Uber, Lyft and its ilk are half innovative, efficient tech services and half hypercapitalist scavengers employing workers while avoiding paying those pesky benefits, worker's compensation or damages to a dead six year old's family.
The article doesn't mention if the driver was en-route to pick up a driver.<p>Uber should be liable once driver taps on the button and a customer is locked in. He's rushing to get there, like any other taxi who sees a customer flag them down across the road.<p>Makes sense no? That said, this is any company's nightmare. Why don't they just settle and be a good citizen.
Reading the headline I thought - well if there was no passenger- they are fine. However, if their whole model is based on drivers using an app to find passengers and the guy was hunting around for them when he hit the pedestrian- it's problematic. I guess Uber could take the position they assume the driver is stationary when getting new instructions.
If you're interested, you can read the complaint on the SF Superior Court's website. [1]<p>[1] <a href="http://webaccess.sftc.org/Scripts/Magic94/mgrqispi94.dll?APPNAME=WEB&PRGNAME=ValidateCaseNumber&ARGUMENTS=-ACGC14536979" rel="nofollow">http://webaccess.sftc.org/Scripts/Magic94/mgrqispi94.dll?APP...</a>
Uber claims to be a platform like Ebay. When I buy something on Ebay, I pay the seller not Ebay.<p>When I get a ride on Uber, I pay Uber. Uber pays the driver. Uber cancelled the drivers account. They fired the driver. Uber is screwed. Luckily, they have a lot of money.
kinda funny how it defends "taxi's good driving".
pretty sure i don't need to describe how theres safe and less safe drivers and taxi certainly aren't a model of safety for driving in general.
The job they are paid to do is move people right? They aren't paid to monitor the app while driving. Is an employer liable for a worker crashing on the way to work?
Ugh, it had to be Chris Dolan defending this family. They should've hired somebody more respectable than the guy who defended the Jahi McMath family. He is an affront to rational thinking in society.
How does Uber compare to Mechanical Turk in this regard?
Would Amazon (or a requester?!) be liable for accidents happening to (or caused by) turkers while they are working on a request?
I don't see how Uber is responsible. Correct me if I'm wrong but you wouldn't sue Android if you were texting while driving, or Google Maps if you were changing your location and had a crash.<p>So why would Uber be responsible if their driver was using their app? Especially if Uber says to their drivers not to use it while driving.<p>Interested to hear thoughts here.