Portland’s Futile War Against Uber
Portland’s Mayor recently sounded off about Uber’s use of clever software to outfox regulators during the city’s pointless battle against ridesharing. Government officials are investigating Uber’s ethics in using a regulator-detection-algorithm known as “Greyball”. Greyball was used to avoid agents out to write up fines against Uber drivers operating in Portland when the service was banned. However, for myself as an average citizen, I am questioning the city’s ethics in keeping a popular and beneficial service away from people that need it. While lofty ideals about safety and ethics are bandied about during the Greyball investigation I find myself thinking that it’s really just about the money. For me, it feels like local government was forcing citizens to live in the past using antiquated technology because it fit better into…