Drivers look to unionize, Waymo gets ads and the truth behind robotaxis. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
To unionize or not, Waymo does what, and robotaxis won’t get all the pie. It’s all here in This Week in Rideshare.
MINNESOTA LOOKS TO UNIONIZE
Drivers in Minnesota are looking to unionize. Kare11 reported:
Minnesota legislators introduced two bills Wednesday that would allow rideshare drivers to form a union.
Minnesota legislators settled on a rideshare rate of $1.28 per mile and 31 cents per minute, with a minimum ride charge of $5.
A separate law went into effect in December 2024 that enforces a minimum pay level for transportation network drivers. Both Uber and Lyft threatened to pull out of the state if even higher pay rates mandated by the Minneapolis City Council had taken hold.
If these two new bills pass, rideshare drivers would be able to unionize and bargain for additional pay and benefits. Bill authors Sen. Zaynab Mohamed (DFL-District 63) and Rep. Samakab Hussein (DFL-District 65A) introduced the two bills in the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday.
WAYMO RIDES COME WITH ADS
Your Waymo ride may be coming with ads. The Street reported:
It’s not news that Waymo records the data from its rides and has cameras inside its vehicles. After all, this is very new technology. The company carefully monitors rides to learn how to improve its product while ensuring customers have an optimal experience.
In her post, Wong shows a screengrab, saying, “Waymo is working on Generative AI training using ‘interior camera data associated with rider’s identity,’ provides opt-outs for this and data sharing under CCPA. Waymo explicitly states in this unreleased Privacy page [that] it may share your data for personalized ads.”
Waymo reached out to TheStreet with a comment from a spokesperson, saying, “Waymo uses interior camera data to train models on safety, ensure cars are clean, find lost items, provide help in case of emergency, ensure rider rules are followed, and improve our service. The feature, which is still under development, will not introduce any changes to Waymo’s Privacy Policy, but rather will offer riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection for ML training purposes.”
ROBOTAXIS AND DRIVERS
What do robotaxis mean for drivers? Axios reported:
As robotaxi services begin to spread across America, ride-hailing drivers could worry that they’ll be pushed aside in favor of robots — or at least that their incomes will shrink.
Human hand and robot hand, tips of index fingers touching in front of a pink background; image by Igor Omilaev, via Unsplash.com.
Drivers on both networks earn about $23 per hour, according to Gridwise Analytics, which collects driver data to track the gig economy. So far, the presence of robotaxis in San Francisco, LA and Phoenix hasn’t affected ride-hailing drivers much, Gridwise found.
By 2040, S&P Global Mobility is projecting 15 billion ride-hailing trips a year in the U.S., up from 3.6 billion in 2024. About half of those trips will be in robotaxis; the other half will still be driven by humans.
Hybrid network: Some riders will select robotaxis, but others will still prefer a human driver for extra assistance or premium service.
The bottom line: The ride-hailing pie is still growing, and robotaxis aren’t going to eat it all.
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LegalReader thanks our friends at LegalRideshare for permission to republish this news. The original is found here.
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