What You Should Know About Uber If You Had An Uber Injury Accident

Uber is the commonly used name for the corporation named Uber Technologies, Inc. Uber is a peer to peer ridesharing transportation network company (TNC), which in addition to ridesharing also involves taxi cabs, food delivery and bicycle sharing.

Uber is based in San Francisco, California, and as of 2018 operates in 785 metropolitan areas throughout the entire world.

Uber is estimated to have about one hundred million (100,000,000) users worldwide, with a 69% market share of the ridesharing business in the USA. See Uber.

If you were injured in any Uber accident or any ride share accident in Los Angeles, Calabasas, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills or anywhere in California, please call one of expert personal injury Uber accident lawyers now at 1 866 INJURY 2 or use our contact form to receive an absolutely FREE case evaluation.

Uber riders can access Uber via a free app. Although with Uber some features, such as scheduling rides, are available even without the Uber app. Riders are then quoted a price or fare to pay before the Uber rider actually requests the ride.

Uber uses a dynamic pricing model which means prices vary based upon various factors, including the estimated time and distance of the ride, and also the time of the day and the current supply and demand for Uber rides at the time the rider requests a ride. As a result, for example, during a sudden down poring of rain, a potential Uber rider may find it not only more difficult to get a ride (because of the sudden increase in demand) but also more expensive.

At the culmination of the Uber ride, the rider pays based upon the riders’ pre-selected method of payment, including via the rider’s credit card on file, cash, Apple Pay or Google Pay.

There also are additional fees for waiting over two (2) minutes.

If the ride is unusually long, the potential Uber driver will be notified in advance and may decline the ride because, among other things, drivers who take such rides may find it difficult to impossible to find a fare back to the driver’s home area. As a result, such a long one-way ride and travel for the Uber driver may not be financially worthwhile.

Uber was founded as UberCab in the year 2009 by two guys: Travis Kalanick (who had sold his Red Swoosh—a peer to peer file sharing company—in 2007 for $19 million) and Garrett Camp (a computer programmer who was the cofounder of StumbleUpon—a form of a web search engine that, among other things, recommended web content to its users--which closed in June of 2018).

After spending about $800.00 to hire a private driver on New Year’s Eve, Camp decided he wanted to try to find a way to reduce the cost of private transportation. Camp realized that sharing the cost of transportation with people should make it more affordable. This idea developed into Uber.

Kalanick joined Camp in Uber, and Kalanick is known to have given Camp full credit for the Uber idea. Camp worked with friends Conrad Whelan and Oscar Salazar to build the first prototype for Uber, and Kalanick was considered the “mega advisor” for UberCab.

There was an initial start-up in May of 2010, then Uber services and mobile app officially commenced in 2011 in San Francisco, CA. At first, the company’s application only allowed its users to hail black luxury cars at a cost that was 1.5 times greater than that of taxi fares.

In 2011, UberCab changed its name to just Uber (dropping Cab) because of complaints made by taxi (cab) operators in San Francisco. The rest, as they say, is history. Uber grew into the giant ride-share company everyone knows.

Uber started Uber X in July of 2012. Uber X is its service option that allows its drivers to drive for Uber by using “non-luxury” cars and other vehicles. Uber X drivers are subject to a background check, minimum car standards and a registration requirement.

Initially Uber X rates were similar to taxi rates, but were 35% less than UberBLACK rates. Uber in April of 2013 allowed its Uber X drivers to use their personal cars and other vehicles as part of Uber X. By this time Uber was operating in about 35 cities and its rates then were lowered. This lower rate caused some problems with UberBLACK drvers because their income was reduced because of the increased competition due to the lower rates charged by these Uber X drivers.

Uber started UberPOOL around Auguust of 2014, which is Uber’s carpooling service. UberPOOL naturally started in the San Francisco Bay area (Uber’s home city), and quickly expanded to other cities, including to Paris (November 2014), New York City (December 2014), Washington DC (October 2015), London (December 2015), Singapore (June 2016), Delaware (September 2016), Sydney (April 2018) and Melbourne (June 2018).

Uber vehicles and drivers have their own insurance rules in California, essentially as follows:

• • During the time when the Uber driver is available for rides, that is when the Uber driver’s app is on, but before a ride is accepted (i.e., before the Uber driver has been paired with a passenger), California law requires minimum bodily injury coverage of $50,000.00 per person and $100,000.00 for all injured persons per accident, plus $30,000.00 for property damage per accident. Uber provides this liability insurance coverage if the driver does not have it; plus Uber is required to maintain $200,000.00 of additional excess liability insurance coverage.
• • During the time the Uber driver has been paired with a passenger and also when actually transporting the passenger, Uber maintains single limits insurance coverage of $1,000,000.00 per incident.
• • For a more detailed summary of Uber Insurance requirements in California, please see our web article entitled, California Uber Insurance Law Requirements.

Uber started with a very aggressive strategy in dealing with government regulations and regulators. Travis Kalanic, an early leader of Uber, reportedly stated, “You have to have what I call principled confrontation.” This was taken to mean that Uber’s strategy included to start its operations in a city without permission, then if and when facing any regulatory opposition then Uber would try to mobilize public support for its ride-sharing services with political campaigns supported by paid lobbyists to change or alter any prohibitory regulations. Thus, the Uber strategy was to start, see what happens and then be prepared to fight.

During one such regulatory battle in Portland, Oregon, in 2014, the transportation commissioner of Oregon reportedly called the management of Uber, “A bunch of thugs.”

In a change of tactics, in November of 2017, the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, ended this “win at all costs” strategy and started a new value system for Uber, including the policy, “We do the right thing.”

Uber made a big push into self-driving cars in early 2015. The reason is obvious – imagine the huge cost savings if Uber could operate without any drivers to pay. At that time, Uber set-up its Uber Technologies Center in Pittsburg, staffing it with many researchers it hired from the robotics department of Carnegie Mellon University.

Uber started its first self-driving cars in Pittsburg on September 14, 2016. Uber used Ford Fusion cars that were equipped with 20 cameras, seven (7) lasers, GPS, and other equipment to, among other things, allow each self-driving car to create its own map to know its position.

Uber then used self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs in its hometown, San Francisco, California, on December 14, 2018. One week later the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revoked Uber’s registration of the 16 Uber test vehicles it was using to test its self-driving program and then the Uber self-driving program in California ended.

Uber then moved its California self-driving program to Arizona, with as a safety precaution two (2) Uber engineers in the front seat of its vehicles that were engaged in picking-up passengers. In March of 2017, an Uber self-driving car was flipped over on its side by another vehicle which allegedly failed to yield. In October f 2017, Uber changed its test procedure to require only one (1) test driver instead of the two (2) test drivers, as previously required.

Unfortunately, tragedy hit the Uber self-driving program when in March of 2018 a woman named Elaine Herzberg was killed when allegedly the Uber self-driving vehicle ran her over while she was trying to cross the street. In response to this tragic death, which apparently resulted in a wrongful death claim that Uber reportedly quickly settled with the family of the victim, Uber pulled its self-driving cars and other vehicles off all public roads in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Arizona.

One can easily see the many complexities of dealing with an innovative and powerful giant of a company like Uber. If you were injured in any Uber collision or a family member tragically killed in any Uber accident with a resulting wrongful death accident claim, please contact our Uber injury accident & wrongful death lawyers now – Just call 1.866. INJURY 2 now (and after hours then please press 1 for help).

There is no charge for our initial consultation – It is absolutely FREE!

And if we take your Uber injury accident case, we work on a contingency fee which means there is NO fee paid until we win.

There are many procedures and time deadlines, including the California statute of limitations. So please do not delay and risk damaging your claim or even losing your entire case. Please contact us now—You will be very glad that you did!