Yes, We Must Support all Disruptive Business Models, Regulations be Damned

Uber again, only this time, its drivers refused to serve a blind man, and then put his guide dog in the car's trunk:

These are only a few of the allegations brought against Uber drivers in recent months, and today the company adds another black eye to its record: allegedly denying service to the blind.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, the National Federation of the Blind filed a lawsuit in a federal court against Uber yesterday, claiming that Uber drivers have refused service to blind people with service dogs on more than thirty occasions. In one instance, a driver allegedly shoved a woman’s guide dog into the trunk of his car and refused to stop the vehicle after the passenger realized what had happened. To add insult to injury, the lawsuit also states that some customers were charged cancellation fees after being refused a ride.

This behavior, along with being appallingly unfair, appears to be a pretty clear violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination against the blind by taxi companies, even if the car is operated by a private independent contractor.

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But the Federation also claims that it tried to resolve the issue with Uber without filing a lawsuit, but the company rejected its negotiation proposal. Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that Uber told customers that its independent drivers were out of the company’s control, and the best advice it could give was to mention the animal before the driver arrives. That may not be the soundest advice, considering that if drivers are willing to reject disabled riders in person, then they’re probably even more likely to do so over the phone or through the app.

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But if what the lawsuit alleges is true, and Uber refused to negotiate with victims of discrimination while doing little to stop this discrimination from happening in the first place, then it sounds like Uber’s back to its old tricks — stonewalling and shirking responsibility whenever its drivers breaks the law.

This is not a bug, it's a feature.

Discrimination, price gouging, sketch driver background checks, it's all a part of Uber's Ayn Rand driven ethos.

If you get cheated, discriminated, hurt, or dead, it's your fault, because you aren't being selfish enough.