It’s What The Uber Friday and we are excited to share this What The Uber moment with you!
Since Uber’s inception in 2009, they have expanded to operate in over 50 countries around the world, deliver goods to thousands of people, and can even be found competing with Google to build the first driverless taxi. Uber certainly is allowed bragging rights over their laundry list of accomplishments, but they have also been known to stir up some trouble amongst city officials during their rise to power.
Most recently, Uber has been in the news for protesting against a NYC bill pushed by Mayor Bill De Blasio, that would limit the amount of drivers Uber could have driving through their app. Uber has tried to abolish this bill by gaining support via a few normal venues; rallies, multi million dollar ads, etc. However, Uber recently went to a whole new level to gain support from fellow NYC residents. The company just released the “De Blasio Uber” feature on the Uber app, which is available to all NYC Uber users. The feature, designed to show 
residents what Uber would be like under the new bill, will either show no cars available or wait times of 25 minutes. When clicked on, the De Blasio Feature will prompt users to take action and send an email to Mayor De Blasio and the city council showing their opposition to the bill. Quite a cheeky move on Uber’s part!
The proposed bill would limit the number of allowed new Uber drivers to just 201 over the next year (Uber is currently adding more than 200 drivers each week!). Mayor De Blasio has been cited saying that Manhattan is overwhelmed by the addition of 2,000 new rideshare vehicles each month. In the New York Daily News, he said “”We’re facing the addition of over 25,000 cars to our streets over the next year — the rough equivalent of two times the total number of yellow taxis in all of New York City.”
Uber is now trying to engage the Mayor in a real, live debate regarding the above issues. Maybe they shouldn’t have attached the Mayors name to a “fake Uber mode” in their app if they are trying to encourage him to join in on their debate!
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