Jerry Brito on Setting Lyft and Uber Free

Virginia regulators seem determined to apply nonsensical rules to Lyft and Uber.

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Taxis
Bochumi / Wikimedia Commons

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.