Friday, March 29

Tag: Uber

Ride-Hailing Firm Grab Launches Services In Cambodia
News

Ride-Hailing Firm Grab Launches Services In Cambodia

Ride-hailing firm Grab, the biggest Southeast Asian rival of Uber Technologies Inc, on Tuesday said it has launched services in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, expanding its presence to an eighth country in the region. The Singapore-headquartered firm said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia’s Ministry of Public Works and Transport to support infrastructure development. The launch marks the latest development in a quick-moving industry, coming just three months after Uber likewise began services in what the World Bank ranks as the sixth-fastest expanding economy. In October, Grab secured $700 million in debt financing to expand its fleet and signed an exclusive partnership with Singapore public transport operator SMRT. Earlier this month, Singapore taxi firm ComfortDelG...
Uber Ties Up With BBM Messenger On Ride Booking
News

Uber Ties Up With BBM Messenger On Ride Booking

Uber Technologies said on Monday it has joined forces with BBM Messenger to allow users around the world, including in the application’s biggest market of Indonesia, to book rides via the messenger service. The partnership agreement is with Creative Media Works, operating as BBM Messenger, the company said in a statement. ”With this partnership, BBM users can quickly request an Uber ride via BBM despite variations in quality of location, network speed, or device features,” said Chan Park, Uber’s general manager in Southeast Asia. The agreement means that BBM Messenger users, including both Android and iOS users, can book an Uber ride without leaving the BBM app, or being required to have a stand-alone Uber app on their phone, the company said. Creative Media works is a unit...
Uber Should Have Given Court An Ex-employee’s Letter About ‘Fraud And Theft’ In Waymo Case
USA

Uber Should Have Given Court An Ex-employee’s Letter About ‘Fraud And Theft’ In Waymo Case

Ride hailing company Uber was obligated to turn over to a U.S. federal judge a letter from a former employee that told of the company’s “fraud and theft” and mentioned evidence of stolen trade secrets nailed “like a scalp” to the wall, a court official said Friday. Special master, John Cooper, assigned to a lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc by Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, released a report on Friday stating the company should have produced the letter and was wrong in keeping it from the court. The letter, from former Uber security analyst Richard Jacobs alleging Uber engaged in illegal and unethical competitive tactics and had stolen trade secrets, is at the heart of Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber.  The letter was sent to Uber’s in-house lawyer in May and shared ...
Chinese Ride Sharing Giant DiDi Chuxing Is Coming To North America
USA

Chinese Ride Sharing Giant DiDi Chuxing Is Coming To North America

Beijing, China's ride hailing giant Didi Chuxing is planning to expand its services to expand to Mexico by next year, marking the company's first international expansion move. This also signals a new phase of competition with global ride sharing company Uber, which quit its Chinese business by selling it to Didi in 2016 after lengthy and expensive battle. After Uber, Didi Chuxing is the most valued privately owned firm in the world. Its decision to begin recruiting drivers and offering rides in Mexico will surely be seen as shot across Uber's bow at a time when the company witnessed a series of self-inflicted scandals. Didi right now has no card outside China, but will be launching an app in the Mexico and recruit local drivers. It is unclear which cities Didi will target, althoug...
Now Uber Investor Shervin Pishevar Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
USA

Now Uber Investor Shervin Pishevar Accused Of Sexual Misconduct

Multiple women have accused Uber investor Shervin Pishevar of  sexual misconduct, in a talk with Bloomberg. Pishevar, an early investor of San Francisco based ride-hailing company has been alleged with the misconduct, that he outdid in December 2014. Uber held a holiday party on an unfurnished floor at its headquarters in San Francisco, which was attended by its investors and employees. They came in flamboyant attire from the “Roaring ‘20s” and drank at an open bar into the early morning hours. Venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, several attendees recall, brought a live pony on a leash. According to the attendees of the party, the then-40-years-old Shervin approached Uber's 30-years-old Austin Geidt, head of global expansion. During his moves, he placed his hand on her legs and tri...
Uber Execs Travel The Globe To Soothe Regulators’ Concerns After Controversies
News

Uber Execs Travel The Globe To Soothe Regulators’ Concerns After Controversies

Uber executives are traveling the globe to reassure regulators that the company is changing the way it does business, after a string of controversies hurt the ride-hailing firm’s reputation, its Asian head said on Monday. These comments come on the heels of Uber’s disclosure last week that it covered up a 2016 data breach which compromised data of some 57 million customers and drivers, prompting governments around the world to launch probes into the breach and Uber’s handling of the matter. Authorities in Britain and the United States, two top Uber markets, as well as Australia and the Philippines have said they would investigate the company’s response to the data breach. “We’ve learned very quickly and we’re tacking very quickly,” Brooks Entwistle, Uber Technologies Inc’s recentl...
Mexican Authorities Seek Information From Uber About Data Breach
News

Mexican Authorities Seek Information From Uber About Data Breach

Mexico’s transparency body said on Sunday it would seek information from Uber about the consequences of a large data breach that the ride-hailing company disclosed on Tuesday. The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data said it would attempt to determine how many users, drivers and employees in Mexico had been affected, as well as the steps Uber would take to mitigate the damage and prevent such breaches from occurring in the future. On Tuesday, Uber said it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts. “We confirm that no type of historical information related to trips, credit card numbers, birth dates or social security numbers was exposed in the case,” a...
Lyft Raises Additional $500M On Top Of $1B
FUNDING

Lyft Raises Additional $500M On Top Of $1B

Uber's hard core rival Lyft is seeking an additional cherry on top funding of $500 million, over and above $1 billion it raised in a round led by Alphabet's venture arm CapitalG last month. This has raised the bar of its valuation to $11.5 billion in comparison to previous $7.5 billion. The funding is not yet been closed and this $500 million is an extension of its previous round. This funding will be utilized to develop its passenger and driver products, the company told the source- Axios. The funding  comes at a critical point where it is trying to expand outside U.S., with a launch scheduled in December in Toronto and Hamilton in Canada. Lyft has been focusing on its growth this year, aiming to cover 95% of the US population with more than a hundred new market additions. ...
Uber Told SoftBank About Data Breach Before Telling Public
News

Uber Told SoftBank About Data Breach Before Telling Public

Uber Technologies Inc said on Thursday that it discussed a massive data breach with potential investor SoftBank Group Corp ahead of going public with details of the incident on Tuesday. The ride-hailing service is trying to complete a deal in which the Japanese company would invest as much as $10 billion for at least 14 percent of Uber, mostly by buying out existing shareholders. “We informed SoftBank that we were investigating a data breach, consistent with our duty to disclose to a potential investor, even though our information at the time was preliminary and incomplete,” Uber said in a statement. ”We also made clear that our forensic investigation was ongoing,“ Uber said. ”Once our internal inquiry concluded and we had a more complete understanding of the facts, we disclosed to ...
Uber Hacking Cover-Up Collides With SoftBank Deal, Triggers Probes Worldwide
USA

Uber Hacking Cover-Up Collides With SoftBank Deal, Triggers Probes Worldwide

A newspaper advertisement for an Uber Technologies Inc stock sale was juxtaposed on Wednesday with a report that the ride-service provider had covered up a data hack – something of a metaphor for Uber, a company with boundless investor interest, but whose penchant for rule-breaking has led to a series of scandals. The stock sale advertised in the New York Times will enable Uber investors to sell their shares to Japanese investor SoftBank, a critical deal for the company whose problems included building software to spy on competitors and to evade regulators and being investigated in Asia for paying bribes. Uber on Tuesday said that it had paid hackers $100,000 to destroy data on more than 57 million customers and drivers that was stolen from the company – and decided under the previou...
Uber Paid Hackers $100,000, Concealed Data Stolen From 57 Million Accounts
News

Uber Paid Hackers $100,000, Concealed Data Stolen From 57 Million Accounts

Uber Technologies Inc paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed the data of some 57 million accounts of the ride-service provider, the company said on Tuesday. Discovery of the company’s cover-up of the incident resulted in the firing of two employees who led Uber’s response to the hack, said Dara Khosrowshahi, who was named CEO in August following the departure of founder Travis Kalanick. Khosrowshahi said he had only recently learned of the breach, which happened in October 2016.  "None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it," Khosrowshahi said in a blog post on the company website. The company’s admission that it failed to disclose the breach comes as Uber seeks to recover from sexual harassment allegations and mul...
Zoomcar To Raise $50M Funding From Existing And New Investors
FUNDING

Zoomcar To Raise $50M Funding From Existing And New Investors

Self-drive car rental service Zoomcar India Pvt Ltd is in talks to raise a funding of $50 million from new and existing investors, Mint reported. Citing two people aware of the development, the financial daily reported that Zoomcar's funding talks have progressed with M&M (Mahindra & Mahindra) the Indian multinational car manufacturing corporation headquartered in Mumbai. “They are in advanced talks with Mahindra and Mahindra, while there is interest from two other new investors, too,” the first person told the source. In its partnership with M&M, Zoomcar will be launching electric cars in Agra, Dehradun and Chandigarh.The company is currently running a pilot in Mysore, according to a third person familiar with the matter. The information has not yet been verified, as t...