corporation tries to bully city and loses :Uber in Austin

[rdking647]

teh city of austin passed a law that would have required Uber and lyft drivers to get fingerprint checks before driving. it would have also banned then from picking up and dropping off passengers in traffic lanes.

Uber and Lyft decided to try and get the law overturned at the ballot box. They wrote a ballot proposition and got enough signatures to put if on the ballot. then they spend almost 9 million dollars to get the repeal passed, which was over 7x the amount that was spend on the last mayoral election. they threatend to leave town over fingerprints.

their opponents on the other hand spend 80x less to keep the fingerprint law.
Uber and Lyft were sending out political flyers at the rate of 3-4 a day in my mailbox. a lot of the claims made on their flyers where misleading at best

yesterday was the election. Uber lost 56-44.
while they say they are leaving tomorrow morning other ride sharing companies have already said they are staying.

If Uber hadnt tried to bully austin they would have probably won. but they went so far overboard that austin said enough is enough.

goodbye Uber. dont let the door hit you on the way out

[Kip Humphrey]

1. Libertarian Uber, meet government of the people.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. Good...

Uber has almost zero regulation, no accountability.

[rdking647]

3. now that they lost

its amazing how they are blaming their defeat on over reaching government.

new york city requires fingerprinting of Uber drivers. i dont see Uber threatening to leave there

[Eleanors38]

5. Ha! Uber was husslin' their "My way or the highway" model.

[Eleanors38]

4. Good to see the activism of Old School Austin beat this issue back.

The GOP and the RW have fought long and hard to neutralize and defeat the remnant of progressive politics in Austin. Get this: the Uber/Lyft axis out spent the opposition $9,000,000 to $200,00. For a week I received two cardboard mailings a day from this High-Fructose Libertarian outfit; I think folks got sick of their agitprop.

The betting is Uber will head for the capitol to get some Austin-bashing (Moscow-on-the-Colorado) legislation through which would give the Billionaires line-item legislation. If they don't get their way, there might be some competition here for surface transport services. One tech commentator said the over all biz model for ride sharing is simple and not very capital intensive. Uber doesn't want the competition, esp. if drivers form co-ops. In the mean time, other smaller companies have already agreed to follow the rules Uber was breaking, so there must be a profit to be made.

[rdking647]

7. getme is on eof the new ride sharing companies

i wouldnt have even bothered voting in the election if it wasnt for ubers heavy handed tactics. daily they filled my mailbox with junk,plus texting customers in violation of fcc rules etc made me think they needed to be taken down a notch or 10

[Eleanors38]

12. I call it High-fructose Libertarianism. Grassroots ain't there, just the usual millions.

[Lizzie Poppet]

6. Excellent!

Uber is a blight.

[zappaman]

13. I've used it once or twice and don't really have strong feeling about Uber either way, but

I'm curious why you think it's a blight?

[Texasgal]

8. I voted against Prop 1

and I am glad we won!

Uber: You cannot set up shop in my fair city and not follow the rules. You cannot operate willy nilly. I know you are not leaving because Austin is your cash cow. Stop the whining and get back to work.

Thank you citizens of Austin! We will not tolerate million dollar corporations to push us around!

[rdking647]

9. and a rethug legislator already want to overturn austins law

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/05/08/top-senator-announces-ridesharing-legislation/

[Eleanors38]

14. Heh. "Government over-reach."

[UTUSN]

10. & George PEE Shrub said (Google it) "ATX" is a loser

[Nye Bevan]

11. Democracy at work.

If Austin wants to pass regulations that drive Uber and Lyft away they have every right to do so. But if I lived in Austin I would be royally pissed, as I love Uber.

[Eleanors38]

15. Uber will "drive" itself away, or compromise, stay, and make millions.