For several years Uber has more or less thumbed their collective noses at the laws of cities, states and countries around the world. While this is the most famous ride sharing service in existence today and the have begun using autonomous vehicles in some cities such as Pittsburgh, Uber is also considered to be dangerous to some businesses in a few cities. In these cities the use of Uber has been banned as it creates a direct detriment to the taxicab industry of a city, but Uber has once again found a way around the rules and regulations.
In an effort to continuously operate their vehicles in areas that haven’t approved their operation, Uber has created a data collection software that allow the company to avoid authorities. This software is called Greyball and it has allows the company to operate in places that Uber has either been banned from or where it hasn’t been approved to operate to date. This Greyball software is able to help the company avoid being used by authorities, especially in cities and countries where Uber hasn’t yet been approved. This is certainly not the right way to use technology, but it’s not surprising at all that Uber is the company to do this.
Right now the markets that ban or restrict the use of Uber include Boston, Paris, Las Vegas, Australia, China, Italy and South Korea to name a few. The technical way Uber is able to use this service to help avoid giving rides to those who are authorities in area is with the use of the violation of the terms of service that Uber has created. These terms identify people that are thought to be using the Uber services improperly to help drivers avoid giving rides to those who intend to do them harm or perform illegal acts, but it has also made it possible for Uber to protect itself as well.
The Greyball tool has been used to ensure a ride wasn’t given to a man in Portland, Oregon before Uber had been approved for the city. There had been no formal approval for the services offered and the city eventually ruled that Uber was illegal in Portland but a code enforcement inspector that was trying to pull a sting operation against Uber found the Greyball software to be more advanced than expected.
This many never received a ride because the software tagged him as someone in violation of the terms of service which then meant the software would show vehicles and drivers that would deny rides to this man and never actually showed up to give him a ride at all. He was able to hail a ride that was just as quickly cancelled and a fake version of the Uber app appeared on his smartphone, which was just another step in the Greyball technology advantages that Uber enjoys. Amazingly, this software is reported to be approved by the Uber legal team, but the legality of it is certainly in question.
While Uber does need to have a program that’s designated to help deny ride requests to users who may intend to harm drivers or use the service for illegal reasons, the denial of a person that’s an official seems a bit far reaching. This appears to be just another way that Uber is acting in a way that shows it feels as a company that it can behave however it wants to. There may be a need to keep the competition out, but if Uber operates only where its approved, there should never be a need to have these types of measures taken by this company that’s considered the most popular ride sharing company in the world.
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