Mexico City Could be the Next to Ban Uber Taxi App Pablo Diez - GlobalPost
go to original May 9, 2015

Uber Mexico City (Pablo Diez )

If there’s anywhere on Earth that needs Uber, it’s probably Latin America.

Catching a cab in the street here is often the equivalent of dicing with death. That’s partly because of driving standards that are through the floor and lax regulation of taxis.

But it’s also because taxis in Latin America — statistically the world’s most homicidal region — are frequently used by violent criminals to kidnap and rob unsuspecting passengers.

Mexico City is perhaps the world capital of this kind of crime, and no self-respecting guidebook fails to warn of the danger. Passengers are taken at gunpoint on a forced ATM tour. Often, they are held captive past midnight so they can be forced to withdraw a second day’s worth of cash.

Uber and other taxi apps, such as Cabify, all but eliminate that danger by keeping a record of which drivers picked up which passengers.

And Latin American customers seem to appreciate the difference. Uber has made rapid progress in the region, and now operates in 11 cities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

Yet despite their grim reputation, Mexico City cab drivers have been howling in protest at Uber’s incursion into their megalopolis. They launched this lawsuit against the app complaining that it’s pirating away customers and violating fare rules. That case is still ongoing.

Read the rest at GlobalPost

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