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Massachusetts Governor Introduces Bill To Regulate Uber, Lyft

jfruh writes: The "wild west" days of ridesharing services may be coming to an end. The governor of Massachusetts has proposed a bill that would regulate Uber, Lyft, and their rivals in the state. Among the new rules: ridesharing services would have to run background checks on their drivers and keep a roster of active drivers; vehicles would need to have some external marker indicating that they're a ridesharing car; and drivers would need to hold at $1 million worth of insurance when transporting passengers.

3 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Regulation for Taxation by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is Massachusetts doing what it does best - looking to rake in some tax money. Massachusetts is particularly diligent to make sure they get a cut when cash changes hands. I'm pretty sure that the legislators here get twitchy in summer when they see kids setting up unregulated lemonade stands.

    I do see this being ignored completely, until someone gets pulled over and stupidly blurts out "Uber" in the conversation with the officer. At that point they will probably set up checkpoints on the HOV lanes where one must pull over and look deeply in a trooper's eyes and state that they are not an Uber/Lyft driver, honest!

    --

    Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!

    Vote for Bernie in 2016!

  2. Re:Banning by regulation by stephanruby · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, if it walks like a taxicab and talks like a taxicab, how is it not a taxicab? Because you signal it with a hep and cool app instead of making a phone call?

    It's not a taxicab because it actually shows up when you call one.

  3. Re:Yeah.... by dave420 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Translation: "I am confused. All these big words and weird concepts. I don't get them. I do, however, hate regulation so I will kick and scream and fuss and complain about this, showing everyone how much I don't know and how little I care about educating myself, and how much I value a good bout of rage".