Headlines 

Gig Work Relief, Auto Care, and More Car News This Week

WIRED is usually about solutions, which has been hard in the past few weeks as Covid-19 continued its deadly trek across the world. For a while there, it felt like the biggest questions were: What is going on? And when will it end? This week, the tech and science folk we usually lean on for ideas started to roll some big ones out. Researchers looked at whether it’s possible to prevent more coronavirus outbreaks by using mobile location data to track the whole country’s movements—without putting every bit of our…

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Headlines 

The Covid-19 Pandemic Aggravates Disputes Around Gig Work

The rapidly spreading novel coronavirus is supercharging a debate about the treatment of gig workers. The relief bill signed Friday by President Trump will provide a short-term lifeline. But some workers for companies such as Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Instacart, and Amazon worry the help won’t come soon enough. Today, many gig workers are considered independent contractors, not entitled to workers’ compensation, health care benefits, or sick pay. Because their employers don't pay into unemployment insurance, the workers haven’t been able to obtain those benefits either. Many app-based companies have established…

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Odds and Ends 

The year of the gig worker uprising

2019 was a momentous year for gig workers. While the likes of Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash rely on these workers for their respective core services, the pay does not match how much they’re worth — which is a lot. It’s this issue that lies at the root of gig workers’ demands. “This past year has been a pivotal year not only for gig workers but for workers across the tech economy,” Gig Workers Rising co-organizer Lauren Casey told TechCrunch. “That unto itself is a win — to see mass…

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Odds and Ends 

R.I.P. Goofy Times

A strange new sensation has settled across the tech industry, one so foreign, so alien, it’s almost hard to recognize. A sense that some great expectations are being radically revised downwards; that someone has turned down a previously unquenchable money spigot; that unit economics can matter even when you’re in growth mode. Could it be … thrift? Well, OK, let’s not go that crazy. But we are witnessing a remarkable confluence of (relatively) parsimonious events. Last year’s high-profile tech IPOs are far from high-fliers: Uber, Lyft, Slack, Pinterest, and Peloton…

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Odds and Ends 

Lyft deploys 200 long-range EVs for its rideshare rental fleet in Colorado

Lyft is making 200 new long-range EVs available to rideshare drivers as part of its Express Drive program, the company revealed today. Express Drive is a program that Lyft offers to provide rental cars to drivers on its platform as an alternative to options like long-term leasing. Express Drive members get unlimited miles, as well as included insurance, maintenance and roadside service, with the ability to return the car after a rental period of as little as just a week. These 200 new EVs (all Kia vehicles for this particular…

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