Uber has made the news recently with reports about a purportedly secret technology platform to avoid picking up undercover law enforcement officers. Although this seems extreme, it adds an interesting perspective to thinking about how start ups (although Uber is no longer a start up, it surely once was) should deal with legal regulation. Uber’s strategy appears to be avoidance. Clearly, there are other options available, such as compliance.
UPDATE: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290093
Uber has announced that it will no longer use this technology to target local law enforcement, etc. This is an interesting development–perhaps the public reaction was too much.
I saw the same article. I agree that perhaps the public reaction was too negative and forced change — the secret technology platform seems like an example of innovation gone wrong. Uber is under a lot of scrutiny for other issues (violence in Ubers, wages as independent contractors, etc.) and it seems as though they would be better served spending time and resources on these issues, rather than on evading police.