Mexico City could be the next to ban Uber

Taxis and a bus ride along the streets of Mexico City. (Omar Torres/AFP/Getty Images) 

Rio de Janeiro taxi drivers and their supporters staged a small rally and partial road blockage a day before the start of the World Cup last June in protest against Uber. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) 

LIMA, Peru — 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 (this has happened to more than one friend of mine). 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. So is another one in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the only Latin American metropolis larger than Mexico City.

This week a Sao Paulo appeal court overturned an eye-watering ruling against Uber. The ruling had ordered the car service company to stop operations immediately, or face a $34,000 daily fine. It had also obligated Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Google to stop offering the Uber app. The Sao Paulo taxi workers union is looking at ways to appeal.

These battles are part of a growing backlash, from Europe to India, against Uber for allegedly competing unfairly with street cabs.

Drone use poised to expand to newsrooms despite FAA limits

The Inspire 1, a drone manufactured by DJI, is flown March 10, 2015, in Davenport, Calif.Marcio Jose Sanchez — The Associated Press

try practice, but how the technology can actually be used to cover the news of the day is murky given its legal limitations.

The emerging technology has been used in wars, to deliver packages and, occasionally, for causing a ruckus, but the Federal Aviation Administration has also approved more than 200 commercial uses since September for movies, real estate and infrastructure.

Among those approvals, two companies identified newsgathering as their primary mission, according to the FAA website.

Las Vegas-based ArrowData said it’s looking to franchise its drone ability to news organizations.

The company wants to sell the drones to newsrooms and then train journalists to carry out an operation. It doesn’t have any contracts yet but said it is seeking out broadcast and newspaper outlets.

“It’s a tool that television is looking at — local television, national television, everybody’s looking at it,” said Ron Comings, who is the news director of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas and has been in talks with ArrowData.

But the practicality of using drones, formally known as unmanned aerial vehicles, to cover the news of the day is still murky.

The FAA has strict restrictions on drone operations, and a news organization would need deep pockets to afford the equipment and manpower for what is now a limited purpose.

Cinestar drones can cost as much as $50,000, depending on the intended use, said Ron Futrell, an ArrowData spokesman. The company, which got FAA approval two weeks ago, hasn’t worked out the training costs.

The FAA also requires at least a three-person crew to use a drone for news, including a licensed pilot to fly it, a camera operator to direct the footage and a spotter to manage the scene, officials said.

Meanwhile, the journalism bread-and-butter of breaking news probably can’t be covered by a drone.

Flights must be preapproved days in advance by the local airport and federal authorities, which will make covering unpredictable situations such as crime scenes and natural disasters nearly impossible.