BMW is hiring drivers for $14.25 per hour to compete with Uber & Lyft in Seattle. They’re focusing on small luxuries to entice riders, including the ability to request a specific temperature, radio station, or flag that the ride should be “quiet.” LINK
A well thought out article by the co-founder of Sidecar, one of the pioneers of ride-sharing, on why Lyft & Uber will eventually win The Scooter Wars. He would know … he lost the ride-sharing war. LINK
This perfectly proves his point … Lyft will offer discounts to people who use bikes and scooters to connect to transit. LINK
Travel giant Booking Holdings — formerly known as Priceline — invests $500M in Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing. Didi to offer its on-demand car services through its Booking.com apps via an integration. Likewise, Didi customers will have the option to book hotels through Booking.com and its sister site Agoda. LINK
Bosch and Daimler to Launch Driverless Shuttles in Silicon Valley to compete with Waymo and GMs’ Cruise. Here the math of RoboTaxis. LINK
Ex-Ebay Australia CEO Simon Smith, now Managing Director for Ola Australia lays out his approach to cracking the Australian ride-sharing market … become Driver-Friendly. LINK
- Flashback: Gett buys the failing e-hail company, which lost money on its driver-friendly approach. LINK
Gett mulls sale of ride-sharing startup Juno and leaving the United States. LINK
- Flashback: Drivers have filed a lawsuit against New York ride-hail player Juno for securities fraud. Juno promised drivers equity. When it got acquired by Gett, the equity program was extinguished. LINK
Waze Carpooling will begin in Illinois and Nevada. Riders pay the driver at most 54 cents per mile — no more than $15 maximum for a ride — and Waze doesn’t take a cut. Riders can schedule a carpool up to five days in advance. LINK
VIDEO: Toyota launches app-controlled car-sharing in Honolulu. LINK
- FLASHBACK: Toyota invests 10 Million in U.S. car-sharing service Getaround to test its new Smart Key Box technology in cars next year. LINK
Car2Go puts up a billboard in downtown Portland calling Ridesharing drivers creepy. Ridesharing Driver writes a letter to the editor asking for an apology. LINK
An Uber for Republicans?
- Report: Uber driver dumps 6 Republican volunteers at a random Raleigh gas station. Uber is looking into the incident. LINK
- Report: Uber driver refuse to let 3 Republicans interns in his car because they had ‘Make America Great Again’ hats. Uber is looking into the incident. LINK
- Elon Musk draws fire for donating nearly 7 times as much to Republicans this Election cycle. LINK
AUDIO: Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman, Aurora CEO Chris Urmson, and Nauto CEO Stefan Heck discuss the future of transportation. LINK
For the Subway #Manspreader who wants to take it to the next level, There’s #Scooterspreading. LINK
