Show an ad over header. AMP

Breaking down Uber and Lyft's threat to suspend services in California

13 August 2020
Dan Ackermann

Uber and Lyft are ratcheting up the fight with California’s state government over the classification of drivers with a move that would deprive Californians of their ride-hailing services (and halt driver income).

Driving the news: On Wednesday, bothcompanies said that if a court doesn’t overturn or further pause a new ruling forcing them to reclassify California drivers as employees, they’ll suspend their services in the state until November’s election, when voters could potentially exempt them by passing a ballot measure.

Between the lines: Many critics suggested the companies are bluffing, but I’m not so sure. A few reasons...

  1. The logistics aren’t trivial. They’d have to figure out staffing needs and a schedule, hire however many drivers they need, and onboard everyone.
  2. It’s unlikely the companies want to go through all the above, just to reverse course if they win in November.
  3. Depriving customers of these services could get them more support in November. The companies have, in the past, successfully turned customers into their political advocates.
  4. With demand for ride-hailing already being significantly deflated, the additional drop in revenue is perhaps something they’re willing to swallow.
  5. Even if they could make these shifts quickly, it’s unlikely the companies want to give drivers a taste of employee life and risk sabotaging their ballot measure.
  6. Lastly: They’ve done it before. In 2016, when Austin passed new rules requiring driver fingerprinting, Uber and Lyft suspended operations and didn’t return until Texas overrode the rules a year later.

Why it matters: Only Uber and Lyft are party to this lawsuit, but several district and city attorneys — and regulators — are already suing other gig economy companies like Instacart and DoorDash over the same California law.

  • What happens at the California ballot box in November will have ramifications beyond Uber and Lyft’s ride-hailing businesses.
  • It could also affect the future of high-demand services like food and grocery delivery, which have become critical for many Californians while the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
  • (Uber also operates a food delivery business and recently agreed to acquire rival Postmates, which is widely popular in California cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.)

The bottom line: Don’t expect these companies not to pull out all the stops to fight this.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.