Latest news with #JeremyBird
Daily Mail
23-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Paedophile admits flying drone over primary school but insists he 'had no control over it' when it was following a child
A convicted paedophile has pleaded guilty to flying a drone over a primary school which reportedly caused one child to run away in tears. Jeremy Bird, 47, was accused of using the lightweight aircraft to 'watch' the young children in Salisbury, Wiltshire. A court heard that on one occasion, Bird caused one pupil to 'run and cry' as he used the device to follow them. Bird accepted a charge of recklessly or negligently causing or permitting an aircraft to endanger a person or property at Salisbury Magistrates Court. But, he said that he 'didn't have any control over it' and is only pleading guilty because he did not have the 'appropriate qualification' to fly the aircraft. Elizabeth Valera told magistrates that the charge relates to the use of a drone over a primary school in Salisbury. She said: 'The Crown say he's flying them over primary school children to watch the children. 'He accepts he's flying them [but said in interviews] that he didn't have control over it. 'There's one video where a child is actually followed, and they're running and crying while he follows them with a drone.' Valera told the panel that he had previously tried to engage primary school children in conversations outside of the school. Paul Jones, defending, said: 'The charge is recklessly flying that drone - that does not relate to the question of taking images of children. 'He accepts recklessly flying the equipment because he does not have the appropriate qualification to do so.' At a hearing in Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, Bird also pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent photographs. These included Category A images, which are the most serious kind. Prosecutor Kellie Enever reminded the judge that Bird 'does have previous relevant convictions, albeit back in 2011'. Bird will be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on July 18. He was granted bail until then on the condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 18 and that he does not enter any school grounds. Bird was handed a community order in 2011 after he was caught with indecent images.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Paedophile flew drone over school to ‘watch' children
A convicted paedophile has pleaded guilty to flying a drone over a primary school. Jeremy Bird, 47, has been accused of using the lightweight aircraft to 'watch' the young children. A court heard that on one occasion, Bird caused one pupil to 'run and cry' as he used the device to follow them. Bird accepted a charge of recklessly or negligently causing or permitting an aircraft to endanger a person or property at Salisbury Magistrates' Court. But, he said that he 'didn't have any control over it' and is only pleading guilty because he did not have the 'appropriate qualification' to fly the aircraft. Elizabeth Valera told magistrates that the charge relates to the use of a drone over Pembroke Park Primary School in Salisbury. She said: 'The Crown say he's flying them over primary school children to watch the children. 'He accepts he's flying them [but said in interviews] that he didn't have control over it. 'There's one video where a child is actually followed, and they're running and crying while he follows them with a drone.' Valera told the panel that he had previously tried to engage primary school children in conversations outside of the school. Paul Jones, defending, said: 'The charge is recklessly flying that drone – that does not relate to the question of taking images of children. 'He accepts recklessly flying the equipment because he does not have the appropriate qualification to do so.' At a hearing in Winchester Crown Court, Bird also pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent photographs. These included Category A images, which are the most serious kind. Prosecutor Kellie Enever reminded the judge that Bird 'does have previous relevant convictions, albeit back in 2011'. Bird will be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on July 18. He was granted bail until then on the condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 18 and that he does not enter any school grounds. Bird was handed a community order in 2011 after he was caught with indecent images. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Lyft, Inc. (LYFT) the Least Risky Internet Stock To Invest In?
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT) stands against other least risky internet stocks to invest in. Investors usually do not waste any time reminding everyone of the dot-com bubble whenever the market takes a turn for the worse. With a recession imminent, some sectors have already corrected by so much that they are in bear market territory. Internet stocks belong to the same group. Analysts at Evercore believe most of the internet stocks have very limited exposure to tariffs but still get hammered every time the market crashes on tariff developments. This means these stocks now present a favorable risk-to-reward ratio for investors. We therefore decided to dig into the details of each of these internet stocks. To come up with our list of the 10 least risky internet stocks, we used the list compiled by Evercore's analysts and ranked them by risk, with the least risky stock taking the number one spot. A ridesharing passenger and driver in a car, looking out the window in anticipation of their destination. Lyft, Inc. is a ride-sharing company that operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand ridesharing. The company's platform offers a ridesharing marketplace that links riders with drivers. It also provides Express Drive, which is a car rental program for drivers. Through recent partnerships with key industry players, the firm plans to launch autonomous vehicles on its platform this summer. Despite drivers' concerns related to the earnings potential, Lyft's EVP of Driver Experience, Jeremy Bird, highlights that ride-sharing is a growing market. He believes that incorporating autonomous vehicles (AVs) will increase demand, enhance the ride experience, and benefit drivers. The stock has been facing some challenges so far this year as it has declined by over 15%. Despite the recent decline in share price, it presents an attractive upside of 102% if one considers analyst price targets. Based on 47 analyst ratings, the company has a highest target price of $22, which means it could potentially more than double from the current levels. The recent decline in share price presents an attractive buying opportunity to benefit from the potential upside in the future. Overall, LYFT ranks 6th on our list of least risky internet stocks to invest in. While we acknowledge the potential of LYFT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that has gone up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks have lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than LYFT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
NBC News
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- NBC News
Lyft to roll out robotaxis in Atlanta
Lyft is about to enter the increasingly competitive world of robotaxis. The ride-hailing company said Friday that users will be able to take rides in self-driving cars starting this summer, with autonomous vehicles first hitting the streets of Atlanta. The rollout will be done in partnership with May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle company. Its self-driving technology will be installed in Toyota Sienna minivans that users will have the chance to take rides in. A Lyft spokesperson added that the company's next stop will be Dallas, where the company is also aiming to deploy self-driving vehicles in partnership with the companies Mobileye and Marubeni as soon as next year, with 'thousands of vehicles and more cities to follow.' In a statement released Thursday, Jeremy Bird, Lyft's executive vice president of driver experience, said the new venture could create more opportunities for Lyft drivers to earn money off the clock by purchasing their own AVs. 'Drivers today come to the Lyft platform for many reasons, but one of the main draws is the flexibility it offers,' Bird wrote. 'The only limit is their own schedule, since they need to be available to drive. This is a very real hurdle today, but over time, personally-owned AVs will remove even this limit — allowing people to earn while they are working another job, or taking care of their families, or sleeping.' Robotaxis using self-driving technology can now be found on the streets of at least four U.S. cities and even more abroad, with many major tech companies competing for what analysts believe could be a market that is worth billions if not trillions. Alphabet's Waymo, Tesla and Amazon are all pushing forward with self-driving car technology, much of which is already finding its way into ride-sharing cars. In October 2023, Uber announced it would be partnering with Waymo to begin offering self-driving car rides in Phoenix. Since then, the company has expanded to offer AVs in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, with plans to expand to Miami in 2026. Despite the growing presence of AVs, some ride-share customers are wary of the new technology. According to a 2023 survey by the American Automobile Association, 68% of drivers are afraid of autonomous vehicles. Incidents involving Waymo vehicles have included a car stuck spinning in circles and a crash into a stationary pole. Even so, Waymo provides around 200,000 self-driving taxi rides every week, according to Forbes. 'I'm not a neutral observer. I'm rooting for AVs, not just as a consumer, but because I think they'll be great for Lyft, as well as the riders and drivers on our platform,' Lyft CEO David Risher wrote in a February statement. 'AVs grow the overall rideshare market by providing a safe, engaging, novel mode of transportation, making it even easier for people to get out and about.'
Japan Times
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Times
Lyft to offer driverless ride-hails ‘as soon as this summer'
Lyft said it plans to offer driverless vehicles on its platform "as soon as this summer,' and that it sees human drivers transitioning to other work such as fleet management as autonomous rides become more ubiquitous. The company has been spending more time pitching its vision for the future of its gig-economy business model as it plays catch-up in offering autonomous rides. Driverless ride-hailing has become more commonplace in some key U.S. markets through competing platforms. Like rival Uber Technologies, Lyft envisions a hybrid future where human drivers will complement autonomous vehicle fleets, especially during periods of peak demand. The autonomous-vehicle economy will create new jobs such as remote vehicle support, fleet management, and map data labeling and validation, said Jeremy Bird, Lyft's executive vice president in charge of driver experience, said Thursday in a blog post. He also confirmed the driverless service could begin as early as this summer. The company had previously committed to a launch sometime in 2025. Bird also said the idea of drivers eventually owning autonomous vehicles is core to the company's strategy, and this will become more feasible as the cost falls for those cars. That would enable drivers to operate small fleets, not unlike how some Airbnb hosts have made a business out of renting out multiple properties. Elon Musk has a similar vision in which Tesla owners would monetize their vehicles when they aren't personally using them. "Even when technology encroaches on human jobs, it doesn't eliminate the need for humans altogether — especially when workers can provide value that the machines cannot,' Bird wrote. "Humans are features, not bugs, and we'll continue to find a way to reward those that provide great service as part of a thriving hybrid network.' Lyft and Uber currently rely on millions of drivers to quickly match with riders. But Lyft, which only operates in the U.S. and Canada, is more exposed to increasing competition from domestic autonomous ride providers such as Alphabet's Waymo. Waymo began offering driverless service more broadly in major markets like San Francisco and Los Angeles last year, and has partnered exclusively with Uber to offer those rides in Austin starting this month. The two companies have a similar agreement to launch driverless trips in Atlanta this summer. When Lyft launches its first driverless trips, it will be through existing partnerships, including with Toyota-backed startup May Mobility in Atlanta. Lyft shares have declined 9% since the start of the year, while Uber's have gained 23% so far. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has gone so far as to predict that human drivers will eventually be displaced as autonomous software develops superior driving skills over the next 15 to 20 years. The company has made some early efforts to help create new earnings opportunities for its network of gig workers, including piloting a Taskrabbit-like service where customers can hire people to complete various household tasks. It's also recruiting coders and language experts to fuel its new AI data labeling business. In his blog post, Lyft's Bird stopped short of predicting when drivers might be displaced, instead saying that driverless cars will create new opportunities for drivers. That includes manual work required to service, maintain and charge the vehicles. These are "jobs for which drivers are well suited,' Bird added. The industry will also need customer service workers to respond to unusual events during driverless rides. In Lyft's case, 30% of the staff working in its fleet management unit Flexdrive are former or current Lyft drivers, Bird wrote. The company has also proposed ways for drivers to find jobs in other industries, offering free training to enter the tech industry. CEO David Risher also recently announced a new feature that uses AI to generate a recommendation letter, which active drivers in good standing can share with potential employers.
