Uber taxi app: Founder Travis Kalanick’s plan to rid London of a million cars October 5, 2014 London will be less congested and less polluted, app founder tells Oliver Smith Travis Kalanick outlined what might be his most ambitious goal yet on Friday. Speaking to more than 2,000 business delegates at the Institute of Directors annual convention in the Royal Albert Hall, Kalanick said his four-year-old startup would aim to take a [...]
Uber vs Maaxi: Race is on but Nat Rothschild’s taxi app rival is laps ahead – Bottom Line October 5, 2014 Nat Rothschild, the 43-year-old from an extensive lineage of financiers, certainly has a bold and strategic approach to spotting business opportunities. His adventure with Indonesia’s Bakrie family may have had an unhappy ending, yet even this was based on a reasonable theory. The plan was to connect a mining giant in the booming continent of [...]
Uber taxi app is no threat to London’s black cab says TfL commissioner October 2, 2014 Uber does not pose an imminent danger to London's iconic black cab. So says Transport for London (TfL) commissioner Sir Peter Hendy. Speaking at the Guardian's transport debate held during the Conservative party conference, Hendy argued the fury directed toward the San Francisco-based company had been largely "misplaced". In fact, Hendy was optimistic that there [...]
Maaxi taxi app gets backing from Ken Livingstone as he hails Nathaniel Rothschild’s new venture October 1, 2014 Former London mayor Ken Livingstone has thrown his backing behind financier Nathaniel Rothschild’s new taxi sharing app Maaxi, believed to be likely to launch in the next few weeks. In an open letter to taxi trade organisations, Livingstone said: “I have been using my experience and knowledge of London and its transport system to help [...]
Why I’m backing Maaxi – to launch a new black cab ride-sharing revolution October 1, 2014 GPS-enabled smartphones and apps have transformed urban commutes more than any technological advancement in the last 100 years, as former mayor Ken Livingstone outlines in a remarkable letter (see below), calling for action to ensure the controlled adoption of disruptive technologies in transport. While trains, buses and cars have evolved in speed and comfort, these [...]
Uber makes peace with German taxi drivers September 30, 2014 Uber has launched its UberTaxi service in Berlin and Hamburg after a series of struggles with German courts. UberTaxi, which operates in London and New York, allows users to hail a licensed cab. Furthermore, Uber will be changing its UberBlack service to comply with Berlin regulations. The prices are, usually, lower than those of traditional [...]
Rothschild hails his Uber rival September 29, 2014 Finance family heir Nat Rothschild branched out into the tech scene yesterday, putting the finishing touches to his new black cab sharing app Maaxi at Millwall’s New Den ground. Aiming to rival car hire service Uber and taxi locator Hailo, Rothschild’s start-up lets customers share rides when they are heading in the same direction. He [...]
Nat Rothschild enters Lions’ den to win over cabbies with Maaxi taxi app September 29, 2014 Financier Nathaniel Rothschild is to go up against controversial travel app Uber, launching a new ride-share application called Maaxi, which will facilitate cheaper black cab rides by grouping customers travelling to the same destination. He has teamed up with Argentine technology heavyweight Gabriel Campos, the former CEO of gaming website Pokerstars, to bring the [...]
From Threadneedle Street to the corridors of power September 28, 2014 Business minister Matthew Hancock tells Kate McCann he’s on the side of new challenger firms IF CONSERVATIVE MPs spent the weekend nursing a Ukip-induced headache ahead of their party conference, business minister Matthew Hancock showed no evidence of it yesterday. “It’s relatively cheerful here, in the circumstances,” the former Osborne advisor says with a wry [...]
Is Uber about to give in to European regulators? September 25, 2014 Uber is willing to consider a dialogue over the regulation of the company's services in Europe, according to Uber's vice president for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Africa Niall Wass. Uber has faced angry opposition across Europe from regulators, politicians and taxi unions, with demonstrators across the continent voicing their displeasure at the company's regulatory [...]