Tag: Uber

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News Round-Up: January 29, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• Ignacio Pérez Rey (above) says this is what a hangover looks like. Looks good to me #morewine #grrrr

• Sir Elton John and Paul Rudnick are working on a stage musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.

 • North Carolina state Senate Leader says anti-LGBT “bathroom bill” HB2 isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

• Congressional Republicans will reintroduce the anti-LGBT legislation the First Amendment Defense Act. The bill, which President Trump has promised to sign into law, would allow anyone with “deeply held religious beliefs” to legally discriminate against LGBTs.

• In light of Uber’s CEO willingness to work with President Trump, and ridesharing rival Lyft’s announcement to donate $1 million to the ACLU, folks are dumping and deleting their Uber accounts in massive numbers.

• In case you haven’t been paying attention, folks in the “pro-life” movement not only want to outlaw safe abortions, they think “the pill” and IUDs should be illegal as well.

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Gay Couple Kicked Out Of Uber Car For Kissing

Corey Watts (L) and Jordan Sloan (R)

An Uber driver in London ejected a gay couple, Corey Watts and Jordan Sloan, for kissing and cuddling during a ride

When they asked why they were being ordered out, the driver apparently said: “I take gays but they don’t normally do this.”

One of the couple, Corey Watts, took to Twitter to share his surprise and outrage:

Jordan also had this to add:

I’ve never had any homophobic stuff happen to me so I was caught off guard. You don’t expect it to happen in one of the world’s biggest cities. I wanted to understand what he was thinking so I asked the driver: “Would you do the same thing if it was a guy or a girl?”

Uber released this statement saying they had addressed the situation:

Uber does not tolerate any form of discrimination either by our partner drivers or towards our partner drivers. We opened an investigation from the moment we learned of this unacceptable incident and have been in contact with the rider to extended our sincere apologies and get further information. The driver concerned has been suspended from the Uber platform.

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Taxi drivers across Europe organize “gridlock” protest of Uber

London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Milan and Rome all saw traffic ground to a stop yesterday as taxi drivers organized a protest against the smartphone taxi app Uber.

The taxi drivers say Uber drivers are unregulated and threaten their livelihood.

In London, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall were jammed from the start of the planned “go slow” at 2pm, as thousands of black cabs gathered honking their horns, bringing total gridlock to the centre of the capital, while supporters waved banners and started occasionally chanting: “Boris, out!”

A spokeswoman for Uber, the US start-up which links minicab drivers to passengers via a GPS-based smartphone app, said the protests had boosted new users in London by 850%, as people tried to cope with the gridlock.

The response from Uber? Apparently it only helped the taxi app. Uber’s UK and Ireland general manager Jo Bertram said, “Today we’re seeing an 850 per cent increase in sign-ups compared to last Wednesday. The results are clear: London wants Uber in a big way.”

I’ve actually never used Uber. Husband Michael has used the app in San Francisco, Miami and NYC, and loves it. Instead of looking for a cab up and down the block, you hit the app – a driver connects with you – and he’s there in a couple of minutes.

I saw a Huffington Post article a few weeks ago showing that Uber drivers, at least in major cities like San Francisco and NYC, make more than their taxi driving counterparts.