Great news! If you're an UberX customer in New York City, the rides are now 20 percent cheaper—less than yellow cabs! Bad news! If you're an UberX driver in New York City, you're now making 20 percent less money.

Travis Kalanick, chief executive of Uber and Ayn Rand superfan, thinks regulation is for suckers, and his company has been slow to expand background checks and tighten the screening process as it ravenously expands. Surprise: people are beating Uber's weak rules.

Uber is celebrating its progressive values by growth hacking their way into your heart. During Pride weekend in San Francisco, the sharing economy startup will offer UberWEDDINGS: a quick and shameless way to share your life with your loved one.

Uber might have locked down a $18.2 billion valuation two weeks back, but that figure is already under scrutiny. Between increased competition, taxes, and operational costs, Aswath Damodaran, who literally wrote the book on valuations, put the number closer to $5.9 billion.

The story of how a young programmer named Aaron Swartz convinced celebrated academic Lawrence Lessig that no political progress could be made without first reforming campaign finance is now part of Silicon Valley lore. In May, Lessig launched a radical initiative to address the issue: MAYDAY, a SuperPAC that secured funding from two Silicon Valley billionaires in order to curtail the influence of big money.

Uber's growing fleet of human drivers already have plenty of issues with the service: operators in Seattle want to unionize because of alleged managerial discrimination and UberX drivers have protested in San Francisco over low fares. Now Uber CEO's embrace of a driverless car future has infuriated its operators yet again.

Uber and Airbnb should "pay zero attention to government regulations," because "built into these platforms is a far better regulatory system than the government could ever wish to concoct," argues Estimize CEO Leigh Drogen, who missed a few news cycles.

Last month, Uber boasted that its drivers command a median salary of $90,000 per year. This is not totally honest. Justin Singer wades into the financial morass, and says the truth about how much Uber drivers make is very far from simple.

Traditional, non-smartphone taxi drivers are blockading traffic in cities across Europe today (including London, above), part of a coordinated protest against Uber's widening presence on the continent.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Uber's latest investment round values the company at $18.2 billion—the second highest imaginary price tag for a startup in history. Number one? Facebook.

Here's a tip for all the transportation startups out there: if you're going to constantly hit San Franciscans with Facebook ads, at least make sure you're not using the same stock photograph as everyone else.

Uber is so hot with investors right now, they're in the position to dictate their own valuation. And now that number is set to hit $17 billion, the ride-sharing darling is poised to mint a new class of Uber-rich investors.

Continuing the string of safety incidents surrounding Uber, a driver was arrested in Los Angeles Monday for allegedly kidnapping a drunk female passenger after she woke up in a motel room and found her shirtless driver.

Two weeks after Uber decided it was "worth" $10 billion, the number has already climbed to $17 billion. And San Francisco's taxi industry buckling under all that cash. DeSoto Cab's president recently declared he "would be surprised if the cab industry survives another 18 months in The City."

Uber might be slashing prices and squeezing their drivers while battling Lyft, but that's no excuse not to move into posh new offices in San Francisco's "it" Mid-Market neighborhood. Their new headquarters are located in the same building as Square, with Twitter as their neighbors. The Chronicle charitably describes the space as "the man cave of a tasteful bachelor."

Uber, the thunderous on-demand chauffeur startup, released two big pieces of news today. First, it boasted that it's creating a bevy of high-paying jobs. Then, Uber's CEO praised the arrival of driverless cars. You can't be a job creator and a job destroyer.

When I last spoke to Ashwini Chhabra in April, the always dapper Taxi and Limousine Commission deputy was explaining local rules that protect riders from the downside of e-hailing apps like Uber. So I didn't anticipate Chhabra's sudden move from regulator to corporate fixer.

Remember The Unicorn Club of startups that secured an esteemed $1 billion valuation? Might as well be The Garbage Club now, full of trifling companies with worth the kind of coin one chucks out the window from the backseat of an Uber. Why, in the past 24 hours alone, Pinterest and Uber reportedly increased their valuations by a collective $8.7 billion.

God, does Uber have to do everything around here? Since Blackjet, the Uber for private planes, has crashed and burned, the company that once let you hail cars with your smartphone is temporarily letting users do the same with planes.