Maven — the car-sharing and car rental service — is exiting from eight major cities including Boston, Chicago, and New York City, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is expected to wind down service in the designated cities by the end of July to focus on less competitive markets. Maven wants to “concentrate on markets in which we have the strongest current demand and growth potential,” one company spokeswoman told WSJ. Maven’s operations in Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Toronto will continue; however, its transition out of some of the biggest cities in the U.S. highlights some of the accelerated changes happening in transportation-tech. Last month, New York City council passed a bill to decongest the city’s streets of ride-hailing cars by posing a cap on the number of drivers companies could have on the road. The law also required Uber and Lyft to improve pay for its drivers. Both companies, whose drivers sometimes rent cars from Maven, stopped hiring new...

Car2Go is now rounding up more than 100 of its luxury cars in Chicago after the vehicles were stolen earlier this week. So far, 16 people have been brought in for questioning, in connection to the scheme that left dozens of Mercedes-Benz vehicles scattered around the city, according to The Verge. Car2Go locked down a partnership in late February with Daimler AG and BMW Group to bring SHARE NOW to Chicago. SHARE NOW ride-sharing service provides 20,000 BMW, Mercedes-Benz, smart, and MINI vehicles available in 30 cities across Europe and North America. Original reports said thieves were able to get away with the vehicles because of a hack; however, Car2Go claims it was due to fraud. Car2Go also said in a tweet that no customers’ personal information had been compromised. “We were not hacked,” Car2Go said in a tweet. “This is an instance of fraud, isolated to Chicago, and we are currently working with law enforcement.” https://twitter.com/car2go/status/1118613083994370048...

Commuting is getting harder and slower as populations increase. Urbanization is having a huge impact on transportation systems globally. Now,  Remix — a San Francisco-based startup — is helping cities plan ways to better their infrastructure and cut down on commuters’ strain. Daniel Getelman and his three co-founders Tiffany Chu,  Danny Whalen, and Sam Hashemi started Remix in 2014 during their time with Code For America. The four branched out after the program to expand Remix into what it is today. The company’s latest funding round will help Remix assist in providing cities with tools to plan and manage the impact of newer transportation options like ride-sharing, e-scooters, dockless bikes, and autonomous vehicles. “Transportation has changed more in the last 5 years than the previous 50–” Remix CEO Sam Hashemi said in a blog post. “No one knows for sure what’s coming next, but cities have to be ready regardless. The rapid pace of innovation in transportation is altering not just...

Uber drivers are earning less than half of what they made five years ago, while other sectors are doubling their earnings, according to a recent report from Recode. A study by JPMorgan Chase Institute showed that there was a 53 percent decline in earnings for transportation workers — which include ride-sharing drivers and delivery drivers for other gig economy jobs — between 2013 and 2017. The study distinguished gig economy jobs by transportation, non-transport work, and selling and leasing. JPMorgan Chase Institute looked at more than 39 million Chase checking accounts and tracked payments through 128 online platforms. The leasing sector, which includes Airbnb, saw the largest increase in earnings over the three-year span with 69 percent growth. The non-transport work and selling sectors experienced 1.9 and 9.4 percent increases, respectively. Photo: JPMorgan Chase Institute The average earnings for transportation workers dropped from $1,469 to $783. Leasing sector workers saw...