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posted by martyb on Wednesday July 04 2018, @01:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the Taxi-Driver-Über-Uber? dept.

Timothy Anderson, a former taxi driver, was arrested for the murder of a Uber driver in Okaloosa county, Florida. Filip Kirilov was found Sunday morning shot to death. Allegedly, he was a known opponent of Uber, citing declining business in an interview and recruiting other taxi drivers to take legal action against the ride share company. Anderson was identified and linked to the murder with surveillance equipment in the victim's car and Uber records. Police are calling the murder an isolated incident and believe the motive was revenge.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:32AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:32AM (#702376) Journal

    Uber made a bet on aggressive regulation circumvention that seems to have paid off.

    The rapid popularity of app-based ride-hailing scared off many jurisdictions, or they were just too slow to act by default. Some locations even embraced Uber and Lyft. Only a handful of locations took strong actions against Uber, such as arresting Uber execs in Paris, or the ban in Austin, TX. Uber was able to tailor their service to continue to dodge regulations (with services like UberPool), or just quit until pressure mounted to bring ride-hailing back. Looks like the Texas legislature overruled Austin's ban [engadget.com]. By now, elected officials don't want to be held responsible for banning Uber. So Uber can get away with... murder.

    Eventually, Uber will try to kick drivers to the curb permanently. They can't exactly dodge regulations given the high-profile avoidable death that they caused, and the fact that cars with nobody in the driver's seat are highly conspicuous compared to the illegal Uber drivers of the past. But state legislatures will probably override the whims of locals and permit the service, especially since so many companies want to see it happen. Since the rollout won't happen all at once, maybe you could see some Uber drivers going on strike. But they'll just be replaced by more desperate drivers or eventually driverless. That leaves the passengers, who will be tempted by far cheaper rates per mile. Various estimates [cityobservatory.org] put the cost per mile under both Uber/taxis and personal vehicle ownership, and it has also been suggested that individuals could buy an autonomous car and let Uber drive it part-time [marketwatch.com], which might allow them to make their money back while Uber reduces some of its logistical issues.

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