ride Share Comapnies have contributed $2.2 million
  • 7th of May is election day
  • The cost of Mayor Adler’s campaign: $1.2 million 

Statesman | Uber, Lyft donate nearly $2.2 million to effort to pass Prop. 1 in May

KUT | Uber, Lyft Have Spent More Than $2 Million on Prop 1 Campaign So Far

INTERIM CALLING. 2 Reasons Tech Companies Oppose Bills to Regulate Ride Share Drivers. 2 Locals Moving Bills.

  • Drivers should be free to earn what they want, when they want to earn it
  • Bills directed at the worker status in the sharing economy unfairly target these contract driver over other industries that also utilize contract workers

What governmental bodies are moving this type of sharing economy legislation, that targets ride share drivers?

  • Seattle by ordinance
  • California, pending AB 1727

The Recorder | Internet Association Takes Shot at Gig-Economy Bill

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. Cabs Charging a Surcharge for Credit Cards.

Where is this issue bubbling? Chicago. A Chicago Alderman wants to allow cabbies to be able to charge a 50cents surcharge for the use of credit cards to put more money into cabbie pockets.

What do cabbies have to do with the sharing economy? Cabs are adjusting their business models to be in the same market as ride share is a cash free business.

Chicago Tribune | Morning Spin: City Hall warns cabbies on 50-cent credit card surcharge

High Speed Rail Through the South. Texas to Georgia. 5 Bits Informed intel.

Who is proposing this? Robert Finley at The Finley group

What is this high speed rail connecting? Major metro areas from Dallas to Atlanta, a total of 816 miles

Is there a name for this project?   Interstate-20 High Speed Rail Express or Interstate 20 eXpress

Is the project public or private? Both, a public-private partnership

How serious is this project? Finley said he already has verbal commitments from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

Birmingham Business Journal…