What The Hell America!

“Uber Moto: Rio de Janeiro has it,” declared a digital billboard along one of São Paulo’s busiest streets last month. “São Paulo doesn’t.”

The ad, from Uber, is the latest in a monthslong battle that has pitted the ride-hailing giant against the São Paulo city government, which banned motorcycle transport via app in 2023. Uber has found an unlikely ally in its Chinese-owned competitor, 99.

Brazil, home to more than 211 million people, is the largest ride-hailing market in the region, and two-wheelers are key to the sector’s growth. But while users summon motorcycles via apps in hundreds of cities in the country, the service has been suspended in São Paulo since 2023. Earlier this year, Uber and 99 briefly defied the ban, and were promptly sued by the city, underscoring the contentious relationship between ride-hailing apps and local governments in the country, and across Latin America.

In Brazil, “these companies continue to adopt a strategic disobedience to open new markets,” Nina Desgranges, a researcher at the Brazil-based think tank Institute for Technology & Society, told Rest of World. The companies are “relying on popular support to create political pressure,” she said.

Worldwide, the launch of ride-hailing platforms has often triggered clashes between regulators and the companies, and between the companies and more traditional modes of transport. Meanwhile, users frustrated with inadequate public transport systems have been quick to embrace ride-hailing options, including in Latin America, where Uber, inDrive and Didi Chuxing — which owns Didi and 99 — compete with local rivals such as Cabify.

Regulators across the region have scrambled to address issues including competition, safety, and data privacy. In Brazil, a 2018 federal law for private transportation services decreed that municipalities were responsible for regulating and overseeing such services. But the following year, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that cities could not ban ride-hailing services, and that such prohibitions violated the constitutional principles of free enterprise and fair competition. This seeming paradox has left room for opposing views.

“Ride-hailing companies and the São Paulo city government — or other municipalities that are not allowing the service — are basing their positions on different interpretations,” André Correia, a coordinator of enforcement actions at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety in Brazil, a nonprofit, told Rest of World. “One side is relying on a court ruling, and the other is leaning on federal legislation.”

Within that legal gray area, motorcycle ride-hailing has flourished in the country. Over 20 million people have used Uber Moto since it first launched in Brazil in 2020, while 99Moto added 5 billion reais ($871 million) to the country’s GDP in 2023, according to a study by the Fundação Getulio Vargas university. 99Moto now operates in over 3,000 cities across Brazil. Across Spanish-speaking Latin America, Didi Moto expanded to more than 20 new cities just last year, according to the company.

São Paulo has resisted this wave. In January 2023, after Uber and 99 announced their plans to launch in the city, Mayor Ricardo Nunes said that authorizing the service would be “very difficult” due to São Paulo’s complex traffic system, and issued a decree suspending it.

His administration then set up a working group to study the issue, and invited Uber and 99 to some of the dozen or so meetings it convened. In the end, the group recommended not authorizing motorcycle passenger transport via apps because of significant public health and safety risks. Authorities cited data that showed the city saw a 22% increase in accidents and deaths involving motorcycles between 2023 and 2024.

99 opposed the city’s decision. The São Paulo government lacked the authority to ban the service, Bruno Rossini, director of communications at 99, told Rest of World. The company has called for further research, he said.

In January this year, 99Moto defied the ban and Uber Moto swiftly followed, signing on thousands of drivers on their apps. 99 bet that the move would either push the city to legislate the matter, or lead to a legal battle, Rossini said.

“The reality of the case … is that it will ultimately be decided in court,” he said.

After waiting two years “with no progress, no openness or willingness from city hall and no dialogue about how to unlock the issue, we understood we had legal backing and that the decree had no validity,” Rossini said.

The city filed a lawsuit against 99 and Uber days after they launched the motorcycle service. “We will not allow this company to come here and bring a slaughter,” Nunes told CNN Brazil.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Rossini, Uber and 99 have coordinated their efforts through Amobitec, a lobby group representing the mobility and technology sector in the country. Uber and Amobitec declined interview requests from Rest of World. 

It’s not just in Brazil that motorcycle ride-hailing services face opposition. Across Latin America, despite their popularity with users, motorcycle taxis often operate in violation of local regulations. Last month, the government in the Mexican state of Puebla forced Uber Moto to suspend operations because the company was offering motorcycle rides without proper authorization. In Colombia, ride-hailing apps are illegal, and drivers face hefty fines and vehicle seizures. Despite this, Didi Moto continues to operate in Bogotá.

In São Paulo, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, a local court ruling halted motorcycle ride-hailing. In the 14 days that 99Moto operated in São Paulo in January, the company generated 7 million reais ($1.2 million) for motorcyclists and recorded 500,000 rides, according to Rossini. In contrast, it took two years for 99 to amass 1 billion rides elsewhere in the country, he said. Operating motorcycle rides in the city is “extremely strategic,” he added. For Uber, Brazil is its largest market worldwide in terms of drivers and delivery workers, its chief executive recently said.

Despite a growing metro network and an extensive bus rapid transit system, São Paulo is among the most congested cities in the world, with some 111 hours lost in rush hour traffic last year, according to the TomTom traffic index. Two-wheelers are a popular choice to beat the traffic gridlock.

But while two-wheelers are fast and affordable, they are “also more lethal, more polluting, noisier, and contribute to congestion,” Mateus Humberto, a professor in the department of transportation engineering at the University of São Paulo, told Rest of World. Motorcycle accidents accounted for nearly half of São Paulo’s traffic deaths last year, according to official data.

These risks don’t seem to have deterred locals. Seven out of 10 residents of São Paulo approve of motorcycle ride-hailing services in the city, according to a survey conducted by the polling company Locomotiva Institute — and commissioned by 99 — earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the legal fight continues. In late February, another court in São Paulo ruled the city’s decree unconstitutional, saying ride-hailing motorcycle rides are governed by federal legislation, and that cities can regulate these services but not ban them. Despite that, neither 99Moto nor Uber Moto have reinstated their services; the January court decision granting the city’s request to ban the service hasn’t been overruled yet.

Since the start of the year, city councilors from across the political spectrum have introduced four bills to regulate the issue. The proposals range from forgiving fines for those who drove during the 14-day operation to legalizing the service in the city.

Many drivers are also in favor of some form of legislation and protection. 

“We support the legalization and regulation [of ride-hailing] but with rules that ensure greater safety and fair pay,” Elias Silva Junior, an Uber courier and a prominent member of a motorcycle delivery workers’ group, told Rest of World. “We don’t want a free-for-all.”