Uber is first third-party app to ever to be integrated into Google Maps. Last summer Google Ventures, the corporation's "entirely" separate venture firm, was part of a $258 million investment round in the e-hailing company. Synergy had me like . . .

There are certain things one expects from hailing a ride through Uber. The wonder of watching a little car icon move towards you on your smartphone screen, some idle chit chat, paying without pulling out a credit card. Watching a plain clothes officer rip open the door to arrest your driver is not one of them.

The next time you hop in an UberX—one of the transit startup's fancy gypsy cabs run by unlicensed drivers—you'll notice a new "Safe Ride Fee" added to your fare. It's only a dollar, but since when do we have to pay extra to not get raped?

The anarchist collective known as the Counterforce has turned its sights from Google to Uber. On Saturday night, a group of tech industry protestors blocked cars with the Uber logo on the street in Seattle, documenting the incident on a Wordpress blog, just like they did with Kevin Rose.

After helicopter rides to the Hamptons, surge pricing, and snide Facebook posts, we shouldn't be surprised when Uber displays contempt for the species. But using post-terrorism "BOSTON STRONG" mania as an advertisement might be a new low.

Anthony Weiner thinks that the only way for the taxi industry to beat Uber is for Rahm Emanuel to force Chicago to build its own e-hailing app. Yes that Anthony Weiner.

Even for a company that takes a certain measure of glee in being abrasive outlaws, this has to be the most unnecessary customer relations shit show on Twitter not involving unsolicited porn.

Uber drivers are already distracted by design, so when a Valleywag reader saw the person behind the wheel in the middle of a Facebook chat, he was worried. But come on, once you're already staring at one phone while driving, why not go wild?

Good citizens of "Palo Alto, Mountain View or Menlo Park," you still have a few hours to hail an Uber for the chance to pitch Google Ventures in the back of a moving vehicle. If paper money is meaningless, you might as well play Cash Cab.

Uber has officially taken its first step towards becoming the next Amazon—or the next vertical-crazy, growth-chasing Icarus (Fab.com, Gilt Groupe, Groupon, take your pick.) The car-hailing company began testing a $15 to $30 courier option in Manhattan today called UberRUSH and yes they're very serious about the caps lock.

Pending legislation could hamper Uber's ability to do business in Seattle. Rather than use some of its hundreds of millions of dollars to buy influence like every other company, the transit startup is trying to rally support in the most annoying way possible.

The free market in action: after months of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick saying price gouging helps increase supply, The Verge reports exactly the opposite. This past Valentine's Day, the company blocked new drivers in order to keep prices high.

If you get an email offering free rides to a free party with free booze, it's usually too good to be true.

A pending lawsuit against Uber says the smartphone car service is partially responsible for a little girl's death by encouraging illegal distracted driving. We looked at Uber's internal training materials, and it's easy to see how it could keep your eyes off the road.

Public opinion of Uber has been sliding a bit this year, but internal morale is still high—and booze-infused ski trips probably help.

Traffic accidents can happen anywhere, to any company. But a California attorney contends that a recent Uber fatality isn't like other accidents—the app itself makes drivers a danger on the road.

Uber is a company that doesn't care about being hated. It flips off regulators, thinks taxi cabs are obsolete, and when it comes to other smartphone car services, plays very dirty. And the sabotage is happening right at the top.

Why are the vaguely-techie stories that show up on TMZ never as juicy as you hoped? The Hollywood blog reports that Joe Jonas—you know, the one with the good hair, who got corrupted by Miley Cyrus—took "random passengers" to Pinkberry this week in his new role as an UberX driver.

Sources tell Valleywag that after housing and transportation, the latest slice of public infrastructure to get the VIP, front-of-the-line treatment is healthcare. We hear Oscar Salazar, the founding architect for Uber who helped design and implement the e-hailing prototype, is working on a startup that will offer personalized house calls from doctors. It plans to launch imminently.

Now that it's obvious Uber is trying to put conventional taxis out of business, the people who drive those cars are more worried than ever. And in Paris, where Uber was recently legalized, that worry just spilled over into street violence.