Jerry Brito on Setting Lyft and Uber Free

Technological innovation sometimes makes laws
obsolete.

Consider the “Red Flag Laws” of the late 19th century,
which required early automobiles traveling on roads to be
preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag in order to warn others
on horses of the vehicle’s approach.

Today, most states require cars traveling on roads to have a
human driver at the wheel—a regulation that to our descendants
will sound just as preposterous as flag-waving does to us.

And yet Virginia regulators seem determined to apply nonsensical
rules to Lyft and Uber, writes Jerry Brito.

Rather than react defensively, regulators should allow for
permission-less innovation while they determine if and how
they will ultimately proceed, according to Brito.

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