Taxicabs of the United States area. The president of United Cab discourages his drivers from carrying firearms, instead advising them to accelerate the car and crash into a lamppost or even a police car if they are threatened with a gun. Uber is a major competitor to taxi companies, providing on-demand for-hire car service through a smartphone app in many US cities. Uber services are generally treated as black-car services from a legal standpoint and are not generally regulated under Taxi laws. This can cause friction with both local governments and taxi companies. In June 2015, the city council voted unanimously to increase taxi fares;
App store optimization call "black hat" ASO and are practices which the app stores do not condone. Black hat ASO includes falsifying downloads or ratings and reviews, perhaps by using bots or other techniques to make app stores (and their users) believe an app is more important and influential than it actually is. Apple has been proactively fighting against black hat ASO. In February, 2012, Apple released a statement as reported by "The New York Times" "warning app makers that using third-party services to gain top placement in App Store charts could get them banned from the store." Google followed Apple in 2015