Why did the San Franciscos Metro Transit Authority MTA order Uber to cease and desist?

‘Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber’ follows the remarkable story of a tech company that shakes up the taxi industry. The show’s narrative opens when the titular company is still in its “start-up” phase but is nonetheless making waves in its hometown of San Francisco. Even as its CEO and Co-Founder, Travis Kalanick, attempts to expand the company, he is faced with mounting pressure from local municipal bodies and taxi industry representatives.

It appears that much of the pushback Travis and his company get stems from Randall Pearson, who seems determined to bring the energetic young company to its knees. Considering the show draws quite a bit from real life, we got a little curious about the character of Randall Pearson. Could he be based on a real person? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Is Randall Pearson Based on a Real Person?

No, Randall Pearson is seemingly not based on a real person. On the show, soon after Travis receives funding from Bill Gurley’s venture capital firm, Benchmark, he is approached by a serious-looking man named Randall Pearson (Richard Schiff), who warns the young entrepreneur that going ahead with building Uber will result in serious legal repercussions. It is soon revealed that the man talking to Travis is a representative of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

Travis brushes off Randall’s warnings and continues to expand his fleet of drivers. Soon enough, however, a cease and desist notice is delivered to the Uber (then UberCab) offices, ordering them to stop operating in San Francisco. Failing to do so, the order outlines, will attract a penalty of $5000 per instance of operation and possible jail time. Though the order is quite serious, Kalanick decides to continue running and aggressively expanding Uber.

Coming to what happened in real life, Uber (which was actually UberCab before the name was shortened) did, in fact, receive a cease and desist letter from the San Francisco Metro Transit Authority & the Public Utilities Commission of California in 2010. As depicted on the show, the company continued to function despite the possibility of hefty fines and possible jail time. However, the company actually put out a statement explaining its actions and offering to educate the government agencies on how the new ride-hailing technology functioned.

So was there a real Randall Pearson involved? It’s difficult to say. However, the threatening conversations between him and Kalanick, as depicted on the show, almost certainly did not happen. This is because, at the time the company received the legal notice, its CEO was Ryan Graves and not Travis Kalanick. Thus, there is some embellishment of the facts on the show, and it appears that Randall’s character is introduced as a narrative device and most likely for dramatic effect.

Ultimately, it appears that though there were almost certainly people whose opinions were similar to those outlined by Randall on the show, the character itself is fictional. The SFMTA representative on the show is depicted as a character willing to bend the rules. He even offers what appears to be a small bribe to the CEO if the latter hands his technology over to the taxi companies. Travis, obviously, refuses (on the show). Thus, Randall Pearson’s character is likely fictional and is added to the narrative for dramatic and narrative effect.

Read More: Is Super Pumped’s Emil Michael Based on a Real Person? Where is He Now?

News of the cease and desist orders sparked an outcry from anti-regulation camps and fans of Ubercab web-wide. It also garnered votes of confidence (tweets) from the company’s investors and TechCrunch writers who said the orders only validate the company, and that it is disrupting taxi and limo services in San Francisco.

Others argued that Ubercab was either ill-informed, or flouting the law to gain unfair advantage versus the incumbent taxi industry in San Francisco. They were concerned about a funded startup’s regard for hard-working, law-abiding taxi drivers and taxi business owners.

Commenters questioning Ubercab’s model pointed out at least two other companies that work with taxi incumbents to provide a similar service in San Francisco. Both Cabulous and TaxiMagic provide mobile apps and services that allow consumers to order a ride, track it and [correction:] in TaxiMagic’s case to pay for it by mobile phone— but both of them count taxi drivers as clients, and aim to help them find and get more fares per day.

View this document on Scribd

View this document on Scribd

UPDATE: Since the orders arrived on October 20th, Ubercab has remained in service under threat of penalties including up to $5,000 fee per instance of Ubercab’s operation, and potentially 90 days in jail per each day the company remains in operation past the orders.

The company’s brand name and logo appear to be in metamorphosis; on its website and blog, Ubercab’s logo now reads simply “Uber,” and the company commented to its own Facebook community yesterday afternoon, “more uber than cab.”

Chief executive of Ubercab Ryan Graves told TechCrunch, “We are working with the agencies [involved] to figure out their exact concerns and make sure that we’re in compliance.” He wouldn’t comment beyond that, but pointed to the company’s official public statement posted on its blog today (October 24th):

UberCab Inc. has been issued a cease and desist order from the SF Metro Transit Authority & the Public Utilities Commission of California. While we are looking into the issues raised, we believe that the service we offer is in compliance with the cited regulations.

UberCab is a first to market, cutting edge transportation technology and it must be recognized that the regulations from both city and state regulatory bodies have not been written with these innovations in mind. As such, we are happy to help educate the regulatory bodies on this new generation of technology and work closely with both agencies to ensure compliance and keep our service available for our truly Uber users and their drivers.

Our commitment is to facilitate an improved transportation option that provides safe, reliable, and convenient travel. That will not change. We will continue full speed ahead with the mission of making San Francisco city a great place to live and travel.

Ubercab’s mobile apps let users request a car service to pick them up wherever they are right now, and let users pay for that car service with their phones. The startup takes a cut of the money made by drivers to generate revenue. Earlier this month, Ubercab closed a $1.25 million angel investment led by First Round.

The funding came despite the fact that the San Francisco taxi industry has been rumbling about whether Ubercab’s business is legal since September. A concerned driver brought the matter up at a Taxi Advisory Council meeting, reported The Phantom Cab Driver Phites Back blog.

One of the company’s investors and founders Travis Kalanick said on Sunday, “We’ve seen this before. New technology comes in and appears threatening to incumbent industries at first. At the end of the day, those industries see the benefit of that technology and ultimately find ways of using it in a productive manner, and embracing innovation.” Kalanick also founded the early p2p (peer to peer) search engine called Scour, which drew resistance from Hollywood executives who didn’t want their content distributed online in the 90s.

The incumbent taxi industry’s concerns about Ubercab include the following:

Ubercab operates much like a cab company but does not have a taxi license. Its cars don’t have insurance equivalent to taxis’ insurance. Ubercab may threaten taxi dispatchers’ way of earning a living.

Limos in U.S. cities usually have to prebook an hour in advance, by law, while only licensed taxis can pick someone up right away but Ubercab picks people up right away (again without a taxi license).

In contrast, Uber— nee Ubercab — often pitches itself not as a taxi service, but an app that helps ride seekers book a premium car and driver quickly and easily via mobile, and helps licensed limo drivers connect with clients.

More: UberCab Cease & Desist Means One Thing: They’re Onto Something