Uber

In between interviews with top international business and technology publications from Forbes to Wired, U of T Associate Professor Raquel Urtasun spoke with U of T News about the whirlwind surrounding her since she decided to join Uber and bring the American company’s first international research lab to Toronto.

Read the Wired story

Read the Forbes story

Why was it important for you to stay in Toronto and affiliated with the ��Ƶ?
Two reasons: First of all, as you know, Toronto has an amazing pool of AI talent. It’s home to Vector and it’s only going to grow. That’s one of the reasons why Toronto is the place to be.

The second: I moved to Canada three years ago and I really fell in love with the country. Instead of leaving Canada and my peers, I decided that, you know, I should pay it back by bringing self-driving cars to Canada.

How does it feel to bring a major international research lab to Toronto?
I think it’s amazing, right? This is a great day for me but also it’s a great day for my students, a great day for the next generation of Canadians who are going to be working on self-driving cars for real.

It’s a great opportunity.

How many students currently with you are moving over to Uber?
Eight of the students are post-doc and they will be continuing their studies while at Uber.

What’s been the reaction from your students and colleagues? Have you heard from them?
Yeah, yeah! They’ve all congratulated me for the great opportunity. They’ve been very positive. The students are really happy. So many of the PhD students want to be involved in self-driving cars [research].

Did you hear from Geoff Hinton, University Professor Emeritus in computer science at U of T and vice-president engineering fellow at Google?
I haven’t heard from Geoff [this week] but he’s congratulated me already in the past about this opportunity. Geoff and I have a very good relationship. The fact he works for Google [doesn’t matter].

This is a big high for Toronto and for you. In the space of less than two months, you have the Vector Institute launch and now Uber. You’re definitely putting AI and Toronto on the map. How does that feel?
I feel really happy. It’s really changing for Toronto. It’s becoming a major [AI] hub. [There are] many great things for the city, for the region [that are happening]. This is also going to [attract] more companies.

U of T's self-driving vehicle superstar to lead Uber's new research lab in Toronto

ullahnor — Mon, 08 May 2017 13:51:54 +0000

U of T's self-driving vehicle superstar to lead Uber's new research lab in Toronto

ullahnor Mon, 05/08/2017 - 09:51

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U of T Associate Professor Raquel Urtasun is joining Uber's new branch for Advanced Technologies Group (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Jennifer Robinson

Author legacy

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Artificial Intelligence

After years of conducting world-leading research on self-driving vehicles, U of T Associate Professor Raquel Urtasun is joining Uber – and bringing the American company’s first international research lab to Toronto.

“I’m proud to welcome Raquel Urtasun to Uber,” said Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in a blog posting announcing the deal today.

“Raquel will remain in Toronto to lead a new branch of our Advanced Technologies Group – our first outside the U.S.,” he continued, adding the company hopes “to draw from the region’s impressive talent pool as we grow.”

Kalanick added that Urtasun and her team “will further strengthen our self-driving engineering efforts in San Francisco and Pittsburgh. And, their work will complement the research underway at Uber AI Labs, led by Zoubin Ghahramani – a proud ��Ƶ alum himself.”

U of T's Dionne Pohler on power, the future of unions and what we can learn from Uber

ullahnor — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 21:32:08 +0000

U of T's Dionne Pohler on power, the future of unions and what we can learn from Uber

ullahnor Tue, 01/03/2017 - 16:32

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Dionne Pohler, assistant professor of human resources management, also researches labour policy (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Sean Bettam

Author legacy

Sean Bettam

Topic

City & Culture

Human Resources & Equity

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

Human resources scholar driven by a love of labour

Dionne Pohler recently joined the Faculty of Arts & Science, teaching strategic human resources planning and foundations of employment relations.

Prior to joining U of T as an assistant professor, Pohler was a frequent voice of labour insight in the media, commenting on topics like the role and regulation of human resource (HR) professionals, union strikes and employer lockouts, union advertising, essential services legislation and the right to strike.

At U of T's Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, her focus will be on understanding the dynamic intersection of employment regulations, organizational strategy, HR systems, unions and employee voice. She also studies alternative ways of governing organizations and employment relationships.

She spoke with U of T's Sean Bettam about how the nature of work at the dawn of the 21st century is changing and how companies like Uber have created a new labour market.

Your work explores many aspects of labour relations and how organizations and employment relationships are governed. How do you tie them together?

Put simply, my research examines governance – who gets to decide what and how – in interdependent systems, and how this affects outcomes for different organizational stakeholders. I am particularly interested in studying the formal and informal arrangements that determine how power is allocated and exercised in employment relationships, organizations, professions and organizational networks, and the relative effectiveness of different governance arrangements in achieving efficiency, equity, sustainability, voice and legitimacy particularly for workers.

How is the rapid advancement of technology changing the nature of work?

The most popular recent example of how technology is changing the nature of work and employment relationships is the introduction of Uber. Uber created a completely new labour market and allowed for incredible worker flexibility and control over hours and working conditions.

However, what was most fascinating for me in observing the public controversy and policy debates over Uber was that even though this technology caused a massive industry disruption, the perennial concerns about protection of workers remained. For instance, there was still a perceived imbalance of power between capital and labour, and regulatory concerns centered on whether drivers were contractors or employees, driver access to insurance, health and safety issues and human rights.

You’ve done considerable research on unions and how their role within an organization has evolved over time. What is the place of unions today?

Unions, like any institution or organization, need to engage in ongoing struggles for legitimacy and relevance. This requires re-thinking strategies and even philosophies to be able to adapt and survive in a changing environment.

The vast majority of collective bargaining negotiations conclude without strikes or lockouts, so you rarely get the stoppages that bring work to a halt that are often threatened. The public needs to be aware that in a capitalist system, unions generally promote economic and social stability.

In countries where we have seen the power of unions decline at a much more rapid rate than in Canada – like the United States and the United Kingdom – we are observing increasing societal unrest and concerns about rising economic inequality. This definitely had some impact on the results of the American election and the Brexit referendum, though how much of an impact relative to other factors is still unclear.

Research is pointing toward a link between the decline of unions and rising inequality in liberal market economies. However, due to globalization, unions will likely never have the same impact they once did, so we need to think about new and innovative ways to ensure that the relative power between capital and labour does not fall too far out of balance with negative consequences for organizational efficiency, employee equity and voice, and ultimately society.

Why did you choose to come to U of T? How will being in Toronto enhance your research and teaching?

The ��Ƶ is the top research university in Canada, and one of the top research universities in the world. I want to push myself to reach that level of excellence in my own research.

I’m also excited about being exposed to new ideas. The diversity at U of T is unlike anything I’ve experienced.

The Uber effect: innovation in the fast lane

lavende4 — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:52:49 +0000

The Uber effect: innovation in the fast lane

lavende4 Fri, 08/26/2016 - 11:52

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Toronto taxi driver at an anti-Uber protest in 2015 (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Adrienne Harry

Author legacy

Adrienne Harry

Topic

Global Lens

Uber

Innovation

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Urban Studies

Innis College

Back in March, Shauna Brail was at a geography conference in San Francisco about to present recent findings from her study on Uber and municipal governance. As she scrolled through the news minutes before her presentation, she learned that the city of Ottawa had just released draft regulation guidelines for Uber and other ride hailing firms, suddenly rendering some of her findings obsolete. The ride hailing industry — and the government’s response to it — is changing faster than experts can research it.

Brail, senior associate at the Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and urban affairs advisor to U of T President Meric Gertler, is looking at how Uber’s business model disrupts cities. From municipal governance to economic impacts, Uber’s emergence in the transportation sector has created ripple effects that cities around the world have had to learn to navigate.

“The first piece of our study is looking at regulation because that’s what determines in which cities Uber can launch and continue to operate,” says Brail, who is also director of the ��Ƶ’s Urban Studies program at Innis College. “They started off operating in a legal grey zone and advocating for keeping that grey zone. But more recently they have shifted tactics and they’re now embracing regulation. I think there’s also been an acceptance that making ride s haring illegal isn’t going to make it go away, so governments are thinking about ways to work with it, to their advantage.”

This “grey zone” in the transportation sector isn’t new. Dollar vans, jitney services and unlicensed airport shuttles have been quietly thriving for decades. But Uber is the first company to disrupt the industry on such a large scale. In just seven years, Uber’s valuation has grown to be estimated at $60 billion dollars, operating in nearly 473 cities and 76 countries worldwide. Since 2014, the number of Uber employees has grown from 400 to 6,500. On the streets of Los Angeles, Ubers outnumber taxis 11 to 1. And unlike the humble jitney operators of the world, Uber has $1 billion set aside to fight municipal regulation. “Uber has developed a model that takes advantage of technology,” says Brail. “They’ve come up with new ways of doing old things.”

Uber’s success is a clarion call to Toronto’s transportation sector about the importance of innovation in business and policy. Despite doing their best to keep up with an ever-changing transportation landscape, Brail says that municipal legislators tend to take a reactive approach to change, which impedes innovation. “In Toronto, we have a fractured but fairly powerful taxi lobby that’s developed over decades and been subject to stringent regulations,” she says. “There’s been almost no innovation in the taxi industry for decades, in part because they were in such a heavily regulated space. However, Toronto just undertook a major ground transportation review a couple of years ago. At the time, they updated many regulations, so it’s not that they weren’t aware of what was on the horizon...it’s that their systems and processes are designed to be reactive, not proactive.”

With technology advancing at an exponential rate, Brail says it’s worth considering how regulation can keep up with rapidly changing trends. Uber, for instance, is already testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, with automated taxis slated to hit the road as early as 2017. This means the heated debate over ride hailing may be an ancient discussion in the not-so-distant future. “One of the most challenging pieces of this research is how fast the field is moving,” says Brail. “So, a huge question is how can municipal governments begin to think and work in a more proactive way that fosters innovation? If a municipality doesn’t figure out how to behave in an innovative way, will that affect their future potential for economic growth?”

New regulations mean business as usual for Uber, says U of T expert

lavende4 — Mon, 09 May 2016 14:40:23 +0000

New regulations mean business as usual for Uber, says U of T expert lavende4 Mon, 05/09/2016 - 10:40

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Toronto taxi drivers protesting against Uber (All photos by Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

School of Public Policy and Governance

For months, Torontonians have debated the fate of Uber, even as the taxi industry has threatened protests and the ride-hailing service has issued threats of its own to leave the city. As Uber continued to operate illegally – outside the terms of the current taxi bylaws – councillors and the mayor discussed solutions. This week, after a heated debate, City Council finally approved new regulations for Uber. U of T News talked with Sunil Johal, policy director at the Mowat Centre at U of T’s School of Public Policy and Governance, about the new laws governing Uber and whether these will settle the issue, once and for all.

What will change for Uber? Do the new regulations go far enough in regulating Uber?

Toronto’s new rules will largely mean business as usual for Uber, its drivers and customers. UberX drivers will now be required to file documentation, such as criminal record checks and insurance certificates, directly with the city rather than with Uber as had been the case previously, and obtain a city license. But Uber drivers won’t be required to have cameras in their car, undertake training courses or have rates regulated by the city (other than a small change to the base fare).

What effect these rules will have on the ground transportation system in Toronto is uncertain right now. Taxis have operated in a supply-managed marketplace for decades, and the effects of allowing more cars on congestion, consumer satisfaction, safety and accessibility will take some time to sort out. The City will need to closely monitor these types of issues over the next one to two years and be prepared to make adjustments as needed.

[quote (class="additional class" | author="Sunil Johal")]“Indications are that Uber is pleased with the new rules” - Sunil Johal[/quote]

How have the rules changed for taxi drivers? Is it enough to satisfy the taxi industry?

The new rules reduce a number of mandated requirements for taxis, including the elimination of 17 days of training for new drivers, refresher courses and the need to have CPR and First Aid certification. They also permit taxis to discount fares from regulated rates, and charge higher rates if trips are booked through a smartphone. Any rate reductions would need to be borne by individual drivers rather than taxicab brokers.

These amendments seem to have been designed to win the favour of the larger taxicab brokerages in the city, and also go some ways to removing time-consuming requirements for individual drivers. I expect we’ll see taxi brokerages start to explore the possibility of re-constituting themselves as Private Transportation Companies (PTCs), the classification Uber has under the new rules, as they would have greater flexibility around pricing and fewer costs. More individual drivers will also likely explore driving for PTCs, as their income potential may be higher.

Do you think the controversy ends here or will this continue? Is the city, Uber or the taxi industry still pursuing other issues or regulations?

Indications are that Uber is pleased with the new rules, and I anticipate the taxi industry will take a careful look at how their business model is going to be impacted. Some in the industry who invested in taxi medallions at a cost of $300,000 or more in recent years may still be very unhappy with the impacts of these rules on their investments. The city has committed to studying compensation for medallion owners and this could remain a friction point in the coming months.

It’s interesting to note that City Council actually requested the province step in to regulate companies like Uber. Whether the province wants to get involved in what has proven to be a political minefield will bear watching.

Are similar battles playing out in other cities? Are any of the regulations or new laws interesting enough that you think they’ll influence how other cities deal with Uber?

Toronto adopted an approach that is largely similar to that of many other cities in the US and elsewhere. A number of other cities in Ontario like Mississauga and Hamilton are currently developing approaches to their own taxi industries, and will likely use Toronto’s approach as a starting point for discussions.

For more about the Uber debate, watch Urban Studies professor Shauna Brail's video:

2016: three city experts on the year ahead

sgupta — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 12:55:21 +0000

2016: three city experts on the year ahead sgupta Tue, 12/22/2015 - 07:55

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Infrastructure issues are bound to dominate Toronto debate in 2016, experts say (photo by Sam Javanrouh via Flickr)

Alan Christie

Author legacy

Alan Christie

Topic

City & Culture

Five Ideas from Shauna Brail

Continue to build civic pride

Keep doing all the things that make Toronto work and that make people proud to call Toronto home. Relatively small things like the 3-D Toronto sign, showing playoff games in the bird’s nest, encouraging civility on council and among city hall staff, and willingness to attend events across the city and engage with people throughout.

Affordable housing and transportation

When the Mayor recently announced a city building tax, he signaled that two key priorities would be affordable housing and transportation. These align well with recent federal infrastructure commitments; furthermore, the provincial government is also clearly invested in the supply and delivery of infrastructure, especially as it relates to regional transportation.

By working collaboratively, the city has an opportunity to address the significant shortfall of affordable housing, the repair backlogs and the insufficient funding and supply of public transit. Investment in these two areas also addresses job training and community development goals through job creation and the implementation of community benefits agreements.

Parking on Dundas between River and Parliament

It strikes me as odd that one can park for free on a main thoroughfare with access to an aquatic centre, a cultural centre, shopping and parks. The city could share the parking income with Regent Park residents to support additional access to swimming lessons and cultural activities. Also, the city should think ahead about the contribution of parking income to the city’s finances. This income is likely to decline as fewer young people use cars, as alternative transportation options increase – particularly in dense urban neighbourhoods – and as technology shifts towards autonomous vehicles.

Ensure that Toronto City Hall looks like Toronto

Because it’s almost 2016, and because Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, Council and staff should reflect our diversity. Currently, City Council includes 32 per cent women and 14 per cent visible minorities. The Mayor’s executive committee has 13 people, among them four women and two visible minorities. The ward boundary review process could have the potential to improve representation across the city, depending on which approach is chosen. In addition, staff hiring processes have the potential to be more responsive and flexible than electoral ones.

Draw on resources and talent outside of City Hall

This wealth of resources includes universities and colleges, civic organizations, and think tanks. We are in an era of unprecedented interest in cities. This shift presents an exciting but also daunting opportunity, given the challenges. The city should rely on expertise and strengths outside of City Hall. These resources can help develop dynamic, innovative, evidence-based and globally informed policies and practices that address urban challenges and necessary change.

Three Ideas from Patricia McCarney

A low-to-no-carbon city

For Toronto to take a leading role in moving the needle on carbon emissions, the city requires massive infrastructure investment to expand public transportation and to create low-carbon mobility solutions, to build low-carbon energy solutions for buildings with a movement towards a city powered by electricity from renewable sources. The city must scale up local renewable energy production and improve energy efficiency in buildings, and expand and innovate waste management practices. High calibre city level data should drive this investment.

Multi-level governance on climate

City progress on the climate agenda depends heavily on collaboration with senior levels of government. Actions on climate by provincial governments across Canada support city climate targets.

For example, Ontario’s policy to phase out coal power reduced Toronto’s emissions from electricity production. Toronto’s data on electricity from renewable sources places it in the highest ranks among global peers at 29 per cent.

Moving forward as a global leader

Toronto has lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita (at 7.33 tonnes per capita) than, for example, Boston (10.8 tonnes per capita) and Los Angeles (13.39 tonnes per capita). However, relative to other European cities, Toronto produces higher GHG emissions per capita than Barcelona, London and Amsterdam (which range from 2.36 to 5.5 tonnes per capita).

Seven Ideas from Matti Siemiatycki

Rapid transit priorities

With transit projects on the drawing board far exceeding the amount of money available, in 2016 the city will have to start coming up with a list of priorities. SmartTrack? Scarborough subway? Downtown relief line? Sheppard LRT? Which of these projects make sense and which should be built first are important questions to resolve in the coming year.

Affordable housing

Toronto has an affordable housing crisis, characterized by a tight private rental housing market and over 78,000 households actively on the social housing waiting list. In 2016 can city council come up with creative ways to fund new public housing units and expand the size of the affordable private rental market?

Addressing climate change

Cities around the world are taking a leadership role in implementing policies to combat climate change. Can Toronto keep pace with the most ambitious cities and implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Immigrant settlement

In 2015, Toronto, and Canada, opened their doors to Syrian refugees fleeing violence in their home country. Can their arrival be used as an opportunity to ensure that the city is welcoming to all newcomers in the future?

Control cost overruns on infrastructure

With the new federal government promoting infrastructure and the city set to embark on many new large projects over the coming years, implementing strategies to control cost overruns should be an important priority for 2016.

Waterfront 2.0

With the development of the eastern waterfront well under way, attention in 2016 will turn to getting activity started in the Port Lands. This will require creative thinking and political manoeuvring to fund the necessary flood protection, land servicing and transit, and get building started in the area.

Uber vs. taxi

Mayor John Tory and City Council will be under pressure in 2016 to come up with a solution to the conflict between conventional taxis and ride sharing services like Uber. Can they come up with a resolution that is acceptable to all the industry players and passengers?

Photo above by Sam Javanrouh

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Uber: criminology professor on the controversial, California-based company

sgupta — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 16:52:46 +0000

Uber: criminology professor on the controversial, California-based company sgupta Fri, 10/02/2015 - 12:52

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Criminology

Community

Cities

Subheadline

City must protect workers as well as passengers, Mariana Valverde says

Toronto City Council voted this week to develop regulations for Uber by the spring – but, in the interim, the ride-sharing drivers have refused to abide by a request to stop operating.

The moves follow a tumultuous summer in which taxi drivers threatened to disrupt the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Games by way of protesting against what they view as an unlicensed taxi service.

The California-based company allows passengers to use the Uber app on their smartphones to find a taxi, private car or rideshare, or use UberX to hire a private driver. Toronto has proposed to reduce taxi fares to make licensed drivers more competitive. Since Uber says it has 16,000 drivers and 400,000 riders in Toronto, other Canadian cities are watching closely. Will Toronto create separate rules or bring all drivers under the same by-laws?

U of T News spoke to Professor Mariana Valverde of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies.

Toronto City Council has voted to create new rules for Uber. What is the status of Uber users before these rules take effect?

Those who use the Uber app to book licensed taxis are fine, but it’s not clear what happens in the more common situation of using UberX to book an unlicensed driver in a private car. Toronto City Council asked Uber to stop using UberX until regulations are in place, but UberX is ignoring this request, quite openly. In my view, City Council was naïve to suppose that they could simply “request” a big, powerful business to stop operating a profitable service. We have by-laws because nice, polite requests are no substitute for legally enforceable rules.

Why has this issue become so controversial?

The taxi business has long been very tightly regulated with strict conditions for driving a taxi, fares set by the city and a maximum number of taxi plates. UberX drivers are at the other extreme of the regulatory spectrum. They are unlicensed in the sense that they have ordinary driving licenses, not commercial driver licenses. Their cars are not inspected or subject to any minimum standards, and there is no regulation of either the price or the conditions. So we have an overly regulated, indeed micromanaged formal sector on one side, and the Wild West, informal economy on the other. It’s no wonder there are controversies.

What would you like to see Toronto do? Should Uber fall under taxi bylaws or have separate bylaws?

The city staff proposal of creating a new category of municipal license is quite sensible. But, the devil will be in the details.

What should be included in these regulations?

At minimum, commercial insurance for Uber drivers; licensing by the city of both drivers and their cars; and criminal record checks for drivers. Those are likely to be imposed by City Council. But it’s not clear whether the fares will be subject to regulation. Nobody was talking about that in the debate and it was not mentioned in the city staff report.

Can we foresee a day when Uber rides and taxis cost the same?

I am not sure how feasible or useful it would be to try to impose the same fare rules for Uber as for taxis, so I am not making this as a firm policy suggestion. What I know is that taxi drivers make very little money as it is, and that Uber, which is a large, powerful company that has a monopoly on ride sharing, is a huge threat to their livelihood. The city licenses taxis and so has a responsibility to protect their livelihood and working conditions. Consumer protection is also important, but it’s not the only factor to be considered in drawing up regulations. Worker protection is important too.

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Uber

Love of Canada keeps U of T self-driving car expert in Toronto

Read more on Urtasun joining Uber

Read the Wired story

Read the Forbes story

Read more about Vector

U of T's self-driving vehicle superstar to lead Uber's new research lab in Toronto

Read more at the Toronto Star

Read more at Bloomberg

Read more about the Vector Institute

Read more about Urtasun's new role at Uber

U of T's Dionne Pohler on power, the future of unions and what we can learn from Uber

The Uber effect: innovation in the fast lane

New regulations mean business as usual for Uber, says U of T expert

2016: three city experts on the year ahead

Five Ideas from Shauna Brail

Three Ideas from Patricia McCarney

Seven Ideas from Matti Siemiatycki

Uber: criminology professor on the controversial, California-based company