Gadgetory

I'm Derek Kerr I cover the on-demand economy including uber I'm Richard neva I covered Google and Facebook we actually went to Africa for another story but while we were there we started talking to Ober drivers in Johannesburg and later in Nairobi before we got there we already heard of violence between taxi drivers and uber drivers one driver's car was set on fire in June that driver died two weeks ago taxi drivers are angry because of extremely low fares offered by uber they say uber is killing their business we asked you were drivers what uber is doing to protect them and they told us about a security firm uber hired called high risk security we went to this train station in Johannesburg and found the security guards they refused to let us take their photos but I can tell you that they were just an all-black military gear with bulletproof vests they were intimidating to look at much less to approach but we did and they were actually pretty nice we learned that when you hail an uber at that station the Apple direct you to where the security guards are far away from the taxi stand to make sure riders and drivers are protected we talked to this uber driver who told us that his friend was hospitalized after he was attacked with an iron by taxi drivers he said he's had friends who have quit driving for uber because of the violence we also talked to a taxi driver who told us he's more mad at uber than at its drivers he basically said it's a Western company that's come in and heard poor people we have a lot more details in our story meet boobers private security firm in South Africa check it out