Uber is helping bankroll Hochul as driverless competition looms

Por Nick Reisman — POLITICO – TOP Stories

ALBANY, New York — Uber spent years fighting to expand in New York. Now it is helping bankroll the governor’s reelection as lawmakers weigh rules for a new generation of competitors.

An Uber-backed super PAC is expected to spend $2.5 million to bolster Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s reelection bid against Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman — an outlay that ranks as one of the biggest on the Democratic side this fall in New York state races. That cash is coming on top of the record $10.9 million a group backed by the company spent this year on advertising promoting Hochul’s successful push to change the state’s car insurance laws — changes that stand to benefit Uber.

Uber’s political spending comes as its own business faces competition from Waymo, the Alphabet-owned company that offers driverless rides directly to customers through its own app. New York lawmakers could help determine the terms of that competition.

State Sen. Jeremy Cooney, who chairs the chamber’s Transportation Committee, wants to pursue autonomous vehicle legislation next year and is open to an approach that would require a share of ride-hailing trips to be driven by humans. He said Uber has not directly provided him with model legislation like the bill he is considering.

An Uber lobbyist circulated proposed language in New Jersey requiring human drivers to serve 85 percent of a platform’s rides for three years, WIRED reported this summer. Such a requirement could effectively force robotaxi companies to partner with an existing ride-hailing platform to enter the market.

“It’s kind of that perfect recipe for the way to influence,” lobbyist and former state Sen. David Carlucci said of Uber. “Years ago they were fighting to get into Albany and New York, now there isn’t a policy that’s considered where Uber isn’t at the table. This has become part of the lexicon — how will ride share be impacted by so-and-so policy.”

Uber’s evolution from a Silicon Valley renegade challenging the established taxi industry to political darling has stunned New York’s lobbying world — an ecosystem that’s traditionally dominated by real estate, health care and unions.

State regulators battled with the company over its aggressive push into the New York market — a fight that initially made the company a near-pariah in the halls of power. Now, like many 21st century tech startups, Uber is betting that it’s more rewarding to win friends among the state’s powerful than fight them in court.

Uber’s spending adds to Hochul’s financial advantage ahead of an expected barrage of attacks from Republican-aligned super PACs in the coming weeks. Uber is part of a growing constellation of deep-pocketed groups backing Hochul’s reelection — support the governor did not have four years ago when she was hammered by a super PAC funded by cosmetic heir Ronald Lauder.

The primary super PAC supporting Blakeman this year has been heavily funded by New York Knicks owner James Dolan. Hochul’s own campaign last week reported a vast financial advantage over Blakeman: The governor has $19 million in cash on hand; the Republican challenger has only $178,000.

“We have tens of thousands of merchants, hundreds of thousands of workers, and millions of weekly customers in New York who are impacted by what happens in Albany,” said Josh Gold, an Uber spokesperson. “We want to ensure their voices are heard in the legislative process.”

It’s a stark reversal for a ride-hailing industry that state officials once tried to sue into oblivion. In 2014, then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Uber competitor Lyft over what his office alleged were illegal taxi operations attempting to bypass state law.

Uber spent years trying to expand beyond New York City and operate in upstate markets. It ultimately won approval in 2017 under legislation signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo after mounting a costly lobbying campaign meant to persuade lawmakers and swamp the existing taxi industry.

The recent fight over changing New York’s car insurance laws, though, marked a turn for Uber. Often reacting to the state and city’s thicket of livery and transit regulations, the company was now trying to proactively alter existing law by stepping into a broader policy arena with millions of dollars in operating costs at stake.

Hochul’s effort to overhaul the car insurance measures — framed around a broader election-year affordability message as an attempt to lower premiums — masked the broader fight that played out in the state Capitol. The proposal pitted Uber against the state’s powerful trial lawyers.

The governor successfully persuaded state lawmakers earlier this year to cap damages for drivers who break the law during crashes, expand penalties for fraud and narrow the “serious injury” threshold for pain and suffering. Her push drew stiff resistance from the deep-pocketed New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The group did not respond to a request for comment.

In the aftermath of the insurance battle, Hochul more broadly criticized the power of special interest groups that have long dominated the state Capitol.

“There’s all kinds of lobbyists and advocates and interest groups and legislators with specific agendas, and it’s the whole ecosystem of Albany,” she told POLITICO in August.

Uber provided a powerful counterbalance. The company blitzed the New York airwaves with ads amplifying Hochul’s fight to alter the car insurance regulations. All told, a group backed by the company spent nearly $11 million to promote Hochul’s preferred changes, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. After the measure passed, the group touted Hochul’s success in a TV spot that aired opposite an NBA playoff game.

The spending easily outpaced other lobbying campaigns in Albany this year — and highlighted the power of one company to spend heavily in order to change the state’s laws.

“Basically they echoed their message from Buffalo to Brooklyn and everywhere in between,” said Jack O’Donnell, a New York lobbyist. “That’s influential and obviously it had a result.”

The next debate could help determine how Uber competes with companies offering driverless rides in New York.

Cooney is discussing whether to allow autonomous vehicles on the Empire State’s roads, a measure Hochul initially supported last year but ultimately scuttled amid opposition from labor leaders.

Waymo is backing a public-facing campaign launched in September to build support for the technology in New York. The campaign backed by the company includes former Hochul administration officials.

Cooney is holding planning and strategy calls before the Legislature’s expected January return to Albany.

“There’s going to be a push for the legislation in the new session,” Cooney said. “What that legislation will look like is yet to be determined because we want to have that conversation with labor.”

Convincing union leaders will be a challenge. A spokesperson for the New York State AFL-CIO said the umbrella labor group remains opposed to the expansion of self-driving cars and is not working on a bill.

Spurred by concerns over job losses and rising utility bills blamed on the proliferation of data centers, voters have spurned the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. Those concerns, driving an election year narrative that Americans have fully soured on big tech’s influence, aren’t lost on New York lawmakers.

Cooney said he wants to craft an autonomous vehicle bill that addresses concerns about drivers’ jobs.The upstate Democrat believes splitting ride hails between robots and humans is a potential compromise.

“This is the future and everyone is trying to get market share,” Cooney said.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories