Rideshare says no to carpooling in legal matters

Rival ride-hailing companies Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have virtually the same business model and are both being sued by the State of California over their classification of drivers as independent contractors.

Yet, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Uber is declining to carpool to court: “Uber wants to go its own way in its legal battle.”

Ironically, as the hometown paper for both companies points out, both Uber and Lyft united in the fight against A.B. 5, California’s one-year-old gig-economy law that could force them to turn their drivers into employees, upending their business model.

In court documents filed Wednesday, Uber argued its case “should be separated from Lyft’s because Uber has changed how it does business, including letting drivers set their own fares. Uber argued that those changes mean its drivers are truly independent,” according to the newspaper.