I'm disturbed by the "passenger in car" criteria. What happens if the passenger is injured getting into the car or even is run over by the car as it approaches the passenger. To me, these situations should clearly be covered. Perhaps the criterion should be from the time the driver accepts the ride request until the passenger is safely inside or at the destination, so the passenger is also covered from being dropped off until they are actually inside their home.

I'm glad there is a new model to compete with taxis, but the business practices of Uber itself are pretty bad - worse than a lot of other firms.

That said, the political overreaction to protect the taxi cartels doesn't benefit the public either. Hopefully, a few reputable players using the newer model will flourish, and government will settle upon a reasonable way to regulate that doesn't stifle the competition or the business model that is changing the market to begin with.

I've used UberX a couple times...to/from airports...and had no issues. I realize that the data they have on me is not worth much to anyone, but I'm a bit disturbed that they've stated that they are very willing to use the data they have for pretty much any reason including attacking opponents or critics. (Presumably through blackmail or publicly revealing where and when certain users ride.) What if I get into an Uber in a strange city, take a ride to a restaurant, and later find out that the neighborhood I went to has a reputation for illegal activities? Uber's made it clear: it'll use that against you if you are seen as a critic of theirs.

Perhaps the regulation needed is more about how private companies use data and less about the rides and rates Uber charges.

Not Uber related, but I was struck by another vehicle in the UK and had an incredibly drawn out process with the insurance companies, because the driver was partially covered under two separate insurers (I don't recall the full details, he was a foreign driver, but there were two insurance firms on his side) Blooming thing went on for years! Luckily my insurance covered my solicitor's fees but it was a PITA.

So the logic is, 1 Uber driver did something bad, therefore I will never use Uber.

OK then you should also never fly since more than a few pilots have flown drunk.

You should never take the train since a train conductor was texting while "driving" and ended up killing 80 people in Spain.

Let's see what else...this lovely bus driver in Cleveland was convicted for assaulting a passenger. So buses are out.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index...ted_of_as.html

So just to be on the safe side, the OP should probably never take any sort of public transportation ever again.

This article pretty much sums up my positions on uber:

http://thehumanist.com/commentary/co...-an-uber-rider

Yes, they have some bozos working for them and yes, they have done some unsavory things (Sydney hostage crisis surge pricing, really?) but ... the taxi lobby isn't exactly clean as a whistle either. At least I know the name of my uber driver, where he is, what kind of car he is driving, his contact information, etc. As a woman who travels alone often, I vastly prefer the knowledge that I have all of that information to the unknown of a taxi driver (and I've had some AWFUL cab drivers in my life, where I feared for my very life).

What prevents an uber driver from letting some other individual drive in his/her place, just like a taxi driver can lend his/her taxi license to another individual? At least the displayed taxi license has a photo of the driver as well as the name and taxi license number that the passenger can record.

Have you ever tried examining the photo in taxis? And in Australia at least, they only display first name.
In practice, in somewhere like Melbourne, that means a lot of Mohammeds sharing driving duties in any one cab.

Which as it happened, was the name of my last Uber driver in London. But I also had his phone number, had spoken to him on it beforehand, and his photo was easily seen and examined on my phone rather than squinting at a tiny picture above the mirror. Not to mention his car licence plate. All recorded without any intent on my behalf.

Unless you habitually record taxi drivers' names, numbers and photos as you enter the taxi, you are not going to have all this info at hand should some incident occur.

Chatting to Mohammed and asking him how Uber was working for him, he put it succinctly: I get better passengers, and you get better drivers.

You get a photo of the driver before he or she picks you up, along with the license plate number and the star rating of that particular driver. In cabs, I find that the photo is often obscured or very, very out of date.