Uber hits road block in France as taxi lobby gains upper hand
A new law in France includes several provisions, but one is especially damaging to Uber: no sharing location via GPS.
Uber's car service has once again hit a snag in Europe. This time, France that has taken the wheels off its ride.
On Thursday, France's National Assembly voted in favor of the country's politically influential taxi lobby by signing into law a bill that will make it exceedingly difficult for ride-sharing services like Uber, AlloCab and SnapCar to continue operating in the country. While the bill includes restrictions on both taxis and car services, called VTC (voitures de tourisme avec chauffeur) in France, the most impactful regulation in the law prevents VTC services from using GPS systems to alert users to the location of nearby cars via smartphone.
Uber, along with competing ride-sharing services, relies on GPS technology to show riders the location of drivers -- letting riders hail the nearest car with their smartphone. It also helps determine the wait time for a driver to pick up riders. Without GPS, Uber is essentially unable to provide its service -- at least in the way it's been developed so far -- and could be dead in the water in France.
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