Uber

The robots are expected to hit the sidewalks of Tokyo starting at the end of March, marking Uber’s first international expansion of its autonomous delivery service. The six-wheeled delivery robots are manufactured by Cartken, an Oakland-based AI company, and operations will be supervised by Mitsubishi Electric. Delivery robots are growing more popular, but they still require a team of human workers to make the system work.

That’s because thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers in over a dozen cities are going on strike for 24 hours to protest low wages and unfair practices by the gig economy companies. Their demands? A larger cut of fares, a living wage, transparency in pay calculations, and an end to unfair deactivations.

The alcohol app has been a cybersecurity headache since Uber acquired it a few years ago. The FTC found out that a hack affected 2.5 million customers in 2020, two years after the company initially learned about a security flaw.

Uber will pay $290 million (3 percent of its revenue generated last quarter) and Lyft will pay $38 million (4 percent of its revenue) to settle allegations that the ride-sharing companies illegally withheld wages and mandatory sick leave from drivers in New York. Over 100,000 drivers in the state could be eligible to receive funds under the settlement.

Starting today, Phoenix residents can use the Uber app to hail a ride in a driverless Waymo vehicle. The two companies — former rivals turned frenemies (?) — first announced the partnership earlier this year. Tellingly, it’s only available in Arizona, and not California, where tensions around robotaxis are starting to get, well, tense.

As spotted by Bloomberg, code in the Uber Eats app suggests the service is working on an AI chatbot to provide recommendations to customers.

According to a report from the Associated Press, Uber is increasing its minimum driver age in California from 19 to 25 years old — a move it blames on rising insurance costs in the state:

Uber’s latest financial results include an honest to goodness operating profit, “for the first time in Uber’s history,” according to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Wendy’s is permanently closing its ghost kitchen business. Butler Hospitality, a ghost kitchen company, shut down entirely. Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens lost a bunch of restaurant partners. Uber Eats is trimming its menu.

Here’s a great essay from Oversharing’s Ali Griswold, reflecting on the origins — and demise — of the so-called “sharing economy” to describe companies like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and others. Lyft ditching shared rides seems to be a nail in the coffin for these particular companies.