According to a study released by Safe-D, there’s confusion regarding the transportation of young children in rideshare vehicles. Because child safety seat laws vary widely by state, parents and rideshare drivers are often unaware of the policy for safely transporting passengers under the age of five.

Safe-D, which was a collaboration between Texas A&M Transportation Institute, San Diego State University, and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, conducted a nation-wide survey and a 50-state review of laws and examined focus groups with rideshare drivers in Dallas, Houston, and College Station.

On March 12, 2019, a 16-year-old minor ordered an Uber in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina to take him to Truist Stadium in Georgia. The mother, Gina Wintz, who thought her son had been kidnapped, has filed a lawsuit against the rideshare company and the driver for negligence.

The boy ordered an Uber because he wanted to “run the bases” at the Atlanta Braves baseball stadium after school. The Uber driver picked the student up from his school, Oceanside Academy, around noon and drove more than 300 miles to the requested destination.

According to a Quartz analysis of global media reports, at least 29 people have died in e-scooter accidents since platforms like Bird and Lime took off in 2018. More people have died on electric scooters in Atlanta, Georgia than in any other city worldwide.

A study by the Journal of the American Medical Association noted there was a dramatic increase in injuries and hospitalizations associated with e-scooter use from 2017 to 2018. A joint study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 20 rider injuries per 100,000 trips.

On February 19, 2020, Myle, a new ride-hailing company, launched exclusively in New York City. Founded by Aleksey Medvedovskiy, a 20-year veteran of the city’s taxi industry, Myle is hoping to compete with Uber and Lyft by offering a more affordable rideshare alternative.

Approximately 5,000 drivers licensed by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) are driving for the company. Riders can access Myle in all five of NYC’s boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. There are plans to expand to several Long Island counties later in the year.

Buckle, a technology-driven financial services company, is the first to offer rideshare-only insurance for rideshare and Transportation Network Company drivers. Plans bundle both personal and commercial coverage. The insurance is currently only available to Lyft drivers in Georgia. There are plans to expand with other partners in the coming months.

By 2028, it’s estimated that there will be approximately 91 million freelancers in the United States. With the growth of the gig economy, traditional insurance companies are experiencing problems with offer useful coverage. Buckle is attempting to address the problem in the auto insurance industry for rideshare drivers by offering hybrid policies based on driving track records.