Hong Kong regulates Uber, the future is Waymo and drivers earn extra cash. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

HONG KONG REGULATES UBER

After a decade, Hong Kong has finally regulated Uber. Bloomberg reported:

Under new rules to take in effect next year, ride-hailing platforms, vehicles and drivers will need to obtain relevant licences and permits, according to a government statement. The regulation also strengthens penalties for the illegal carriage of paying passengers.

The bill “will address the long-standing controversies surrounding such services and provide the public with more travel options that are safer and lawful,” Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said in a statement.

Under the new rules, drivers will need to be at least 21 years old and have no serious traffic convictions within the past five years.

Uber said it welcomed the government's move to formally regulate ride-sharing in Hong Kong. The bill will help integrate ride-sharing into the city's transport system and ensure riders and drivers alike benefit from clear rules, an Uber spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

IS WAYMO THE FUTURE?

Is Waymo the future? One reporter thinks so. Bloomberg reported:

I've covered the car industry for 20 years, and I would hate to see our sports coupes and road trips disappear. The risks associated with relinquishing control over my mobility also give me pause. Or they did. I took a Waymo for the first time recently in Los Angeles and … I haven't stopped using it since. Rather than replace our cool cars, self-driving vehicles will, I predict, become a welcome complement to modern life, first as part of ride-sharing platforms and then as privately owned transport. Why? Because they offer an excellent solution for something nobody likes: commuting.

If driving is heaven, commuting is hell. Not even the hardest-core drivers like it. So the question isn't whether self-driving will replace our favorite cars (I think not), but rather, will it remove the burden of our most mundane trips? And could it replace other ride-sharing platforms like Uber? I certainly hope so.

Beyond Waymo, robo-taxis and -shuttles are also running in China, Singapore and the Middle East, and they're being tested across Europe. The vehicles are expected to become commercially available in the US at a large scale by 2030, according to the research firm McKinsey.

But they're a long way from being ubiquitous. A world of self-driving cars will require billions of dollars of development, improved navigation systems, increased charging infrastructures and new regulations to amend traffic laws. Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen have all canceled autonomous taxi programs they once funded by the billions. (GM is planning to renew exploring autonomous cars for personal use, rather than as a robotaxi service.) Tesla's Robotaxis aren't open to the public. Given the company's proclivity for extensive delays, it's unclear when they will be.

UBER OFFERS NEW WAYS TO MAKE MONEY

Uber is offering new ways for drivers to make money. Bloomberg reported:

A new job category called “digital tasks” will appear in the Uber driver app for some workers later this fall, offering existing registered drivers the opportunity to make a few bucks if they take on simple assignments that can be completed within minutes, according to the company.

Those stints currently include uploading documents like restaurant menus, or recording audio samples of themselves narrating a scenario in various languages, said Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal. More tasks will be added over time, he said, and the payout will vary based on the time commitment of each assignment.

Uber is seeking to ride the wave of a growing appetite for bespoke datasets and labeling services that require human vetting to train AI models. Scale AI, which offers similar services, received more than $14 billion in investment from Meta Platforms Inc. earlier this year and is valued at more than $29 billion.

Kansal said in an interview that the new digital tasks aren't meant as an answer to potential driver displacement from the increasing availability of autonomous vehicles, but as a way to keep attracting drivers to the app with more ways to earn.

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