Uber Eats drivers who allegedly carried NSW passengers unlawfully could cost rideshare giant $1.5m in fines
New South Wales authorities have launched legal action against Uber, alleging that the rideshare giant allowed 57 food delivery drivers to transport passengers without clearing the required background safety checks.The independent state regulator, the NSW Point to Point Transport Commission, commenced proceedings against Uber this week.It claims Uber – which is facing a maximum fine of about $1.5m – failed to ensure it was complying with safety standards designed to protect passengers.The regulator has alleged that on two separate occasions in August and December 2022, failures in Uber’s systems allowed “multiple food delivery drivers”, who were only legally allowed to deliver food on the company’s Uber Eats platform, to also carry passengers.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailThe glitches meant that Uber Eats drivers received and were able to accept trip offers from passengers, and are understood to have been temporary – with one lasting one day, and the other four days,The error affected less than 1% of Uber’s food delivery drivers,Under NSW law, drivers conducting rideshare services must undergo several checks to ensure passenger safety, similar to how taxi drivers are screened, including appropriate vehicle registration and driver background checks,The rigorous safety laws in place for taxi and rideshare passenger services do not apply to food delivery services,The commission has brought 57 charges against Uber related to the two separate occasions when its systems failures occurred, with the maximum penalty for each offence being a fine of $27,500.
Each charge alleges that Uber failed to ensure the 57 drivers held an unrestricted Australian drivers licence or an unrestricted licence of a total of at least 12 months in the preceding two years – which is a requirement to provide a taxi or rideshare service.“Safety is my priority, and allowing drivers to provide passenger services without having undergone appropriate background checks poses a serious safety risk to passengers and breaches the law,” said Anthony Wing, the commissioner.“Uber has identified the issue that allowed rideshare trips to be undertaken by its food delivery drivers, however, it should not have occurred in the first instance.”An Uber spokesperson said: “We take our obligations to safety and regulatory compliance seriously and have a strong track record when it comes to safety across our platform.Sign up to Breaking News AustraliaGet the most important news as it breaksafter newsletter promotion“Immediately upon becoming aware of these issues, we acted swiftly to rectify them.
” Oversight of drivers has developed into a significant issue for rideshare and taxi operators alike.Uber was ordered to pay $10,000 in damages to an Australian driver after it permanently banned him from working due to a passenger complaint but failed to gather evidence that he had breached its code of conduct.Meanwhile, the commission’s fresh legal action against Uber comes amid its long-term crackdown on rogue taxi drivers in NSW, after a spike in reports of drivers refusing to use meters and demanding inflated upfront fares.The commission’s introduction followed deregulation of the taxi industry in 2017.After deregulation, a database of drivers who have faced disciplinary action for misconduct was discontinued.
The taxi industry are now calling for stronger regulation and reintroduction of the database to help operators weed out such drivers,
How Elon Musk became Donald Trump’s shadow vice-president
As Donald Trump watched election results roll in from a party at his Mar-a-Lago compound, Elon Musk sat arm’s length away, basking in the impending victory he had helped secure. In less than five months, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had gone from not endorsing a candidate to becoming a fixture of the president-elect’s inner circle.“The future is gonna be so 🔥 🇺🇸🇺🇸,” Musk posted to his social media platform, X, just after midnight, along with a photo of himself leaning over to talk with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago dinner.Musk’s place at the head table was the result of months of political efforts by the world’s richest man, and an injection of at least $130m of his own money. Musk campaigned for Trump both online and offline, funded advertising and get-out-the-vote operations for a campaign at a severe financial disadvantage to its opponent
Ofcom warns tech firms after chatbots imitate Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell
Ofcom has warned tech firms that content from chatbots impersonating real and fictional people could fall foul of the UK’s new digital laws.The communications regulator issued the guidance after it emerged that users on the Character.AI platform had created avatars mimicking the deceased British teenagers Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell.Under pressure from digital safety campaigners to clarify the situation, Ofcom underlined that content created by user-made chatbots would come under the scope of the Online Safety Act.Without naming the US-based artificial intelligence firm Character
Elon Musk reportedly makes surprise appearance on Trump-Zelenskyy call
Elon Musk reportedly made a surprise guest appearance on a call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, solidifying the Tesla chief executive’s role as the most influential civilian in the country come January.Musk was present with Trump during the call for roughly 25 minutes, according to Axios, which first reported the call. Trump handed Musk the phone and Musk and Zelenskyy spoke briefly. On the call, Zelenskyy thanked Musk for the satellites he had been providing Ukraine through his company, Starlink, according to AFP. Musk said he would continue to provide satellite internet connection, the report said
What a second Trump presidency means for big US tech firms
When the US election result pushed shares in the artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia to a record high and did the same to the price of bitcoin cryptocurrency, the market gave its verdict on what Trump redux means for at least parts of the technology world: a boom.Stock in the electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla surged by nearly 15%, which must have cheered its boss, Elon Musk, whom Trump called a “super genius” on Wednesday.But what about the people who do not own stock in Silicon Valley firms but do use their products? Tens of millions of users of Musk’s social media platform, X, will now have to decide if they are willing to post in a place owned by a figure who looks likely to be a central part of Trump’s administration.Musk could be tasked with “making recommendations for drastic reforms” aimed at the efficiency and performance of “the entire federal government”, Trump has said. This could grant Musk huge power over the agencies that regulate his and other tech companies
Apple MacBook Pro M4 review: faster, better and cheaper
Apple’s upgraded MacBook Pro for 2024 gets a significant power boost with the M4 chip, double the memory as standard, even longer battery life and a price cut, ending the year on a high.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The longstanding laptop line now starts at £1,599 (€1,899/$1,599/A$2,499), making it £100 or so cheaper than last year’s M3 models
AI may displace 3m jobs but long-term losses ‘relatively modest’, says Tony Blair’s thinktank
Artificial intelligence could displace between 1m and 3m private sector jobs in the UK, though the ultimate rise in unemployment will be in the low hundreds of thousands as growth in the technology also creates new roles, according to Tony Blair’s thinktank.Between 60,000 and 275,000 jobs will be displaced every year over a couple of decades at the peak of the disruption, estimates from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) suggest.It described the figure as “relatively modest” given the average number of job losses in the UK has run at about 450,000 a year over the past decade. More than 33 million people are employed in the UK.AI, a technology that can be loosely defined as computer systems performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, has shot up the political agenda after the emergence of the ChatGPT chatbot and other breakthroughs in the field
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