Uber is back in the news – and again in one of the worst ways imaginable. The tech giant, which cannot figure out if one day it’s a tech company and the next if it’s a transportation company, has reached a new low – something that seems to happen on almost a weekly basis.
However this time it’s not about lying about their flawed background checks, or sexual harassment in the workplace. This time it’s not about an Uber driver with a criminal record raping a passenger. It’s not about former CEO Travis Kalanick verbally abusing his drivers or his customers. It’s not about Uber stealing from international Airports. Nor is it about Uber’s bizarre surge price rules which literally act as a “high tech rolling of drunks” on weekend nights or holidays.
This one is about Uber telling Americans who live in suburbs or cities that people now should no longer be allowed to own cars and can only take shared ride services (aka Uber and Lyft). Yes, Uber the supposed ultimate bastion of free markets and private enterprise, proves once again that they are the ultimate crony capitalists and want to rule every aspect of your life. Don’t believe me? Uber has signed onto a document called “Shared Mobility Principles for Sustainable Cities”. This document, prepared by Zip Car and other left wing owned companies, has as one of its principles the following:
“WE SUPPORT THAT AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES IN DENSE URBAN AREAS SHOULD ONLY BE OPERATED IN SHARED FLEETS”.
Think about this – Uber wants to determine who should be allowed to own vehicles in the USA. And all but requiring that every person who lives in a major urban area or inner suburb be forced to use an Uber vehicle. For all Uber’s talk about “big taxi” being an impediment to freedom, (For the record I am the VP of the 2nd largest fleet of taxicabs in the Commonwealth and I do support a well regulated taxi system for reasons I’ll be more than glad to discuss with you in another post) Uber wants to determine whether or not you should be allowed to own and drive a vehicle. Aka regulations that would work well inside the former Soviet Union, not in a free society.
Several years ago, many of us in the taxi industry expressed our concerns that Uber was not only trying to put us out of business, but also trying to take away your freedoms. We were called reactionary by establishment politicians who had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Uber funneled through lobbyists (Reed Smith LLP in Richmond for example). Politicians on both sides of the aisle were corrupted by campaign cash coming from Uber funneled through Reed Smith. And now they want to take away your right to own a car.