Rideshare platforms changed how people move, offering on-demand transportation and promising flexible work. But they did not grow by playing by the rules. They pushed their way into cities and states, ignored existing laws, bypassed regulators, and dared governments to catch up, entering markets without proper authorization, insurance compliance, or safety safeguards.

As these companies scaled, they amassed enormous data, financial leverage, and political power. Today, rideshare giants operate like Big Insurance. They control risk, collect fees that function like premiums, decide when coverage applies, and limit payouts, all while avoiding the transparency and oversight required of regulated insurers.

In New York, the result is an increasingly unaffordable system. Prices rise, fees are opaque, drivers are squeezed, and riders pay more. Safety failures persist, including inadequate background checks that put passengers at risk. Yet instead of fixing these problems, rideshare companies prioritize profits, stock prices, and liability avoidance.

By relying on self-insurance and regulatory loopholes, they shift the costs of crashes, sexual assaults, and safety failures onto drivers, riders, taxpayers, hospitals, and public systems.

This is not innovation. It is Big Insurance behavior, and New Yorkers are paying the price.

Drivers earn less. Riders pay more.

While these platforms reward executives and buy back stock, they point the finger at ☞ victims.

The question is simple: who is stealing the fare?

Rather than answering that question, these platforms want the public focused elsewhere.

"Victim-blaming."

They portray themselves as victims of rising premiums and claim deregulation is the only solution.

But when responsibility is weakened, risk does not disappear. It is shifted onto everyone else: drivers, riders, injured families, hospitals, taxpayers, and public systems, while corporate profits remain protected.