Messing with a competitor's ability to get funding is not a good look for Uber, says the venture capitalist who invested in the e-hailing app Hailo. The venture capitalist behind Lyft totally agrees!

The legal battle between Lyft and its former COO is shaping up to be a long, ugly fight. The on-demand car company has accused Travis VanderZanden of stealing tens of thousands of secret company documents before he joined Lyft's main competitor, Uber. Now VanderZanden has fired back in a new court filing, saying he was plotting with Lyft's board of directors to dispose of the company's CEO before leaving the startup.

Uber made a small splash last month when it hired Lyft's former COO Travis VanderZanden. Kara Swisher said the move "will surely increase tensions between Uber and Lyft, which are now pretty tense as it is." And she was right: Lyft is suing VanderZanden, alleging that he took company secrets along with him to Uber.

Multiple traffic lights were molested last night as crowds of fans flocked to San Francisco's Mission District following the Giants' World Series victory. As the riot grew in size and SFPD officers began losing control of the situation, dozens of fires were ignited as helicopters beaming spotlights swarmed overhead.

It took them long enough! South Park finally took on Silicon Valley's ongoing transportation rivalry last night.

The fierce price war between Uber and Lyft hasn't just been squeezing the pockets of drivers. Hailo, an European on-demand car app backed by millions in American venture capital, says frequent price cuts made it "impossible to be profitable." After two years here, the company is pulling its service from all of North America.

Yesterday, the district attorneys from San Francisco and Los Angeles sent letters to Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar threatening potential legal action, including an injunction to their service unless they make "major changes" regarding background checks and pricing. So where's the usual bombast and bluster about antiquated laws and taxi cartels?

Lyft just gutted their premium Lyft Plus service, leaving drivers with $34,000 luxury SUVs. Now the on-demand ride company is screwing their drivers again, slashing rates by ten percent in Los Angeles.

In May, Lyft launched a program to compete with Uber's black car and SUV services. Drivers had to pony up $34,000 to purchase the "tricked-out" Lyft-branded Ford Explorers just to get into the pool. But the luxury pilot bombed, leaving "Lyft Plus" drivers with the expensive SUVs they were forced to buy.

Uber and Lyft have been squeezing yellow cabs ever since they launched their on-demand car services. But the political shtick that startups are the underdog against "big taxi" is becoming a lie: according to San Francisco's taxi boss, the city's cabs have seen average trips decline by 65 percent in just over two years.

When you have an unapologetic asshole for a CEO, your company does things like this: Uber is conducting a full-blown street campaign to destroy Lyft using deceptive tactics, The Verge reports. This is what "disruption" really looks like.

Uber, Lyft, and other on-demand taxi startups are on a lobbying blitz this week as California lawmakers consider two pieces of legislation that would strengthen insurance and background check requirements on the companies.

Just because Uber's motto is "Everyone's private driver," doesn't mean every car is yours for the hailing. But the popularity of apps like Uber and Lyft have spawned some awkward curbside interactions. "Basically anytime I'm pulled over on the side of the street, someone tries to hail me or just opens my car door," said tech investor Ashwin Deshmukh, when I asked him about the trend.

Uber is the Übermensch of the sharing economy. It's better at making money than other startups, it knows how to politick better, and it throws sharper elbows. Uber applied the same superior machinations to a press release claiming that Lyft wants to get acquired by Uber.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick likes to talk about the unfair ways that taxi incumbents "protect their monopoly" against his popular product. But the bigger Uber gets, the more aggressive its own protectionist tactics become. CNN says new data from Lyft, a smaller rival, shows 117 Uber employees cancelled 5,560 rides with Lyft drivers around the country since last October.

After a harrowing launch attempt and some legal wrangling with city regulators, Lyft has finally arrived in New York. Sort of. If you actually try to use the app, there are no rides to be found.

Lyft's east coast expansion is already hitting serious legal traffic. Despite billing itself as the savior of New York City, the city's tax commission was quick to declare the e-hailing startup illegal. Now the state's attorney general and the Taxi and Limousine Commission have placed a temporary restraining order against the startup.

Lyft has already been declared illegal in New York City. The city's taxi commission is threatening to impound driver's vehicles, saying the e-hailing startup hasn't complied with "safety requirements and other licensing criteria."

Uber and Lyft are the Hatfields and the McCoys of ordering cars on your telephone—if the more affluent Hatfields had $1.5 billion in venture financing to the McCoys' piss poor $332 million. Now the feud the companies started in San Francisco has traveled 3,000 miles without losing any steam.