Tag: Uber
Uber to provide free transport to NHS staff working over Christmas
(Laura Dale/PA) Uber has announced that it will provide NHS staff in England who are working over the Christmas period with free transport this festive season. The ride sharing firm is offering two journeys costing up to £10 each, in a bid to help workers get to and from work…
Regulator approves thousands of electric cars on UK roads to test energy grid
Uber is one of the partners on the project (Laura Dale/PA) Up to 3,000 electric cars are set to be deployed on UK roads in a bid to understand what the increased demand in electric power will mean for the country’s energy grid. Regulator Ofgem has approved the three-year project…
Uber fined £385,000 over cyber attack
Uber has been fined £385,000 by a UK watchdog for failing to protect customers’ personal information during a cyber attack. A series of “avoidable data security flaws” allowed the personal details of around 2.7 million UK customers to be accessed and downloaded by attackers, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said. This included full names, email…
Virtuo promises to disrupt car rental market with UK launch
Pictured: Karim Kaddoura (co-founder) and Michael Alton (General Manager UK & Ireland) of car rental start-up Virtuo If you've ever hired a car at the airport, you know what a huge pain in the backside it is. You get off your plane feeling tired, have to find the right car rental…
Hailo becomes mytaxi in bid to take on Uber
Europe's largest taxi app, mytaxi, launched in London yesterday following the German company's merger with Hailo last summer. Owned by the Daimler Group, the mytaxi app allows passengers across the capital to order a licensed black cab on their Apple or Android smartphones. Features include the option to save your ‘Favourite Driver’ so you are more…
GMB Union sues Uber over drivers’ rights, health and safety standards.
The GMB Union is suing online taxi service Uber claiming it is not providing basic workers' rights to its drivers, such as holidays and a minimum wage. It also claims the company doesn't adhere to health and safety standards, including making sure drivers take a break or work a maximum number of hours per week.…
Uber offers free rides to drunk drivers
If you're known for being a controversial but convenient company, what can you do to buy some free positive publicity? Uber's clever PR people made this kiosk, which analyses the breath of Toronto drinkers - and if they're too pissed to drive, will order them a free ride home. Whilst presumably there are no plans…
It’s rickshaw wars in India as Uber takes on Ola with cash only service
UberAUTO has launched a new cash-only service in New Delhi for hailing auto rickshaws, just as its rival Ola has announced its latest $310 million funding round. Under the uberAUTO service, the company will not charge a fee for booking autorickshaws, users will be allowed to pay for the journey in cash, and the pricing…
Hailocab tries to convince people that talking to cab drivers is a plus point
Taxi app Hailocab is worried. Whilst it relies on expensive and well organised black cab drivers for its services, rival Uber (controversially) does away with the formalities, employing cheaper drivers. Worse still, one of the key investors is Google, which is working on driverless car technology, which could conceivably ultimately make Uber even cheaper and…
Uber opens up to let any app conceivably summon a car
In an interesting move by ride-hailing app Uber, the company has completely opened up its back-end to developers via a new API, which will enable third party apps to request and cancel rides without having to go into the Uber app itself. If we're reading the Uber developers blog correctly, what it means is that…
