And, in a much more serious way, in India:Drivers using a smartphone app to operate unlicensed taxi services around Victoria say they will not be deterred by a recent crackdown by the state's taxi regulator.
Twelve UberX drivers appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with operating a commercial vehicle without a licence, following a sting by the Victorian Taxi Services Commission.
The drivers each face fines of up to $7500, after allegedly being caught driving between May and August this year in Geelong, Southbank and in Melbourne's central business district.
Uber, which connects people looking for lifts with drivers, was launched in the United States in 2010 and is now used in more than 200 cities in 45 countries around the world.
In Melbourne, users can request an UberBLACK, which are hire cars operated by licensed taxi drivers, or the low-cost UberX, driven mostly by unlicensed drivers who use their own cars.
UberX has been available in Australia since April and "thousands" of drivers are using the service in Victoria, a company spokeswoman said.
The taxi regulator has long opposed Uber, which it says undercuts taxi drivers who pay for expensive licences, and has fined 80 UberX drivers in recent months.
But Melbourne UberX driver Arron Iris said the crackdown would not deter him or other drivers from using the app, in part because the company pays any fine they receive.
"I'm not scared. Why should I be?" Mr Iris said.
"There were two drivers who were fined three months ago and I think Uber paid for it and I think it's still the case."
Mr Iris is rare in the UberX world in that he does hold a taxi licence, after he started driving conventional taxis about eight years ago.
He does, however, drive his own car, which is not registered with the taxi commission.
The 45-year-old started using UberX three months ago and said he would not go back.
"I'd rather stay with Uber, because you can communicate with the passengers - everything is working, the system is perfect," he said.
Another Melbourne UberX driver, Robert Burns, was also confident the company would pick up the tab if he was fined.
"I think I'll keep on driving - a lot of people want to use Uber," Mr Burns, who started driving an UberX 12 weeks ago, said.
"My understanding is that if a driver is a fined, Uber picks up the fine."
The 52-year-old former mechanical engineer turned to driving when he was unable to find other work, and said the high demand for UberX would ensure its survival.
"Uber will stand behind us and how can you defeat something the customer wants?"
A statement by Uber said that it was inappropriate to comment on the case against its drivers, which will return to court on February 5. The statement said the company "stands by its partners fully".
Now, in the case of Melbourne, I can understand the argument that the existing taxi industry (with its own share of abusive drivers) is acting in self-interest, and that Uber may provide some customers with a service they prefer. There is no evidence that I know that the nascent Uber service in Melbourne has been any more problematic than the existing regulated service.Delhi: How could a notorious sex offender with a string of complaints against his name be hired as a driver for Uber, the multinational taxi service that was recently valued at more than $US40 billion?
That was the question outraged Indian politicians, regulators and customers were asking this week after a 27-year-old Delhi finance executive was allegedly raped by an Uber taxi driver on her way home from work.
According to the victim, she had hailed the cab using Uber's mobile-phone based application about 9.30pm on December 5.
"While on my way home, I fell asleep on the back seat of the cab," the woman said in her statement to police. " A few minutes later, I realised that the car was stopped at a secluded place and the driver was molesting me," she said.
When she protested and tried to escape, the victim told police, the driver threatened to kill her and then raped her.
"I tried to unlock the cab door but failed," she told police when she reported the incident the next day.
It was not the first that time that Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, had faced accusations of raping women passengers in his taxi.
In 2011, Yadav was acquitted of charges of raping a woman at knifepoint due to an apparent lack of evidence. Last year he was granted bail after another rape case was registered against him. Just a week before the December 5 alleged rape, Uber had received a formal compliant about Yadav's behaviour from a concerned female passenger.
"Me and my partner got in but he kept staring through the mirror and I felt uncomfortable," Nidhi Shah said in a statement to New Delhi Television.
Shah said that on the same day, November 26, she emailed Uber management to express her concerns about Yadav's behaviour.
"I think he was smiling a little creepily also. Eventually when he dropped us off, I thought I should report this to Uber. I had a bad feeling about him."
In response, Shah received an email from an Uber executive named Hannah promising to follow up the complaint, but it appears no action was taken.
"Sorry about what happened here!" said the email from Hannah. "I've passed along your feedback to our driver operations team, so that they can check in on Shiv about it."
When news broke that police were seeking Yadav, who is from the village of Ram Nagar several hundred kilometres south of Delhi, Indian newspapers reported that his neighbours started celebrating, handing out halwa and offering prayers at a nearby Hindu temple.
"He is a compulsive sex offender," one local resident, Kushin Singh, told The Hindustan Times. "You won't find a single household in this village whose women he hasn't teased or molested. I know no less than 26-27 cases that never reach the police."
Another villager said that six months ago Yadav had snuck into the village, pinned down a girl and blackmailed his father into buying him a car, the same car that was allegedly used in the rape on December 5.
"Police had barred him from entering Manipuri. Though people are terrified, they seldom lodge any criminal complaint because they believe it will bring a bad name to the village," said a local police officer.
Other reports indicated that Yadavhad a list of molestation allegations levelled against him dating back as far as 2003.
Yet in November, Uber's Indian management bragged publicly that "each of our driver partners are put through a rigorous quality control process".
However, in India Uber has conducted no background checks for any of its drivers, unlike other more traditional taxi services that require drivers to undergo police checks before granting them a taxi permit.
Uber operates in 52 countries, including Australia. Outside the United States, India is Uber's biggest market. But in a city still reeling from the after-effects of the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of 23-year-old female physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh Pandey, the company has been shut down without further notice.
Worse for Uber, Indian authorities have declared that the San Francisco-based company's top executives could face charges of criminal negligence over the rape for not conducting adequate background checks of its drivers.
Under intense pressure, Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick issued a penitent statement of regret over the incident.
"What happened over the weekend in New Delhi is horrific," Kalanick said. "Our entire team's hearts go out to the victim of this despicable crime.
"We will work with the government to establish clear background checks currently absent in their commercial transportation licensing programs," Kalanick added.
Late on Thursday, the company also sent a personal email to its customer database emphasising its sorrow and pledging to conduct more thorough background checks in the future.
"The events of this week have made us reflect on our operations in India and we are immediately undertaking a number of important actions. During this review, we will suspend operations in New Delhi.
"First, let us acknowledge that we must do better; and we are conducting a full audit of our verification, rider feedback and support processes. We are implementing measures to ensure that critical rider feedback is escalated immediately and immediate action is taken in every instance. We are also re-reviewing rider feedback on every driver partner across India to make sure nothing has been missed.
"Second, we are assessing all driver-screening processes. We are evaluating additional screening options to include background checks on all our driver partners in India above and beyond what is currently required."
Uber management also pledged to partner closely with organisations championing women's safety here in Delhi and the rest of India, vowing that safety was the company's top priority.
Delhi Commission for Women chief Barkha Shukla Singh said Uber had not followed guidelines issued by police and local transport authorities.
"They did not have GPS system in their cabs which certainly points at lapses," Singh said. "This shows the failure of government policy. How can somebody come to India, start a large business and not follow the law? Will any any Indian company be allowed to do so in a foreign country?"
India's Association of Radio Taxis claimed that its warning about Uber's failure to comply with government regulations had gone unheeded.
"They place only a mobile application in the car for GPS navigation, violating all the rules and requirements of the radio taxi scheme under the Motor Vehicles Act," association president Kunal Lalani said.
Controversy is not new to Uber, which has riled authorities in other countries including the US, with claims that the company's so-called taxi "aggregator" service, which matches drivers with people who want a ride using their smartphone, avoids the local laws which regular taxi services are subject to.
A Dutch court on Monday banned the UberPop service, which links clients with drivers who do not have professional licences, from operating in the Netherlands. The UberPop service has been banned in the German cities of Berlin and Hamburg, while London's main taxi association has brought lawsuits against Uber and a number of its drivers.
The governments of Thailand and Vietnam have also banned Uber, while authorities in the South Korean city of Seoul are also considering banning Uber.
With US President Barack Obama scheduled to visit India late next month, some Indian officials expressed concern that shutting down Uber in India might adversely affect the India-United States relationship.
"We want all our ducks in a row before we're hit by accusations - that's what this is about," one Indian official said. "The idea is to be ready with a counter-explanation to soften any pressure from lobbyists on our American friends."
However, the Indian example shows that the self-regulation there, in the form of careful checks of driver probity, has broken down...
Comments from interested parties?
(and Seth, I have no axe to grind here - one day I may well try an Uber journey in Melbourne, and report back to the forum if I survive...
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