The future usually arrives gradually and only occasionally with an asteroid strike. For the taxi industry in New York, Chicago and many other major cities, it’s been the latter. Ridesharing (a misnomer) via companies like Uber and Lyft is an improvement in numerous ways over business as usual, but, wow, lots of people are being hurt in the transition. Many more will be in a similarly tight spot in time, since Uber has vowed to replace all its piecework drivers with autonomous cars as soon as technologically possible. 

From Jonathan Stempel at Reuters:

Taxi owners and lenders on Tuesday sued New York City and its Taxi and Limousine Commission, saying the proliferation of the popular ride-sharing business Uber was destroying their businesses and threatening their livelihoods.

The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court accused the defendants of violating yellow cab drivers’ exclusive right to pick up passengers on the street by letting Uber drivers who face fewer regulatory burdens pick up millions of passengers who use smartphones to hail rides.

According to the complaint, the number of Uber rides in the “core” of Manhattan increased by 3.82 million from April to June 2015 compared with a year earlier, while medallion cab pickups fell by 3.83 million.

They said this had driven down the value of medallions, which yellow cab drivers need to operate, by 40 percent from a peak exceeding $1 million and caused more defaults.

Uber’s rise also contributed to the July 22 bankruptcy of 22 companies run by taxi magnate Evgeny Freidman, and the state’s Sept. 18 seizure of Montauk Credit Union, which specialized in medallion loans, the complaint said.•