Last year three ride-sharing services received cease-and-desist orders from the California Public Utilities Commission, but today one of the services — Lyft — announced it has reached an agreement with the state's regulators. Lyft made the announcement in a blog post, stating that the interim agreement allows Lyft to continue operation while the CPUC continues developing new regulations for ride-sharing applications and services.
The CPUC's original concerns had stemmed from the fact that Lyft and similar services weren't adhering to the same standards as taxis and similar pre-existing services — what it terms "charter-party carriers." The argument from the likes of Lyft and Uber has been that their services don't operate under the same business model, and therefore the same rules don't apply. The disagreement led to CPUC issuing $20,000 citations to several of the services last year. In its statement on the interim agreement, CPUC stated that it would be suspending Lyft's citation until final rules and regulations had been reached.
Along with the agreement, Lyft also announced that it would be launching in Los Angeles. The company will start serving LA residents tomorrow starting at 7AM local time.