Which in fairness, it should. It calculates a fare depending on time and distance travelled. At the moment you could get around the rules by having the driver count out loud.

No, it shouldn't; if the rules about taximeters include "fixed to the vehicle" and it's not fixed to the vehicle, then it's not a taximeter. Maybe the rules should be updated, maybe not, but that's not for the High Court to do!

    > "They are deferring to the High Court to gain a binding
    > ruling based on the spirit of the law."

    > "Maybe the rules should be updated, maybe not, but that's
    > not for the High Court to do!"

Who, other than judges, would you rather was interpreting the law?

They aren't entitled to "interpret" the law in ways that contravene the text; a phone running the Uber app may well be a taximeter, but it's not fitted to the vehicle.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1907/55/pdfs/ukpga_19070...

(Also, the law says that the Secretary of State gets to define what constitutes a taximeter).

    > They aren't entitled to "interpret" the law in ways that
    > contravene the text

Of course they are. That's sort of the point of common law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law

Are you simply ignoring every binding legal precedent ever?

Of course the law is open to interpretation and Judges not only disagree with each other they also overrule each other depending on the court and case in question.

People with a dose of common sense and technological literacy.

so basically outdated rules shouldn't be considered only when they are inconvenient to us?

We complain so much about all these laws that "didn't keep up with the times", but the instant it's in favor of the technologists we should just be like "that's cool"?

Sorry, I meant that that the rules should be updated to apply. Of course, while they remain out of date, Uber should be allowed to operate as they do.

Does it actually calculate the fare? I've used uber only a couple of times and it's just given me an estimate. Is this a different app, one for the taxi drivers?

"The controversy centres on an app provided to Uber's drivers - which is separate from the one used by the public - that calculates the journey distance and time taken, and then relays this information to remote computer servers to determine the fee."

Thanks, massive scan reading failure on my part there.