Abu Dhabi To Introduce New Regulations For Ride-Hailing Apps (reuters.com)

Ride-hailing services such as Uber and others will have to register their apps and heed new regulations to operate in Abu Dhabi, a top official at the Gulf emirate's taxi regulator said on Monday, Reuters reports. From the article: U.S.-based Uber and regional rival Careem suspended services in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on Aug. 27 after many of their drivers were stopped by authorities over violations of regulations, sources told Reuters at the time. Careem has since resumed services in Abu Dhabi, although Uber has yet to do so as it awaits clarification on some issues. The new regulations are coming "very soon" and will include a provision requiring ride-hailing apps to register with The Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire Cars (Transad), its general manager Mohamed Darwish al-Qamzi said. "This will help us to control the market easier by blocking any unregulated application with us," he told Reuters. Currently, ride-hailing services are not regulated in the UAE.

Comments

Protecting....what?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know the Slashdot crowd will jump up and down about how regulations on things like Uber are protecting the ancient business model of the taxicab but reality is not everyone who offers a ride is trustworthy, especially in other countries.

In China, for instance, it's common for people to stand at the taxi line and offer a ride in their personal vehicle--just a way for them to make some money. Seems innocent enough but some of these are total scams: they drive you out to the middle of nowhere and inform you that you either pay them some outrageous sum of money or they will leave you there. As a foreigner, you're stuck: you have no one to call (if you even have a working phone) so you have to pay. Sure hope you have it (but don't worry--they'll drive you to a bank or ATM so you can get the cash). All the scammer needs to be able to do is speak English well enough to execute the scheme.

Not everywhere is as nice as the USA. We talk about how dangerous it is out there and how untrustworthy our country has become. It's a heck of a lot better than most places, that's for sure. Sure, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and Korea all may be safer, but there's a stack of places where you'll be targeted as a foreign traveler. I've never heard of this scam in the USA, even with Uber. But Abu Dhabi seems like a place where this might be reasonably likely.

Re:Protecting....what?

[bluefoxlucid]

Uber, Lyft, and Careen *are* regulation, though. Rather than a random, unknown individual offering a ride, you have a random, unknown individual offering a ride as documented by a service. This differs only from a taxi in that the taxi company is offering the ride and retaining employees, whereas the ride share services are connecting service seekers to service providers (this is the same differentiation between Amazon and Ebay, although Amazon has third-party sellers as well).

Government regulation only stipulates that said service must provide certain protections. It's all well-and-good that Uber provides insurance, traceability, and so forth; but will NewbeRide provide all that, or just say "Ride Share" and not really keep logs or provide insurance? How do you know that Uber and Lyft provide an equivalent minimum baseline at least in terms of consumer protection?

So Uber is about as safe as a Taxi; but we don't know if the next ride share app will be, too.

Re:Protecting....what?

[jcr]

As a foreigner, you're stuck:

As a foreigner, you probably outweigh the scamming little shit, and you can snap him like a twig.

-jcr

Re:Protecting....what?

[bfpierce]

"This will help us to control the market easier by blocking any unregulated application with us"

They aren't interested in just regulating what you've mentioned, they're also interested in regulating cost and pricing.

Re:Protecting....what?

[bluefoxlucid]

Probably. That wasn't a point I addressed; parent painted a picture of an untrusted, uncredentialed, unmonitored hitchhiking program where you just jump in a random stranger's car as the alternative to government regulation. My point was that ride share services like Uber and Lyft are the regulation supplying consumer safety, and that governments apply regulation to those to ensure that they supply a minimum consumer expectation at the least.

Protectionist economic policies and central economic planning are, of course, mistakes that governments love to make. They're popular: even the Slashdot crowd wants restrictions on pricing of pharmaceutical drugs, restrictions on lay-offs, restrictions on trade, restrictions on work visas, and in general central economic planning and protectionist policies that make them feel like they're ... well, protected. It seems obvious that price controls, work guarantees, and favoring of local business should be good for the consumer; the large effects of economics in terms of increasing purchasing power are a distant result of a long path through complex economic machinery, and difficult to understand.

Re:Protecting....what?

[danbob999]

It's all well-and-good that Uber provides insurance

in most markets Uber doesn't provide insurance.

Re:Protecting....what?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are an amazingly special little idiot aren't you? You have no knowledge of the real world and rely on internet bravado to get by. I pity you.

Re:Protecting....what?

[jcr]

You have no knowledge of the real world

I'll match my knowledge of the real world against any AC, anytime, anywhere.

I pity you. ...says the coward.

-jcr

Re:Protecting....what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Leave this up to the individuals to decide. If Uber sucks at vetting drivers or isn't up to your standards you are free to utilize something else. We don't need regulation to do that for us. We need people to wake up and take responsibility for stupid shit they do. You don't expect the government to put up walls and 'doors' so you don't accidentally walk out into traffic do you? No, you open your eyes and *look* both ways. Well, you have to do that for everything in life and the government isn't going to be able to protect you from everything. We should let the market play itself out and stay out. The reason we have a lot of the problems we do (and most people are too stupid to be aware of it) is the result of government regulation. Look at cable companies. We have monopolies in the US because of government regulation. They gained first mover advantage and then some by locking out competitors long enough to cover there investment ensuring no future competitors could emerge. Who did this? Government. I want less government. Not more government. Then again I guess that is why I moved to NH to be part of the Free State Project / migration movement of those want desire freedom over a nanny state.

Sharia code: Evidently

[Chrisq]

Evidently some of the drivers weren't raping infidel women passengers.

solution :

[invictusvoyd]

Robotics : Robots aint got religion

Re:solution :

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet.

Re:solution :

[Anonymous Coward]

You can see some Muslim robots here.

Re:solution :

[KozmoStevnNaut]

Look at how wrong you are, brother.

https://theinfosphere.org/Robo...

Re:solution :

[invictusvoyd]

Seriously dude !! hehe ..

Business in Arab countries...

[jcr]

Can't do it without the baksheesh. I'm surprised that Uber was even able to start there.

-jcr

Here's the text of the regulations

[Anonymous Coward]

Use unapproved app - chop your head off.
Talk back to the robot driver - chop your head off.
Bring liquor into the cab - chop your head off.
Bring bacon into the cab - chop your head off.
Bring your seeing eye dog into the cab - chop your head off.
Insult allah in the cab - chop your head off.
Females not accompanied by their male family member - chop your head off.
If you identify your self as gay in the cab - chop your head off (but only after being sodomized)