Europe could win an international tech award. But don’t break out the champagne just yet — it’s a prize no one wants.
In another blow to its reputation as an innovation killer, the Continent is one of 10 nominees for a 2015 “Luddite Award” for its efforts to protect taxi drivers at the expense of burgeoning ride sharing platforms such as Uber.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the nonpartisan U.S. think tank administering the poll, describes Europe as among the “worst of the year’s worst innovation killers.” Europe’s fellow nominees include U.S. states that limit automatic license plate readers and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for limiting broadband innovation.
“There are many bad ideas that, if followed, would slow human progress. But the purpose of ITIF’s annual Luddite award is to highlight the worst of the worst,” the foundation wrote, asking people to select “the organization or individual they believe has done the most to smash the engines of innovation.”
The ITIF says China and countries in Europe that have cracked down on Uber, including France, Germany, Italy and Belgium, among others, have taken the side of the incumbent taxi industry instead of consumers, who would benefit from convenience and lower cost.
Even if Europe does take the top (dis)honor, the victory will be short lived, said Mark MacGann, Uber’s European head of public policy.
“It’s interesting, the Luddites came from North West England, where Uber is moving hundreds of thousands of people a week, so even in the Luddite’s country of origin, we are moving at break-neck speed,” MacGann said. “2016 will be Uber’s year in Europe. I would point to the fact that Lithuania, Estonia and Finland are all due to adopt ride-sharing legislation in the first quarters of 2016. I’m pretty confident Europe is going to embrace Uber.”
Europe finds itself in notable company. The other nominees include Elon Musk (of Tesla and rocket-building fame) and physicist Stephen Hawking who the ITIF describes as “alarmists who tout an artificial intelligence apocalypse.” Hawking gets two shots at the top prize, earning a second nomination, along with philosopher Noam Chomsky, for seeking a ban on “killer robots.”
Others on the list include the U.S. states of Vermont (for limiting automatic license plate readers), Wyoming (for effectively outlawing citizen science), and Ohio (for banning red light cameras). The U.S. paper industry also gets a nod for opposing e-labeling, as does California’s governor for vetoing radio-frequency identification tags in driver’s licenses, and the Center for Food Safety for its opposition to genetically modified food.
The results will be announced in late January.
This article was first published on POLITICO Pro.