It was striking how much of Tuesday’s announcement was devoted to propping up the old model - the beleaguered, out-of-date taxi business. The story of the industry’s emergence all over the world is a story of companies barging in and forcing their way past local authorities, then running their enterprises mostly as they see fit. The full account is a marvel of a company that openly laughs at local regulators. Using the usual data wizardry, it blocks them from using the service or learning anything about it. The story recounted a “greyball” technique where the company’s technology can identify municipal authorities who try to keep tabs on the firm. Some of their extraordinarily aggressive business tactics were on display in a New York Times exposé last week about Uber. So it won’t be surprising if the companies innovate themselves to an entirely new level, and leave the government scrambling to keep up. No one has ever accused government of that. The tech industry - and the companies consider themselves high-tech entities, not taxi companies - moves at the speed of light. Once the trendy, convenient new system takes hold, who’s going to step up and cancel the future? And it’s unlikely the provincial government would do something draconian and rescind permission. gets in the way once they are up and running, they won’t be shy about throwing their weight around. They know what they want, and they aren’t shy about going after it. ![]() ![]() These are huge, cutting-edge companies with multibillion-dollar valuations. They were quite proud of the fact it took years of deliberations to get to the point of giving the industry the green light.īut when the apps go active in December - depending to some extent on the May election - it’s a safe bet government is going to get left behind. The cabinet ministers sounded terribly earnest Tuesday about being studiously careful, and regulating ride-hailing to ensure the highest standards.
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