Lyft hits the chopping block, drivers aren't exempt, and cabbies can't sue. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
Lyft's new CEO says layoffs are coming. The Guardian reported:
The ride-hailing service Lyft is preparing to lay off hundreds of employees just days after its new CEO, David Risher, began steering the company with an eye toward driving down costs to help bring its fares more in line with its biggest rival, Uber.
Risher, a former Amazon executive, informed Lyft's workforce of more than 4,000 employees in an email posted online on Friday that a “significant” number of them will lose their jobs. The message came at the end of his first week as Lyft's CEO.
The note did not specify how many people would be jettisoned, but the Wall Street Journal reported that at least 1,200 employees will be laid off. The report cited unidentified people familiar with the cost-cutting plans.
Chinese EV giant says autonomous driving is impossible. Inside EVs added:
BYD, which is China's largest electric vehicle seller, believes that fully autonomous driving is “basically impossible” and that the technology behind such driver assistance systems would be better suited to manufacturing.
The quote comes from Li Yunfei, one of BYD's spokespeople, who told reporters at the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show that self-driving cars are probably a false proposition, as outlined by CNBC, adding that it would be difficult to pinpoint who is at fault in the case of a traffic accident involving a self-driving vehicle.
“We think self-driving tech that's fully separated from humans is very, very far away, and basically impossible,” Li said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
Uber drivers are not interstate workers. Reuters explains:
Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) drivers are not exempt from a U.S. law requiring them to bring work-related legal disputes in private arbitration rather than joining class action lawsuits in court, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday.
A panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Uber drivers do not qualify for an exemption from the arbitration law for workers involved in interstate commerce because they rarely cross state lines when transporting passengers.
The question of whether the exemption applies to Uber drivers and other gig workers is crucial because it determines whether they can bring large-scale class actions or must individually arbitrate legal claims. Arbitration is often impractical because of the small sums at stake in individual cases.
Amazon Flex app violates privacy law in Illinois. Top Class Actions explains:
Amazon fails to obtain the required informed consent before collecting, storing and disseminating biometric identifiers obtained from its Amazon Flex users, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Rodneka Perry claims Amazon requires Flex users to have their facial geometry collected and stored.
Perry argues Amazon uses its Rekognition image-recognition technology to capture Amazon Flex users' image data but fails to make clear how long it retains the biometric identifiers and information.
“Notwithstanding the clear and unequivocal requirements of the law, Amazon knowingly disregards Plaintiff's and other similarly situated users' statutorily protected privacy rights,” the Amazon class action states.
Perry wants to represent an Illinois class of Amazon Flex users who had their facial geometry scans or any other biometric information, collected, captured, received or otherwise obtained, maintained, stored, used, disclosed or disseminated by Amazon.
NYC cabbies can't sue Uber over medallions. Autoblog explains:
New York's top state court on Thursday threw out claims by yellow cab operators that New York City diminished the value of their taxi licenses by failing to rein in app-based competitors like Uber and Lyft.
The New York Court of Appeals in a unanimous ruling said the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) never promised yellow cab companies that it would take steps to protect the value of their licenses, which are known as medallions and can cost millions of dollars.
The companies claim the value of medallions they purchased in 2013 for an average of $1.3 million each fell by about 75% over the next few years as app-based services became more popular.
But the Court of Appeals, affirming a lower court, said the TLC was not bound to cap the number of app-based cars that could operate in the city when it sold medallions to cab companies.
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