Uber’s Relationship With City Of Pittsburgh Reportedly Worsening

There was a lot of fanfare about the partnership between Uber and the City of Pittsburgh when it first began (including some reports here at CleanTechnica), but it seems that the relationship between Uber and the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been souring as of late.

Image by Ronald C. Yochum Jr. (CC-BY-2.5), with slight modification

The New York Times reports that Uber has apparently not kept to its pre-partnership “promises” — and thus, has seemingly not kept its end of the bargain.

Autoblog provides more: “The things Uber promised in return for the city’s support — including free rides in driverless cars, backing the city’s $50 million federal transportation grant and jobs for a neighborhood nearby Uber’s testing track — have not materialized. The situation was an issue during the mayoral primary, too, with critics calling out incumbent Bill Peduto for not getting these agreements in writing from the ride-sharing company.

“Uber responded to the criticism, telling the Times that it has created 675 jobs in the greater Pittsburgh area and has contributed to local organizations. However, one high-profile pastor near Uber’s test track said that he’d given Uber a list of potential candidates for jobs at the site, but was told to send them through the regular job portal. According to the Times, none of these individuals, including a mapping engineer and other technicians, have been hired. Uber told the Times that while it was open to a deal with the city, it was still waiting for a draft proposal from local officials.”

Whatever the truth of the situation, with Uber’s continual bad press over the last year, many observers will likely assume that Uber is “guilty.”

In related news … Google’s/Waymo’s legal case against Uber appears