IATR 39th Annual Conference Early Bird Pricing Until Aug 15!

AV City: Autonomous Mobility

Las Vegas, Nevada | September 14–17, 2026

Vdara Hotel at ARIA | 2600 W Harmon Ave, Las Vegas, NV

Early-bird pricing extended until August 15

Hotel room block available through August 14 – availability limited

Sponsorship opportunities available until August 14

Kay Woo, the chief executive of TADA, personally tries to recruit drivers, including Anwar Hossen, left, to use his ride-sharing app, Throo.

Image: Angelina Katsanis

Kay Woo, a Korean tech executive, wants to break into New York City’s multibillion-dollar ride-share industry.

So, naturally, in a city of 8.5 million potential customers, he’s courting his most valuable prospects: cabbies.

For the past few months, Mr. Woo has made recurring trips to a shadeless parking lot at LaGuardia Airport, recruiting drivers for his company, TADA. His efforts have paid off: He says he has persuaded about 50,000 drivers since March to install the company’s ride-hailing app.



The goal of the new app, called Throo, is to offer an alternative to the higher-commission model that drivers are used to when working with companies like Uber and Lyft. By charging drivers a smaller fixed fee per ride, and reducing charges that otherwise get passed onto passengers, Mr. Woo’s company promises better pay for drivers and cheaper fares for riders.

So far, Throo, which started offering rides in June and is authorized to operate in New York, is undercutting the bigger apps on some fares. A standard trip from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan to Kennedy International Airport was $80 with Throo; a similar ride with Uber would have cost about $136, and Lyft asked for $134.

TADA, based in Singapore, is among a small number of upstarts offering discounted rates and using slick marketing techniques to try to cut into what is effectively a ride-share duopoly. Uber and Lyft make about 80 percent of all for-hire and taxi trips in the city, with Uber completing roughly 70 percent of that share, according to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Source: New York Times

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Image: Ulysses Muñoz

Empower, a ride-hailing Uber and Lyft alternative billed as a better deal for both drivers and riders, may have to close up shop in Maryland.

Public Utility Law Judge Amy Schaeffer issued a cease and desist order against the company this week, writing that Empower “presents severe and ongoing risks to public safety” by facilitating rides without submitting to regulatory oversight.

Schaeffer sided with state regulators who raised several concerns about their inability to access information about Empower’s drivers, including details of their auto insurance.

Schaeffer gave the company 15 days to request a further hearing on the matter or the order will become final.

Source: The Banner

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Mamdani Signs Executive Order Requiring City Vehicles Be Equipped with Pedestrian Alert, Speed Limiter Devices

Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week ordered the city’s non-emergency trucks be outfitted with devices warning pedestrians of their presence when making turns and that all new vehicles the city acquires be equipped with them as well as technology capping their top speeds.

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Taxi, Rideshare Drivers Feel Squeeze As Gas Prices Climb above $4

Gas prices are again averaging more than $4 per gallon nationwide, increasing costs for taxi and rideshare drivers who say filling their tanks is cutting into money available for food and other expenses. AAA reported Wednesday that regular gas averaged $4.06 nationally.

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Aurora Prepares New Driverless Truck Rollout across US

Pittsburgh-based autonomous trucking company Aurora has unveiled a second generation of driverless trucks as it prepares to expand commercial freight operations across the US. The second-generation vehicles are based on International’s LT truck and feature updated autonomous hardware that Aurora claims is designed for a one million-mile operating life. 

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Canada’s Chinese EV Quota Is 38% Full — And Tesla Took Most of It

Ottawa’s quota for Chinese-built electric vehicles has passed a milestone nobody in Ottawa was aiming for. Global Affairs Canada’s utilization report now shows 9,235 vehicles cleared into the country under the 24,500-unit first window that runs March 1 to August 31 — about 37.7% of the allocation, with 15,265 permits still on the table and roughly six weeks left on the clock.

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Montreal Public Transit Authority to Study 8 Areas That Could Benefit from Transport Expansion

Montreal's transit authority has identified eight areas that could see future public transit expansion. In a statement, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) says it will examine each area between this year and 2029, with the first study focusing on Chomedey–Saint-Laurent. The plan will be to recommend the most appropriate scenario for each zone to the provincial government in order to guide future investments.

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City of Windsor Completes Transit Windsor End Terminal Expansion

On July 21, the city of Windsor, Ontario, celebrated the completion of the expansion of the Transit Windsor West End Terminal located on the Hôtel‑Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) campus.

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Vietnamese Taxi Company Now Offers Tours in Copenhagen

The Vietnamese company Green SM now offers taxi rides in Copenhagen. Among other things, it appears from ads on Facebook that you can book trips via the company's app. The company is owned by the founder of the Vietnamese car brand VinFast, which also supplies the electric, cyan-green taxis that have been seen driving around Copenhagen in recent days.

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BYD’s Glasgow Fleet and German Taxi Push Signal a Two-Pronged European Gambit

BYD is making a coordinated push on multiple fronts, blending high-profile event sponsorship with a targeted assault on the commercial fleet market. The Chinese electric-vehicle giant has been named the official vehicle partner for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, supplying 90 vehicles for transport and operations around the competition venues. The contract also makes BYD the first fully electrified fleet provider in the Games’ history and includes a partnership with Team Scotland, with cars deployed for the King’s Baton Relay.

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London Taxi Fleet Expert Says Availability Remains Largely Unchanged As Drivers Compete for a Shrinking Pool of Highly Valued Used Cabs

The shortage of new purpose-built taxis continues to drive strong demand for used vehicles, with drivers increasingly competing for a limited number of secondhand cabs as uncertainty over the next generation of taxis continues. In the latest Cab You Drive column published in TAXI Newspaper, the writer says there has been little movement in the market despite continued speculation around a successor to the LEVC TX.

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Kerala Online Taxi Strike Partially Withdrawn

The online taxi strike launched in Kerala over a series of demands has been partially withdrawn. The Joint Action Committee of drivers said services would resume on platforms such as Kerala Savari and Rapido, which have agreed to consider their key demands. However, drivers will continue their complete boycott of Uber and Ola, alleging that the companies have refused to address their concerns.

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Temporary Taxi Licence Proposed to Reduce Pressure in Lanzarote

Lanzarote’s Cabildo and Tourist Promotion Society have urged local councils to grant temporary taxi licences to cover periods of high demand. The island government said it was concerned about reports of long queues for taxis in areas of high demand during the busiest tourist season and specifically mentioned out the Marina Rubicón in Playa Blanca as an example. Cabildo President Oswaldo Betancort said “councils have formulas that permit the temporary increase of the service’s capacity at specific times of special need. Therefore, we ask that they consider their immediate application during the summer.”

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Sindh to Launch Women-Only Electric Taxi Service Operated by Female Drivers

The Sindh government has announced plans to introduce a women-only electric taxi service, marking another major step toward improving women’s safety, mobility, and economic empowerment across the province. The upcoming initiative will feature female drivers exclusively serving female passengers, providing a secure and comfortable transportation option while creating new employment opportunities for women. The announcement was made by Senior Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon during a meeting with a high-level delegation from the British High Commission at his residence.

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Image: Lloyd Mitchell

A federal judge has ruled that New York City cannot prohibit Uber Technologies and Lyft from deactivating drivers from their apps without advance notice, ruling ​that the novel law is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan ‌said in a written ruling on Tuesday that the city's law adopted earlier this year benefits a small fraction of drivers while interfering with the ride-hailing companies' right to police the safety of their ​platforms.

"Uber and Lyft are likely to succeed in showing that the law protects ​a narrow class of drivers and does not advance the broader ⁠social or economic interest which the U.S. Constitution requires to permit the severe impairment of ​their contracts," Woods wrote.

The judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the city from enforcing the ​law, which was set to take effect July 28, pending the outcome of consolidated lawsuits filed by the companies last month.

The law, one of the first of its kind in the U.S., was passed in January after the New York City Council overwhelmingly overrode a veto by former Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat. Adams had said ​that the law would ​create an expensive ⁠and unwieldy new bureaucracy to handle wrongful deactivation claims.

Source: Reuters

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