Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
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Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
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Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#2Here is the thing with "sharing" economy - the moment money exchange hands, this is no longer sharing but commercial activity. So you must abide to the regulations. You cannot cherry pick only the rules that suit you.
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#3It doesn't matter what the law says, in my opinion. Discrimination is discrimination. You wouldn't stop an African-American from getting into your car, right?
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#4This kind of concerns me. I have a T4/T5 spinal cord injury from a snowboarding accident 4.5Y ago. I have good hand and arm function but that's it no abdominals etc. I drive myself to work everyday and transfer in and out and fold up my wheelchair.
London's black cabs all have ramps. UBER is making big inroads here and I'm worried that eventually it'll be tricky to get a black cab. I can transfer into a regular car but I would need the driver to put my wheelchair in the boot (trunk) and given busy streets, harassed drivers, needing to pull right up to the kerb etc. I've not really had the guts to try it. It's particularly relevant here as the tube is mostly inaccessible and the buses painfully slow.
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#5I don't know what people expected from an organisation set up for the prime purpose of avoiding regulation.
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#6It doesn't matter what the law says, in my opinion. Discrimination is discrimination. You wouldn't stop an African-American from getting into your car, right?
Which is why those laws were created in the first place. Because some people WOULD stop an African-American from getting in their car.
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#7I think I understand Uber's stance here. From a business perspective their drivers are all independent contractors. This is an important part of the discussion because if they start telling them what the can and cannot do during their time then they start to look more and more like employees (something they absolutely do not want).
An example of this are the popularly discussed drivers that run jewellery or other businesses out of their car while also driving. The moment Uber says you cannot do this on while a contractor for us the legal waters become murkier.
It may be the case that once someone challenges in court an Uber driver (not Uber itself) and wins on the grounds that not accepting a disabled passenger is illegal then the company will have the grounds (and precedent) to enforce that their contractors do not break the law.
To drive the point home, even if Uber wants to prevent their drivers from doing certain things doing so moves them closer to the realm of employees not contractors.
Edit: To clarify I don't necessarily believe that Uber drivers should be considered contractors, but until a case is brought against them and they lose and all drivers become employees they're going to be as hands off as possible to maintain their ability to defend the position. Also providing instructions to a contractor (provide water) does not make them an employee.
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#8Here is the thing with "sharing" economy - the moment money exchange hands, this is no longer sharing but commercial activity. So you must abide to the regulations. You cannot cherry pick only the rules that suit you.
They've been able to do it to the tune of a tens of billions of dollars valuation. So has Airbnb. Why change now? They'll get their IPO before anyone has to answer for anything, so investors & founders will be happy. Keep running the marketing machine with the "sharing" moniker right until the check clears, and after that, it's the shareholders' problem.
Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#9Here is the thing with "sharing" economy - the moment money exchange hands, this is no longer sharing but commercial activity. So you must abide to the regulations. You cannot cherry pick only the rules that suit you.
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Re: Uber: Disability Laws Don’t Apply to Us
#10> but Uber claims that because it’s a technology company, not a transportation service, it doesn’t fall under the ADA’s jurisdiction.
What the ? Come on ,They don't get to decide what law they should follow. Or maybe they know that all these lawsuits cost them less than having to respect the law, I don't know. All I can say is that Uber displays an unbelievable level of arrogance.