In less than three years, a honeymoon between Brazil and Uber, fueled by complimentary mints and bottled water in the back seats of luxury sedans, turned into a turbulent, unsafe relationship, with some rides ending in kidnapping, robbery, and murder.
Several drivers and passengers interviewed by Motherboard described their dangerous and harrowing experiences using the ridesharing service, and there's no shortage of customer complaints on social media. And while Uber has committed to investing more money to support drivers and passengers in Brazil, critics say the company is doing too little too late.
Uber arrived in São Paulo in 2014 with its best service, UberBlack, and locals were amazed by the opportunity to hail black sedans from the company's app. Taxi drivers didn't like the idea and retaliated violently against Uber and its drivers, but their behavior only ended up turning into a free advertisement campaign for the multi-billion dollar company, giving it a legion of loyal supporters across the country.
Less than three years after its national launch, the app is available in more than 40 Brazilian cities, and UberX started to accept drivers with cars manufactured in 2008 or later. In the city of São Paulo alone, the local government claims that more than 50,000 cars registered in ride-sharing apps (it is believed that Uber accounts for 90 percent of them) compared to 38,000 taxi drivers.
With the increasing number of new users and the enrollment of drivers whose only training was watching a YouTube video about how Uber works, the consequences were inevitable: Uber's relationship with both passengers and drivers started showing signs of strain.
Read the rest on Motherboard.
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