Uber Taiwan yesterday urged the government to consider its proposal instead of implementing heavy-handed measures aimed at protecting the taxi industry that it said would stifle innovation.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications last month proposed changes to regulations covering the rental car industry — including prohibiting trips of less than one hour and providing any form of discounts or promotional deals to customers, as well as requiring rental vehicles to “return to the garage” between trips — that could spell doom for Uber’s ride-hailing business model, the company said.
The proposed changes are anti-competitive and would damage the livelihoods of 10,000 Uber drivers and their families, as well as restrict choice for 3 million regular Uber users in Taiwan, it said.
The proposed changes are currently in a 60-day consultation period.
To find a solution for all stakeholders, Uber proposed an “e-hail multipurpose vehicle plan” that would allow customers to book a taxi or rental car through an app, a practice that it said has become increasingly popular with millions of people worldwide.
This would provide a “win-win” situation for taxis and rental car operators and drivers, while also giving passengers choice, the company said.
“While we understand the government’s efforts to protect the taxi industry, it should not be at the expense of the many thousands of drivers and operators who run fully legal businesses under the current rental car laws,” Uber Taiwan general manager Willy Wu (吳罡) said in a statement.
Uber said that it has since 2017 partnered with rental car and taxi companies and has adapted its business model to ensure that it is fully compliant with the ministry’s guidelines, adding that it has improved the businesses of other taxi fleets through partnerships.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure