Uber Technologies Inc is dismantling a secret weapon it used against local regulators who have been trying to curtail or shut down its ride-hailing service in some cities around the world.
The about-face announced on Wednesday comes less than a week after a report published in the New York Times exposed the existence of a technology feature nicknamed “Greyball” that identified regulators posing as riders while trying to collect evidence that the ride-hailing company’s service was breaking local laws governing taxis.
The program served up a fake version of the company’s app to undercover regulators that appeared to summon a car, only to have the ride never show up or cancel.
Uber now says it will ban greyballing regulators, although it may take time to block the program completely. The San Francisco-based company said it would also respond to city officials who have been inquiring whether their regulators were being greyballed.
The Times reported that the company has targeted regulators in Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, among other cities, as well as a litany of countries that include Australia, China, Italy and South Korea.
Uber had previously said it used Greyball to deter passengers who were violating its terms of service, including harassing or threatening its drivers.
The cat-and-mouse game with regulators is the latest example of the aggressive tactics Uber has adopted while upending the heavily regulated taxi industry. In doing so, it has built a rapidly growing company valued at more than US$60 billion by its investors that is frequently accused of bending the rules.
Separately, Uber’s self-driving cars will return to California’s streets, though the company does not immediately plan to pick up passengers.
The company received a permit on Wednesday to test two Volvo SUVs on public roads, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said.
Regulators also approved 48 people as backup drivers who must sit behind the wheel in case the prototype cars malfunction, agency spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez said.
With the approval, Uber has become the 26th company to have a self-driving car testing permit in California.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last