Uber

Uber is backpedaling over an accounting error that led to tens of thousands of New York City drivers not getting their full pay for two and a half years.

Uber reportedly discovered the accounting error when it created a new receipt template for New York City drivers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported this story.
The payments are the result of an error Uber said it recently discovered in how it calculated driver earnings. Until this week, Uber applied its “service fee”-typically 25% for UberX rides in New York City-to the gross fare, or the total amount paid by the passenger. But in a terms-of-service agreement dated to November 2014, Uber told drivers it calculated that commission based on the net fare, or the amount paid by the passenger minus sales tax and other applicable fees. Uber told WSJ that it will refund affected New York City drivers an average of $900 each, which includes interest on the loss profit over the past years.

An advisor to Europe’s highest court has said that Uber should be regulated as a transportation company, subjecting it to local licensing regulations which could have been considered disproportionate under EU law had it been deemed an "information society service".

In a opinion handed down Thursday, Maciej Szpunar, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), said “Indirect control such as that exercised by Uber, based on financial incentives and decentralised passenger-led ratings, with a scale effect, makes it possible to manage in a way that is just as – if not more – effective than management based on formal orders given by an employer to his employees and direct control over the carrying out of such orders.” The decision handed down today is non-binding, though ECJ rulings have historically followed the advice of the advocate general. A final ruling is expected later this year.

Uber wants to launch a system of flying cars to move people around cities, with a goal of putting demonstration projects in place by 2020. "I hate that term (flying car), but we’ll have to live with it," the company’s chief product officer, Jeff Holden, said at the Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas. The vision was published in a 99-page white paper last year.

The ride-sharing giant announced a series of partnerships to manufacture “vertical takeoff and landing” (VTOL) vehicles and put networks in place, a system dubbed Uber Elevate.

Uber makes no secret of its ambitions to replace human drivers, testing autonomous cars in a highly public manner. But for the moment, and even for the next decade, the ride-hailing company remains reliant on an army of contractors.

“We’ve underinvested in the driver experience," an Uber official said on a press call in March, "and relationships with many drivers are frayed. We are now re-examining everything we do in order to rebuild that love."

Uber Technologies’ self-driving cars could be returning to California soon after state authorities permitted the company to test the vehicles. The ride-hailing company is now listed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles as one of over 20 companies, including Waymo, Tesla and Baidu, that have been issued autonomous vehicle testing permits as of Wednesday.

Uber received a permit to test two Volvo SUVs on public roads, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said. Regulators also approved 48 people as backup drivers who must sit behind the wheel in case the prototype cars malfunction, according to agency spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez.

A Swiss insurance agency has ruled that drivers working for ride-hailing company Uber are classified as employees rather than independent contractors.

The decision means that Uber is required to pay earnings-based social security contributions. Because it’s an administrative decision, the next step for the dispute – one that Uber’s bound to take – is to call in the lawyers and head for the courts.

This follows a similar ruling by a UK employment tribunal in October which found that the two Uber drivers bringing the claim were employed as workers by Uber, rather than being freelance contractors.