This Week In Rideshare: Robberies, Uber Robotaxis and App Wars

LA drivers targeted, Uber partners with Lucid and they’re coming for your apps. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

---

Stick ’em ups on the rise, Uber on the offense against other apps, and these are the droids you’re looking for… but not until next year. It’s all here in This Week in Rideshare.

LISTEN TO PODCAST

LA UBER EATS DRIVERS ROBBED

Uber Eats drivers in LA are getting robbed. ABC7 reported:

During Tuesday’s police commission meeting, Chief Jim McDonnell said there have been eight different incidents involving Uber Eats drivers reported this year.

He said they’ve also seen more taco stand robberies with five reported in the Wilshire, Hollywood and northeast L.A. areas. He said those taco stand robberies involved two male suspects.

McDonnell said officers are pursuing leads and hope to make arrests soon. Anyone with information is urged to contact police.

UBER PARTNERS WITH LUCID: ROBOTAXIS BY 2026

Uber is expanding its robotaxi partners. Bloomberg reported:

Uber announced Thursday it will purchase and operate Lucid Gravity SUVs outfitted with Nuro Driver technology on its ride-sharing network. The company aims to launch the first vehicle later in 2026 in an unidentified major US city, with plans to deploy at least 20,000 of the robotaxis over six years.

The ride-sharing company also announced it’s making separate multi-hundred-million dollar investments in both Lucid and Nuro. That funding will include $300 million for Lucid that will be used in part to upgrade to its assembly line to integrate Nuro hardware into the Gravity vehicles, according to the EV company.

The Lucid-Nuro deal adds to more than a dozen partnerships that Uber has announced with autonomous vehicle tech developers and carmakers, including Waymo and Volkswagen Group of America, as it aims to be the go-to commercial app for robotaxis. Earlier this week, Uber announced a partnership with Chinese AV maker Baidu to deploy robotaxis in several non-US markets. Currently autonomous rides are available through the Uber app in Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and Abu Dhabi.

UBER TRIES STOPPING GIGU/MYSTRO

Uber is coming for your driver apps. Business Insider reported:

As gig workers’ incomes have dropped, some Uber and Lyft drivers are turning to apps like GigU, Maxymo, and Mystro to help them work smarter — and dodge the lowest-paying rides.

Some of the apps have recently encountered roadblocks in the form of rideshare giants Uber and Lyft, which argue that using the third-party apps runs afoul of their terms of service.

An Uber representative said they wouldn’t talk about any specific app, but said “using third-party tools to bypass the system breaks our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. It hurts riders, other drivers, and the trust that keeps Uber running.”

They aren’t free, but they say drivers can increase their earnings by more than what the tools cost, which ranges from $5 to $19 a month. Some drivers have previously told BI that they can make more money if they’re pickier about the rides they accept, though for Uber drivers, declining rides based on destinations can put their accounts at risk.

Now, it’s the one cracking down. GigU, which launched in the United States in May, was sued by Uber in Brazil, where it says its app has been downloaded a half-million times. GigU says it has come out ahead, although Uber has said the legal process is ongoing. GigU also said it has filed an antitrust complaint against Uber with CADE, a Brazilian regulator.

LegalRideshare is the first law firm in the United States to focus exclusively on Uber®, Lyft®, robotaxis, Waymo, and gig worker accidents and injuries. Consultations are always free.

LegalReader thanks our friends at LegalRideshare for permission to republish this article. The original is found here.