Don't wanna comment on the general US army and partnering businesses - this happens in all countries and all levels and that's that. Think we can fairly assess that warfare is huge economic influence and by this point in human history I don't really think we have to discuss it's advantages and/or disadvantages anymore.
For the mines, well they were part of warfare for some 600-800 years before Ottawa Treaty banning them in 1999, conveniently a treaty that wasn't signed by US. IEDs would've came no matter what and saying that's anything to do with the subject or army research is like saying that Molotov cocktails were supposed to be used to fire up the BBQ.
Valley isn't really known to be supporting war nor armies and there's been some backlashes for the companies involved with military equipment and/or technology development.
Uber has already killed a civilian and that was with their so-called technology development on US soil so I guess that goes with their general agenda. And albeit this is a grim way to put it, the fact is that for a company which is known to be shady at best a collaboration with one of the most prominent modern day civilian bombing military forces, well, I could see that go wrong. Of course now days US army keeps better track of their drones and where those missiles hit with better technology, so there's hopefully better direction on these technological advances. And thankfully if Uber's civilian casualties rise the same rate that the number of civilian casualties by drone strikes it'll take at least a decade before they reach significant numbers. Let's hope it's not gonna be the case and they're just doing publicity stunt to save the ship to which I say - let it sink.
For a country which has never been invaded nor attacked directly on land by another nation (besides conflicts prior to 1900s) while at the same time currently being active on multiple war zones around the world (some of the conflicts which it's started itself), well, the word defense gets a new meaning I guess.
Cool, so what is the 1 million contract for? Just co-developing VTOLs so both parties benefit? Sharing information and knowledge?
Or does it have anything to do with US governments license on the partnering programs granting them
"nonexclusive, royalty free and worldwide license for government use" for any IP and resource commitment? Which seems to be one of the top selling points of the program, I guess it could say "exclusive" also which wouldn't probably be on the front page of license information.
Not to get nitpicky here but the statements are not in contradiction - one is stating what was the "technological breakthrough" of Uber and another is stating that their disruption of the industry they wanted to affect hasn't really gone their (or anyone else's) way. I'm not really sure if that what they created in the industry (taxis) and what their basically core and original product is (app which connects drivers and customers) are in contradiction here.
Good comparisons imo in regards to the disruption if that bothers here would be something like PayPal or even AirBnB which disrupted the industries they work within, and did it in a way that created positive progress and actually both companies are still on route to making that disruption of old wasteful industries better - Uber didn't do this and has long given up on anything except trying to burn as much money as possible (just a personal opinion).
Yes Uber (and Lyft etc) did a disruption in what you mentioned and I fully agree with your points on the issues with taxi traffic previously (and to some extent still, even with these lovely ride sharing companies). However one has to simply wonder if all that would've been possible with just providing product for taxi companies (and individuals) offering the benefits of this disruption - mapped rides with feedback system and pre-determined rates. Also what has to be taken into account here is that some of these features already existed within the industry, while maybe not in US they still existed.
The ride thing, I agree here albeit Uber has been, and still is the most expensive option (in a lot of countries it's even more expensive than those taxis taking the bad routes etc). Mapped routes (aka GPS) isn't Uber invention btw, it's called navigation and has been there since 1995. The rating system works (technically) and gives an incentive for the drivers which I think think all can agree is a good thing. Then again what if someone just came up with app that provides feedback system and price calculations based on the length of the trip and variables in traffic and offered that to the taxi companies and individuals (and why not for everyone with a smart phone), would that cost 2,8 billion as loss annually. Dunno.
The taxi companies are taking a bad fight here admittedly and in no way I think either party's lobbying efforts are really making any progress here with traditional business trying to fight for the "fossils & fuels" so to say and the new players trying to not just enhance but break the existing legal regulations etc. Either party really isn't looking to create anything new nor improve, but more so at the end just fighting for the money, and well guess it's business but I agree here that the traditional taxis really aren't helping their case either.
To say Uber isn't a technology company is a thin red line imo, it's not a technology company as Google nor Stripe, they aren't really doing technological innovations nor products but more so sociological and business related disruptions. Their app might've been the first there and they might've jumped on every single branch of technology from aerospace to AI and food delivery. What I mean with this is that their innovations within the technology space have been rather miniscule (in comparison to other companies that actually work with technology, or Dominos for that matter of working with food delivery and through that in hospitality) when taken into comparison with the massive impact they seem to have in the industry. Or would you consider saying that naming a product which essentially is a standard equipment in cars, albeit it's fancy name of UberKIDS, a child safety seat (and not a fancy high-tech one, just having that in a car) is a technological breakthrough or, well anything technological? I don't know, just tossing my 5 cents in the pool.
Most probably from government side this is purely a bold "In case these guys manage to do it we don't want the tech to fall to hands of <insert random country> so let's get contract on their R&D now and keep eye on it. If they succeed we'll push for exclusivity and if they fail, well it's a million, who cares. We're already some 20 trillion in debt so pish posh."
Good questions, even better question would be how did we figure out quantum theory etc but couldn't figure that twice the vertical lift from 2 rotors is more than lift single rotor? How's this something credited to Uber? Dunno.
Or would it be time to give up on Uber and finally admit that they're neither a technology company nor anything else "groundbreaking" that Valley thinks they are.
"Technology" for the company has been coming up with a mobile app to connect drivers and potential customers - something hardly groundbreaking. Probably the most groundbreaking technological thing coming from these guys has been the multiple evasion software etc which at the end of the day are not only just sketchy to begin with but also not really anything worth their company valuation, even on the defense contracting etc where such applications could become worth something if you have slick enough lobbying/sales people.
And while their efforts to "disrupt" the taxi economy have been "great" in all honesty they've only created room for their competition to benefit on this - Uber has simply managed to take a business (taxis) and run it to chaos while what would've been the logical step was to run a similar application by the taxi companies for ride hailing.
The US defense collaboration we can only speculate on but presumably this is either government wanting to get their hands on the Uber spying software or taking their bet that if these dimwits ever come up with anything technological they can always call for it - why spend billions upon billions on R&D when you can get a bunch of small contracts for which you can negotiate exclusive rights for upcoming R&D by the companies.
My question simply is - why do you care of anything Uber anymore? After everything this company has proven to be from the law enforcement evasion to sexual harassment scandals and borderline impossible "innovations" (like seriously, who seriously thought these guys can figure out the self-driving cars etc when the 2 of the biggest technology corporations with virtually unlimited experience, know-how, funding and partnerships haven't done so yet?).
At best this would be proper honest R&D but in my honest opinion there's no way Uber is that far with the tech and no way US Army is doing R&D for civil purposes, you take into account the miniscule contract value etc and it's rather clear that this is either publicity stunt by Uber to save their sinking ship or direct tech takeover from government. In either case there's hardly anything news worthy and even less anything worth of spending time - let is sink and someone will build a better, functioning ship to take people across the busy streets of New York in some vehicle whether it's flying or on the ground.
For the mines, well they were part of warfare for some 600-800 years before Ottawa Treaty banning them in 1999, conveniently a treaty that wasn't signed by US. IEDs would've came no matter what and saying that's anything to do with the subject or army research is like saying that Molotov cocktails were supposed to be used to fire up the BBQ.
Valley isn't really known to be supporting war nor armies and there's been some backlashes for the companies involved with military equipment and/or technology development.
Uber has already killed a civilian and that was with their so-called technology development on US soil so I guess that goes with their general agenda. And albeit this is a grim way to put it, the fact is that for a company which is known to be shady at best a collaboration with one of the most prominent modern day civilian bombing military forces, well, I could see that go wrong. Of course now days US army keeps better track of their drones and where those missiles hit with better technology, so there's hopefully better direction on these technological advances. And thankfully if Uber's civilian casualties rise the same rate that the number of civilian casualties by drone strikes it'll take at least a decade before they reach significant numbers. Let's hope it's not gonna be the case and they're just doing publicity stunt to save the ship to which I say - let it sink.
For a country which has never been invaded nor attacked directly on land by another nation (besides conflicts prior to 1900s) while at the same time currently being active on multiple war zones around the world (some of the conflicts which it's started itself), well, the word defense gets a new meaning I guess.