Uber Goes Right to Users' Phones When It Wants Lawmakers to Jump
- App sends political messages and appeals directly to its users
- It creates a lobbyist-in-your-pocket for the sharing economy
The Uber app runs on an iPhone during an Uber ride in Washington on April 8, 2015.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergUber customers in Austin, Texas, who ordered cars last month got a political prod, right on their phones: the option of a $50 horse-and-buggy ride.
The offer was meant to lampoon a plan to fingerprint drivers, which Uber Technologies Inc. calls 19th-century regulation for 21st-century technology. It exemplified the company’s strategy of using the very mobile phones that enable its car-booking application as mobilization tools against regulations like those that cover the taxi industry. Uber has deployed the tactic to encourage voting in San Francisco, to fight caps on its fleet in New York and in a successful attempt to block tougher insurance and background checks in Palm Beach County, Florida.