US ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc yesterday said it does not plan to exit the Taiwanese market yet, despite looming fines.
Uber’s comments came as the San Francisco-based company is facing up to NT$25 million (US$775,194) in fines after the legislature passed an amendment to the Highway Act (公路法) earlier this month, significantly increasing fines on illegal taxi service operators by about 166 times.
Uber’s local unit could be forced to shut down after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) signs the amendment into law.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“The company considers Taiwan an important market,” Uber Taiwan general manager Gu Li-kai (顧立楷) said. “We hope to stay and to grow our business here. We hold a relatively optimistic view about this.”
Gu made the remarks on the sidelines of a news conference for the launch of a campaign in Taipei, “StandByU-Uber stays,” calling on consumers and drivers to support the ride-sharing service.
“We will continue to communicate with government agencies to look for any possibility of relaxing the rules… We hope to reach a consensus with the government as soon as possible,” Gu said.
The campaign is the latest effort by Uber to curry favor with the public as the company’s talks with the government have stalled.
“Uber is concerned about the heavy penalties and about their impact on freelance drivers,” Gu said.
It is unsuitable to apply existing public transportation rules, which have been in place for three or four decades, to regulate the six-year-old car-sharing industry, Gu said.
Uber offers an app-based ride-sharing service, which is very different from companies in the traditional transportation industry, he said.
The company is exploring better solutions in Taiwan and in other countries to adjust outdated rules and to make it possible for the ride-sharing industry, or the whole sharing-economy to develop, he said.
India unveiled a more liberal taxi policy to allow Uber and its Indian rival, Ola, to offer app-based ride-sharing services in the country, Gu said.
The Uber Taiwan app has been downloaded about 1 million times and the firm has recruited about 10,000 drivers since it entered the market in 2013.
Gu said the company is willing to pay e-commerce operator taxes, that mean Google Play, Uber and Apple Store pay 5 percent business tax.
Uber in talks with more than 10 insurers, including Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險), to offer insurance solutions for its drivers, Gu said.
However, insurers are conservative about collaborating with Uber due to the government’s ambiguous stance over its ride-sharing service, Gu said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS