Stickshifts? Uber driver arrested for stabbing 2 passengers for vomiting in her car

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Douglas Powell

An Uber driver from Augusta, Georgia has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault after allegedly stabbing two passengers, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office tells People.

On Sunday, 29-year-old Shaunisha Danielle Brown was arrested after she allegedly stabbed two of her passengers after someone threw up in her car, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Passenger Daniel Millard, who was using the rideshare with two other female passengers, told WRDW-TV it was just your average ride until Brown allegedly got offended by something one of the riders said, rather than one of them getting sick.

“The Uber driver showed up we all get in. Everything is fine and dandy. We are like we’re going home. Great,” Miller told the television station.

“She went down another wrong road and Amber just said, ‘Just get us where we are going please,’ and the driver got offended by that I’ll take it,” Millard explained.

Millard then said Brown allegedly made an abrupt stop and yelled, “What did you say to me?”

“Then, Amber said ‘just get us home please,’” Millard told WRDW-TV. “Then Amber said ‘we paid 100% for the ride so we want 100% of the ride.’ [Brown] slammed on her breaks again, and she said she doesn’t need this, ‘get out of my vehicle.’ Amber is still demanding ‘please take us to our house, please take us to our house,’” Millard continued.

Authorities claim “the women were intoxicated, and one began to vomit in the car,” and that’s what allegedly prompted Brown to get physical.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, Brown attempted to kick the riders out, but when they didn’t oblige she allegedly pulled out an X-Acto knife and stabbed the women multiple times. Millard was not harmed.

Who will clean up the puke in self-driving taxis?

Posted on July 25, 2017 by Douglas Powell

Canada’s Driving magazine asks: who will clean up the barf in self-driving cars?

Bloomberg reports those working for companies like Lyft and Uber are already discovering a downside of the general public that retailers and restaurateurs and hoteliers have always known. People are pigs. It makes perfect sense that the same people who use white hotel towels to wipe their muddy shoes and return used appliances in sealed boxes will treat a hired ride just as poorly. Hell, some people treat their own cars in ways that would make you shudder.

I spent a weekend in New Liskeard once, a tiny town far north in Ontario (I’ve also been there for a weekend). They do an annual Biker’s Reunion every Canada Day. The place is inundated with visitors and drunken revellers. I took a cab back to my hotel (after a one hour wait) and asked my driver what he did if he had a barfer.

“Two hundred bucks,” he responded. “They get charged two hundred bucks.”

Realizing that it was overwhelmingly drunks who called for cabs at events like this, I wondered if the steep surcharge was actually enforceable.

“We only have two cars,” he responded. “You can’t hide puke.”

Uber lawyers for Uber food?

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Douglas Powell

I never liked Ikea.

The stuff looks great in the showroom but is a pain to assemble and never quite looks the same.

IKEA is opening a “Do-It-Yourself Restaurant”, in which diners will be the chefs. Anyone attending IKEA’s ‘Dining Club’ will be able to cook a meal for up to 19 pals under the supervision of a head chef.

According to an Ikea statement, “diners will orchestrate an intimate foodie experience in a homely kitchen environment to mimic an actual dinner party, but one where diners can host many more guests than usual.”

No mention of liability.

I don’t want a do-it-yourselfer who only knows about food safety from cooking shows – fail – preparing meals for anyone.

We’re gearing up to host Canadian Thanksgiving for a few dozen people at a park so the kids can run around and the parents can chill. I cook the bird. I’ll transport it safely and I’ll serve it safely. Who knows what other microorganisms the others will bring.

Danielle Bowling of Hospitality Magazine writes that Australia has welcomed a new food delivery service, FoodByUs, where home cooks – not chefs – are the ones preparing meals.

After receiving a $2 million investment, the concept launched in late August and is the brainchild of Ben Lipschitz, Menulog co-founder Gary Munitz and Tim Chandler, ex-Menulog lead developer.

FoodByUs allows consumers to order meals or snacks prepared by home cooks, and either pick it up from their house, or have it delivered for an additional $5.

Lipschitz said consumers need not be concerned about the fact that the meals aren’t prepared in a commercial kitchen.

“Food safety is taken very seriously at FoodByUs. There’s absolutely nothing illegal about selling food that’s made from your home. It’s very clearly regulated by councils and at times, state government. So we make sure that the cooks are compliant and we help them in understanding those processes,” he told Hospitality.

Pinto defense: we meet all government standards. Flashing red light warning.

Depending on the food being prepared, local councils may or may not inspect the cook’s kitchen, Lipschitz said, and FoodByUs – which has recruited 80-odd cooks, including ex-chefs and MasterChef contestants – doesn’t require food to be prepared in its test kitchen before making it available to consumers.

Ex-chefs and MasterChef contestants know shit about food safety in Australia (see any of the post entitled, Australia still has an egg problem).

“There’s no need to watch them prepare it, and in fact the requirement in terms of their premises always falls back on the council, so from our perspective there would be no point having them prepare it in our kitchen.

“The application process simply involves the cook bringing their food into a tasting centre and allowing us to do a quality and taste test. At that point we also take identification so there’s accountability and then they’re able to sell food on the network. The third thing we do is that every single buyer must review their purchase; they actually can’t continue using the service or app until they’ve reviewed their purchase. That means that we’ve got live, up-to-date feedback,” he said.

Maybe they have those groovy bacteria-sensing goggles.

From the advert:

Experience

Not Applicable

Job description

Cook, bake and create family meals in your area – flexible hours, great income

Earn over $500 / week, reaching thousands of buyers

Create Your Own Products, Schedule & Pricing

Free to Join, No Contracts

https://www.foodbyus.com.au/maker-registration/

Are you a quality cook looking for additional income? Turn your kitchen (home or commercial) into dollars by selling food to a huge community of hungry local buyers looking for quality meals to feed their families. FoodByUs (www.foodbyus.com.au) is actively looking for passionate cooks to make authentic food. Aussie favourites, food from back home and food specially crafted for different dietary requirements are all welcome. Our part-time food makers earn over $500 / week and it’s free to join.

FoodByUs.com.au allows cooks to sell quality food online. No one who sells food on our site is a restaurant or big producer – rather we enable passionate cooks who make food from home or a commercial kitchen to independently sell their own food! You can make anything from delicious lunches and dinners through to sauces, cakes, cookies, pies or even empanadas if you like. Create your own products, your own cooking schedule and your own prices. We have appeared on national media like The Today Show, Channel 10, news.com.au, Grazia and more – we’re well known and ready to get you customers.

Not a mention of food safety.

Lawyers, sharpen your pencils.

Are Uber drivers using fake vomit to scam customers?

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Uber drivers are using a fake vomit scam to force customers to pay hundreds of dollars in ‘clean up’ fees, a passenger claims.

Meredith Mandel had caught an Uber home to Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, with her boyfriend and a friend after enjoying dinner out, the Gothamist reports. The ride, which was uneventful, ended at just before 1.30am.

But when Mandel, who says she and the rest of her party were sober, checked her e-mail the next morning, she discovered she’d been charged more than $200 for the two mile trip from Fort Greene.

After challenging Uber over the extortionate fee, she was told that a $200 cleaning charge had been added to her $19 fee after the driver claimed she had thrown up in the car.

He even provided photographic evidence – all of which Mandel insists is fake.

‘I was infuriated, because I realized that it actually is a scam,’ she told The Gothamist. ‘At first I was trying to actually give them the benefit of a doubt, but I realized [it] because all of the money goes to the drivers.’

The Manhattan art director began picking apart the driver’s claims, stating that the pictures showed vomit in the front seat while she and her fellow passengers had been sat in the back. she was also suspicious that the throw up seemed contained to easy-to-clean plastic surfaces.

Mandel, who temporarily closed her Paypal account, was still mid-dispute with Uber when she realized the driver had even attempted to take a second $200 installment.

And it appears she isn’t the only Uber customer to be fall victim to the alleged scam.

Last year, another New Yorker, who is only referred to by his first name as Billy, described a similar scenario.

Billy writes that he was eventually able to get his money back but other incidents have been reported across the United States including one in Los Angeles and two in Tampa, Florida that resulted in the driver getting fired.

Uber say that passengers who soil driver’s cars are charged a cleaning fee and are sent an explanation of the charge.

Are speedy delivery apps skimping on food safety?

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Food services like UberEats and the New York-based Maple, which promise fresh meals in under 20 minutes could be compromising food safety? It’s an issue that health inspectors, particularly in Austin, Texas, have been grappling with. They just can’t keep up with the rates of delivery.

Currently in Austin, pizza delivery drivers and other takeout services are not regulated as a restaurant would be, because delivering fresh food within minutes of making it gives the dish very little time to spoil.

“We are looking into some new apps that we have discovered in recent months,” said Vincent Delisi, the assistant division manager in the environmental health services division of the health department.

They will be checking if the kitchens in which these super-fast delivery services prepare food are up to snuff, or if the meals are being prepared in unauthorized kitchens. Most of these instantaneous food companies insist that they follow all health and safety procedures.

“Delivery drivers with UberEATS are equipped with temperature controlled containers and are offered guidance on best practices to preserve food temperature throughout the service window of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” Uber spokesperson Debbee Hancock told KXAN News.

How will this be inspected? Best will market food safety; new food apps could see home cooks takeout takeaways

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Douglas Powell

No one invites me for dinner; they know I’m a food safety asshole (who carries a tip-sensitive digital thermometer in his backpack).

I don’t like charity cooking, I don’t like when I don’t know how the food was prepared, and I don’t like sausage sizzles, apparently part of Australian culture.

I want to celebrate food, I want to eat and share stories, but there are so many tales every day of people messing up the basics.

When we went to a (ice) hockey tournament a couple of months ago, I volunteered to call up the local health types and ensure a sausage sizzle was OK.

Sure, as long as it’s for charity.

I had to take a 16 hour course to coach little kids in hockey in Australia (because my Canadian experience didn’t count) but needed nothing to prepare food that could sicken those same little kids.

So this seems like a bad idea.

We could soon be bidding farewell to the fish and chip shop and saying ta-ta to the takeaway Thai if a plan to transform the way we eat, in the same way Uber has shaken up how we travel, takes off.

And, industry experts have warned that if restaurants don’t find a way to respond to the challenge they will be the losers as Australians turn to their next door neighbours for dinner rather than head out to the local takeaway.

However, there are concerns bureaucratic red tape could halt any moves to create a new future of food in its tracks.

Last week, 100 of Australia’s ‘foodie-prenuers’ gathered in Sydney for HackFood, a meeting place to thrash out the most innovative ideas to transform the food industry.

One of the most promising initiatives to emerge for the gathering, and one that is already in development, could see Australians turning their backs on takeout forever.

“It’s the UberX and Airbnb of home cooked meals,” said Jennifer Callaghan of the HomeCooked app she has created with partner Josh MacNamara.

Ms Callaghan said there were currently three options for people to eat: prepare at home, eat at a restaurant or order takeout. The new app added a fourth choice — local people cooking dinner for you.

“A home cook could say I’m going to make 10 servings of Thai green curry on a certain date and the person wanting to eat could flick through and see what’s cooking in their local area.

“You could request and pick it up then or order ahead for another day,” said Ms Callaghan who envisaged busy professionals stopping by their neighbours for takeaway containers of Indian goat curry or mac and cheese on the way home from work.

While similar apps, such as MyTable, are available in countries such as the US and India, she said no such technology existed in Australia.

According to IBISWorld the Australian takeaway food industry has annual revenues of $4bn and employs around 15,000 people with Eagle Boys and Domino’s some of the biggest players.

The business partners had done research that showed 80 per cent of people in inner city neighbourhoods would be open to buying a home cooked meal from a neighbour as an alternative to a takeaway.

Students and stay-at-home mums might jump at the idea of cooking for other local people, said Ms Callaghan who hope to launch HomeCooked in early 2016.

However, the challenges to this new way of eating are significant with established players unlikely to welcome a digital newcomer disrupting the status quo and food safety regulations designed around traditional food outlets.

Last year, Bunbury schoolgirl Chelsea-lee Downes found her roadside stall selling lemonade and cupcakes shut down by the local council because the food was produced in a domestic rather than commercial kitchen.

All cooks would have to take out insurance and there would be a “verification process” similar to that used by Airbnb, said Ms Callaghan. But she admitted the legality of selling food cooked up in a standard kitchen was unclear. “It’s a grey area and we’re talking to people in the industry around the ways of overcoming those areas but there has been a paradigm shift in how we access transport, lifestyle, and now food and things are changing no matter what,” she said.

Managing principal of food compliance specialists FoodLegal, Joe Lederman, told news.com.au regulations covering food preparation varied from place to place. “It’s a question of attitude, some regulators are in the business of encouraging new business and some are hostile to anyone who’s not commercial.

“It’s a similar experience with taxis, in some places they are more open and others take the approach it’s not the way forward and should not be done.”

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