The California Public Utilities Commission approved ridesharing companies early this year, but it offered only a few temporary guidelines while it worked on a formal rule set. Today, the regulator has published those definitive rules. Companies like Lyft, SideCar and Uber now have to get a CPUC license to operate under a new Transportation Network Company category. To maintain that license, they’ll have to run background checks, train drivers, hold a minimum level of insurance, inspect cars and drop employees who abuse alcohol or drugs. The requirements won’t necessarily eliminate tension with Los Angeles and other cities that believe they have jurisdiction over taxi-like services. However, the CPUC’s move gives California ridesharing companies a degree of comfort — they can keep operating in many cities without fear of being shut down.
Filed under: Transportation
Via: TechCrunch
Just what do you think is the future of the automobile? We might not be able to see through a vision of cars that fly, just like how it is depicted in the Jetsons or other science fiction series or movies, but one thing’s for sure – the world needs to wean itself off the addiction that is fossil fuel, and start to seriously explore the possibility of turning all cars into hybrids, or in a more pure format, being electric powered. It has been said that the folks over at General Motors have this particular vision of developing an electric car that sports a 200-mile battery range, and all of that without having to break the bank with an estimated price point of just $30,000.
