Should Lyft and Uber should be more charged if your battery is low? California may prohibit this soon

It is late at night, and it strongly needs a trip. Your mobile phone battery is dangerous.

Should Ridehalding like Uber or Lyft be able to impose more fees on you because its artificial intelligence programs think you are desperate because it knows that your phone is about to die?

It is not if Hiward is a democratic Senator Aisha Wahhab She has her way.

Ha Senate Bill 259 It would prevent retailers from using artificial intelligence to raise prices using information stored on customer phones. This can include the life of the phone battery, whether it is an older model, what are the installed applications, what time from today, where is its user and where they live.

“Our devices are armed against us in order to increase profits, and they must stop,” and there. ” The association’s judicial committee was told last month.

The WAB Bill to reduce the monitoring prices that pass through the legislative body is the latest example of legislators in California who are trying to control the explosion of artificial intelligence technology this year. they Other legislative proposals This year includes a ban on use The algorithm systems to determine rental prices And measure to Protecting people from automatic discrimination by artificial intelligence Models that make critical decisions regarding the employment of a person, education, housing, health care, financing, criminal judgment and obtaining government services.

The wahab scale was easier than selling some other artificial intelligence proposals that have already failed thanks, in part, for its description as part of the Democrats Post -election pledges To reduce the costs of California residents.

It also enjoys the support of the effective trade unions in the state, which They tend to reach the legislative body.

Among the supporters of the American Union of the State, provinces and municipal employees (AFSCME) and the Labor Union in California. In total, these employment groups have donated at least $ 8.5 million for legislators in the past ten years, according to Calfatters Drip of digital democracy database.

“High Technical attack on workers”

Unions argue that the use of algorithms and AI to generate higher prices for customers is a distinction by nature and must be illegal.

Ivan Fernandez, a pressure groups in the California Labor Union A hearing in front of the association’s privacy committee In June. He said that people are already struggling to bear the high cost of living in California, and companies should not be able to “use our data to pressure every cent they can.”

Fernandez said: “The use of data such as a person’s geographical location or his phone battery to determine the amount of what must be formed for the commodity or a service that increases this number of ability to afford the costs of our affiliated members and workers.”

On the other hand, there are groups of business and technology that also donated greatly to the legislators but tend to get their way often from what the Labor Party does.

Among the opponents are the California Chamber of Commerce and pressure organizations on the Silicon Valley and Ramber of Progress. The 17 groups that oppose this measure have given at least $ 11.7 million to legislators since 2015, according to it. Digital democracy.

The opposition argues that the bill is not necessary under the laws of the current data in California, will suffocate innovation, reduce the profits of the technology company and lead to high prices.

“The draft law will lead to unlikely to reform companies from pricing models and strategies at a great cost, at the expense of both companies themselves and their consumers,” said Ronak Delami, Calchable Policy Analyst, in an opposition to the Society Judicial Committee. That committee voted 10-4 to send the bill to the association hall.

Calchamber spokesman John Maires refused more.

So far, the draft law has not faced minimal resistance from legislators. The Republicans only voted against it, as the California Senate passed it easily and as it made its way through the association.

“This excessive organization impedes how we do business and how people want to do business,” he said. Association member Diane DixonMy Republic represents the Huntington Beach region, during The association’s judicial committee session. “I only think the market is solving these issues.”

A few Democrats, such as gatherings Chris Ward From San Diego and Lori Wilson From the city of Suisun, he was asked about implementation and also some exceptions about “legitimate uses” of geographical location data, but wahab has often received glory.

“It is the era of conversation,” Liz Ortega, a member of the House of Representatives, is a democratic representation of the Haward region, The association’s privacy committee saidIn reference to racist Endowment practices that fell black and other non -white families to less safe and lower neighborhoods before the 1968 Housing Law. Supporters of SB 259 argue that without additional handrails, companies can use consumer data to participate in a similar element discrimination.

“It wasn’t good after that, and there is nothing wrong with today,” said Ortega.

Despite her fears about just pricing, Ortega’s support for the union’s proposal is not surprising. She is the former political director at the state level of a local union in AFSCME. Since 2023, it has voted with AFSCME and its unions’ positions on legislation 100 % of time at 127 opportunities, according to digital democracy. She also got $ 77,800 of donations from the campaign from AFSCME and its subsidiaries.

Technology loyalty test in newsom

While presenting her suggestion, wahab indicated to herself as a “precedent technology worker in Silicon Valley” and was accessed to her experience in working with technology companies as a consultant in the field of information technology. However, she is strongly compatible with employment and unions, as she got more than 90 % of time. Since 2021, it has received approximately $ 50,000 in campaign contributions from the California Employment Union and AFSCME, According to the digital democracy database.

WAhab companies in their previous manufacture as thirsty for profits use California data unnecessarily to drop their lower lines.

Wahab referred to Open PROPUBLICA report PRINCETON RIVIEW tests PRESP PRESPENS by providing higher prices for SAT online lessons to customers in postal symbols that contain a high percentage of the Asian population, even in low -income neighborhoods.

“You were discriminated to based on your perceived social and economic situation,” said the Father to Calmiters.

She was also martyred Report from SFGATE The alleged hotel reservation platforms would escalate from users whose devices have shown that they were browsing from the Gulf region, and sometimes up to $ 500 a night more than users in other parts of the country.

She highlighted a report from Consumer Monitoring Group These alleged Ridehalding applications, such as Uber and Lyft, have paid higher prices for passengers that were low phone batteries – a claim that companies deny.

“The suggestions that our systems are unfairly manipulating pricing or discrimination are simply wrong and not supported by evidence,” said Uber’s spokesman Zahid Arbi, in an e -mail. “The company does not build prices on the battery percentage.”

At least one expert in technology says that criticism from business groups will suffocate innovation and lead to inaccurate profit losses, and in “largely exaggerated”.

“The industries have built a commercial model about the violation of our privacy systematically in ways that we do not want, and we do not agree with them in general,” said David Evan Harris, a former research director at Meta and lecturer at the College of Business Administration at the University of California at Berkeley Haas. “People should not be misled by agreeing to things.”

Robert Bokin, a representative of the Trade Group Technet Group, noted that the California Privacy Law already gives consumers “meaningful rights”, such as the ability to cancel the subscription to selling the exact geographical location and protection from discrimination if they choose to do so.

He said that the law also allows companies to provide customers “benefits such as loyalty programs and pricing discounts, as long as they are linked to the value of databases and meet strict criteria.”

The full association for a wagab is likely to hear when legislators resume from the summer vacation in mid -August. It may end on the office of the Gavin New New time after.

The governor has a friendly relationship with technology companies from the legislative body. Last year, newsom objected to a handful of bills that sought to organize artificial intelligence. It included Blocking self -driving trucks and Robots weapon As well as a comprehensive measure A convincing test for artificial intelligence models.

In July, newsom A committee of technology executives in California To determine the inefficiency in the operations of the state government, a reference to Trump’s publication of the CEO of Tesla Elusk to reshape the federal bureaucracy. It is said even Send “Burner” phones to nearly 100 technology executives So they can contact him with confidentiality.

Tara Galligos, the official spokesman for the NEWSOM, told Calfatters that the ruler’s office does not comment on pending legislation.

This was an article It was originally published on coding It was re -published under Noncommercial-Noderivities license.