Christmas comes early for Uber as burdensome regulations look set to be disregarded December 23, 2015 Uber is expected to receive an early Christmas present today as a raft of burdensome regulations that would have effectively shut the firm down in the capital look set to be disregarded after fierce opposition from business groups and consumers. The final responses to a Transport for London (TfL) consultation on how to better regulate [...]
There’s nothing new in the Uber vs Taxi debate December 23, 2015 As the year draws to an end, so too might a raging battle on the capital’s streets inch towards a conclusion with the culmination of a Transport for London consultation on the future of the city’s private hire industry. Elements of the traditional black cab industry have been at war with Uber since the American [...]
Uber UK under threat in London with new “five-minute wait” regulations proposed by Transport for London after black cabbie fury December 22, 2015 Uber users could be forced to wait five minutes for a ride – even if it was immediately available – if new rules proposed by Transport for London get the go ahead. In addition to a minimum wait time, detailed new regulations of taxis and private hire vehicles in the capital could also curb several [...]
Uber’s London HQ heads to Aldgate Tower while service expands to Sheffield, Bristol, Slough, Maidenhead, Windsor and more to follow December 22, 2015 Uber’s attempts at world domination show no sign of abating as the disruptive taxi app arrives at five more locations in the UK and parks itself at a new London headquarters. The billion-dollar startup will move from King's Cross to take up a new spot of around 40,000 sq ft – double the size of [...]
London cab drivers will protest against Uber and its regulation by Transport for London today December 17, 2015 Cabbies are staging a fresh protest against Uber and Transport for London (TfL) in the capital today over the way the taxi industry is regulated. This time, it's minicab drivers, who want TfL to suspend the recently launched UberPool ride-sharing service, claiming that by giving it the go ahead, TfL is "riding rough shod over the regulatory review process by pre-empting [...]
Helping refugees is a tech challenge December 17, 2015 While there have been many causes worthy of our attention in 2015, the plight of Europe’s refugees and migrants has been the most visible. There are currently 20m people feeing violence and oppression around the world and many of them arrived on our continent’s shores this summer in the hope of a better life. Shocking [...]
You can now hail an Uber from Facebook Messenger December 16, 2015 Uber has teamed up with Facebook Messenger, meaning you can now hail a cab directly from the chat app. The question is what you can’t do through the chat app at this point, as Facebook has already added features allowing you to shop and send money to your friends from within the app. In a [...]
Fintech challengers like Square, ApplePay and Funding Circle could undermine banks’ credit ratings in 2016 according to Standard & Poor’s December 16, 2015 The rise of fintech is challenging traditional banks, and could even undermine their credit rating, according to Standard & Poor's. The ratings agency expects global investment in 'non bank' financial service to be worth $24bn (£16bn) this year, double the figure in 2014. Traditional banks are still trying to adapt to the low interest rate, and [...]
Tim Peake’s launch mission to the ISS is the start of a new era for the UK space industry as UK’s National Space Policy is announced December 16, 2015 All eyes have been on a desert in Kazakhstan this week. Baikonur Cosmodrome has seen the launch of the first human spaceflight, Sputnik and the first orbiting satellite. This week saw another first for this historic site, and a great leap forward for the UK space industry. Tim Peake has made his ascent to the International Space Station becoming the first [...]
Uber, drills and the death of ownership: Why the future is renting… everything December 14, 2015 If markets are so great, why do firms exist at all? To a non-economist, that might seem like a bizarre thing to ask. Yet the growth of the misleadingly named “sharing economy” is making it one of the most important questions for understanding the future economic structure of our world. We have traditionally thought that [...]