Uber throws in the towel in battle with French taxi drivers

From ComputerWorld: Uber Technologies is suspending its UberPop service in France, after a bitter fight with taxi drivers who say the service breaks the law.

The company plans to remove access to UberPop from its mobile app in France from 8 p.m. local time Friday, it said in a blog post.

UberPop allows passengers to hail rides from unlicensed drivers and is similar to the Uber X service offered in the United States and other countries.

Uber has been disrupting transportation markets around the world -- nowhere more so than in Paris, where taxi drivers recently blocked highways and airport entrances with burning tires in protest at the company's behavior. The protests also reportedly included attacks on Uber drivers, their vehicles and passengers. The taxi drivers are angry because, they say, UberPop breaches a new law on hiring vehicles with a driver that entered effect on Jan. 1.

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