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Technology|A Ride-Hailing Start-Up in Washington Tries to ‘Out-Uber Uber’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/technology/empower-ride-hailing-washington-dc.html
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On a recent Tuesday morning outside Union Station’s train hall in Washington, a stream of taxicabs, Ubers and Lyfts pulled to the curb to pick up passengers.
In the mix, too, was another type of vehicle.
“Right there,” said Jonathan Rogers, the head of the city’s Department of For-Hire Vehicles, pointing to an unmarked sedan dropping off a passenger. “That’s an Empower.”
Founded in 2019, the ride-hailing start-up Empower has become a serious rival to Uber and Lyft in Washington. It now does 100,000 rides in the city each week, good for 10 percent of the local market, a larger share than the city’s taxis.
But the company has refused to register with Mr. Rogers’s agency, meaning that it operates in the city illegally. While drivers and riders have taken to Empower because of its cheap prices, its rapid growth has been met with mounting legal troubles, and now, Mr. Rogers and Brianne Nadeau, a member of the District of Columbia Council who leads the Committee on Public Works and Operations, are making a push to shut it down.
The start-up has racked up over $100 million in unpaid fines. It is being investigated by the Council and has been sued by the District of Columbia attorney general’s office. Last month, a Superior Court judge ordered the company to cease operations.
To some regulators, Empower’s tactics are more than just familiar — they’re a page out of Uber’s playbook from when it arrived in Washington a decade ago and wrested control of the transit market from taxi companies.
