Data Darwinism: reactions & reflections
My post, “Uber, Data Darwinism and the future of work” sparked a conversation. Here is a sampling of the reaction and reflection from the blog world. Read more »
Shervin Pishevar of Menlo VC to start Sherpa, a startup foundry
His new venture will help build other companies, and will work with large corporations and other founders to come up with ideas. Read more »
Uber launches new enterprise product to hook employees on the service
photo: courtesy Uber
Uber rolled out a product called Uber perks on Thursday that will allow companies to give credits to employees on a month by month basis, potentially hooking employees on the service that allows them to summon cars via their smartphones. Read more »
Uber and Lyft get California’s blessing for their car services
Uber and Lyft made progress this week toward establishing the legality of next-generation taxis and ridesharing in California, overcoming some earlier hurdles with government regulation and potentially opening the door for other companies to enter the market. Read more »
Mobile’s future is in finding solutions to the problems that are all around us
photo: Felix Mizioznikov/Shutterstock.com
Until now, the mobile revolution has been about squeezing the desktop internet onto portable devices. Entrepreneur Edward Aten says the real revolution for smartphones is about fulfilling a whole new set of needs that people have in their daily lives. Read more »
Revealed: the finalists for the 2012 Crunchies
photo: courtesy of TechCrunch
Five finalists have been chosen in 20 different categories for the 2012 Crunchies awards, and we’re proud to release the worthy nominees today. Voting for the winners starts today, and the winners will be announced January 31st. Read more »
NYC approves one-year pilot of taxi e-hailing
New York is getting on board with e-hailing services for taxi cabs though it’s doing so slowly. The Taxi and Limousine Commission approved a one-year pilot program that will allow companies like Uber, Hailo and others to offer taxi hailing from a smartphone. Read more »
Cabulous re-brands under new name FlyWheel, adds black cars to lineup
Cabulous, formerly the app known for hailing taxis in major U.S. cities, is re-branding as Flywheel on Thursday, promising to add more transportation options like black cars and eventually expand internationally as part of a push to solve all of a consumer’s transportation needs. Read more »
Uber set to ride in DC with new legislation to support transportation startups
Uber may have found a way to work with the city of D.C., which approved legislation that will regulate and authorize startups like Uber to operate in the city. The cooperation between the often contentious startup and the government could provide a model for others. Read more »
Cabbies sue to drive car service Uber out of San Francisco
San Francisco cab drivers are bringing a class action suit against Uber, claiming that the car service should be regulated like other taxis. The suit is part of a nationwide dispute pitting upstarts against the incumbent taxi industry. Read more »
How Uber is like Southwest Air: The art of reinventing an industry
photo: Shutterstock
With an ailing economy where manufacturing jobs are gone forever, what hope does America have? Mark Sigal of Unicorn Labs says companies—and our country—can prosper again only by embracing a unified approach to business, or an ethos of Indivisibility. Read more »
Google’s same-day delivery trial is part of the web’s next shift
The online world and the real world still don’t meet in many places. But with same-day delivery Google may be trying to understand how to make those two worlds mesh, while also improving its ability to track how well its ads work. Read more »
Airbnb, Coursera and Uber: The rise of the disruption economy
photo: Flickr user Images of Money
We’re used to how the social web has disrupted media, but that same wave is moving through other industries, driven by startups like Airbnb, Coursera and Uber — and while regulators and entrenched industries are trying to fight it, the trend behind that wave is unstoppable. Read more »
Uber closes down taxi service in NYC
Uber’s attempt to expand its on-demand town car service in New York to the realm of taxis could have reached a roadblock, with The Verge reporting that the company is scaling back the city’s taxi service and asking drivers to return their electronic devices used to operate the Uber system. Read more »
MyTaxi rides into U.S. market with a trick up its sleeve
Taxi-hailing apps are already starting to crowd the U.S. market, but the German myTaxi may just have an edge. It already has 2.3 million users, for one thing, but it also has a clever plan in mind. Read more »
Chicago cab companies sue ‘hip’ car service Uber for pocketing 50% of driver tips
Popular new car service Uber is in a fight with taxi lobbies in cities across the country. Cab companies hit Uber hard in Chicago this week with a lawsuit that claims it is deceiving customers. Read more »
Uber offers free 1920′s “gangster” rides in HBO tie-in
An upstart car service is offering Manhattan residents free rides in gangster-era automobiles in a novel promotional gambit for the TV show Boardwalk Empire. Read more »
Uber hits speed bump in Boston
The Massachusetts Division of Standards says there is no accepted standard for using GPS devices to set the price of transportation, and Uber should stop operating in the greater Boston area until such a standard emerges. Uber says it will forge ahead. Read more »
Uber to offer lower cost rides via hybrids
Uber, the startup that has disrupted taxis everywhere with its on demand car service, plans to launch a new lower cost, and greener hybrid option for customers this week, according to the New York Times. Read more »
If Uber wants London, it faces the fight of its life
Private car hire service Uber is preparing to hit the British capital just in time for the Olympics, and the reality is that London, with its iconic black cab service, has the potential to make — or break — Silicon Valley’s latest transportation darling. Read more »
Why San Francisco is a test bed for transportation tech
You may have noticed there’s a growing amount of alternative, tech-focused, ways to get around San Francisco these days. Why is San Francisco so chock-full of these services? Read more »
Flash Valet’s mobile app accelerates your car’s return
Folks that like valet parking may like it even more thanks to Flash Valet, a mobile app and platform that speeds both a car’s return as well as the valet payment. The app lets customers request their car or pay their fee and tip by phone. Read more »
UbiCabs drives headlong into London taxi battle
London’s increasingly competitive taxi app space has a new player launching officially on Thursday: Ubicabs, which wants to grab a slice of the British capital’s lucrative transport market. Investor Sean Phelan explains why he thinks it can succeed. Read more »
The one-night stand, quantified and visualized by Uber
In the latest dispatch from the too-much-information bureau, on-demand ride service Uber has calculated the prevalence of one-night stands among its customer base. It’s another example of what companies can find out if they’re just able to think of the right questions. Read more »
Subscriber Content
12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
If you’re like many of us, you’re already thinking over some New Year’s resolutions that will make you a better “you” in 2012. But how are the tech industries’ thought leaders approaching the new year? We asked 12 of them for their resolutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Next-generation sharing economies: why real-time matters most
Mark Gilbreath of LiquidSpace predicts that the driving force of the sharing economy will become time, and the companies that can do business in real-time will occupy a more strategic, and profitable, place in the ecosystem. Read more »
Uber All Set To Pick Up New VC Money
Uber, formerly known as Uber Cab, is a much talked about San Francisco-based start-up and it is close to raising a substantial new funding in a round led by Benchmark Capital. Uber raised $1.25 million in seed funding from First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital and others. Read more »
