Here are four stories relevant to my research and teaching.
Vietnam’s taxi drivers fight app drivers, wear their uniforms to steal customers. This story is all too familiar. The taxi industry has been negatively affected since app-hailing services entered cities. The news story from Vietnam talks about the tension and conflict between traditional business (motor-bike taxi) and app-hailing: the former fights the latter for customers. Taxi-motor bike drivers have seen their business plummet due to app-hailing. Drivers in Ho Chi Minh city are fighting back in two ways: 1. By wearing fake uniforms to impersonate app-hailing services* 2. by bullying and attacking app-based motor-bike taxi drivers if seen in certain pickup locations. (*It seems that in this context, people may still street-hail taxi drivers that are affiliated with app-hailing services.). I think a regulatory oversight would help alleviate the problem. For instance, officially designating certain places for traditional taxi and prohibiting app-based taxis from doing street hailing or a combination of these two.
Disinformation Is One of Climate Summit’s Biggest Challenges. Although the story focuses on COP28, it is also about how disinformation and misinformation are challenges global warming in general is facing. According to this article the falsehoods that are fed into public discourse are the following: 1. climate change was not caused by humans 2. hotter and drier weather did not cause recent wildfires 3. the world, instead of warming, is cooling 4. oil and gas producers are leaders in carbon reduction, and that 4. climate change warnings are a cover to destabilize the Global South. The article also talks about the people who are leading the dis/min information machine. They are a. oil and gas companies b. China and Russia c. social media influencers. Their motives are money, power, and money. I find the story incredibly distressing. I teach a course in designing sustainable cities and one of the activities we do in class is discuss media stories.
Tesla partners with Uber to offer $3,000 discount on its electric cars to drivers: The gist of the story is the title. Uber is partnering with Tesla so the drivers on its platform receive a $3,000 discount to purchase a Model 3 Tesla. According to this article, Tesla is now considered a partner on the platform. Benefits? 1. Benefit to Uber: a driver who gets this discount will have to complete 1,000 trips by February. 2. Benefits to Tesla: of course, the purchase of lots and lots of cars. 3. Benefits to drivers: savings in gas. This is according to the article. My concern is that the cost of the up front cost of a Tesla is very expensive for the average driver. We will have to wait and see how this partnership unfolds.
Uber is buying 100 Tesla Model Ys to deploy in Tokyo. The gist of this story is also the title. Uber is purchasing these vehicles for its Uber Premium service. I only have one thing to say about this: If Uber owns a fleet, wouldn’t that diffuse its insistence that it is a technology company and not a transportation company?
Mahtot [Mah-tote] Gebresselassie, PhD 