Uber Eats app at centre of B.C. distracted driving dispute [Video]

Is tapping the screen of a cellphone once enough to warrant a ticket for using an electronic device while driving in B.C.? That’s the question a judge had to answer in a recent case.

Vasu Virda, who works as an Uber Eats driver, was handed a ticket for violating the Motor Vehicle Act when he tapped on the app to accept an order in July of 2024, according to a ruling on the matter. Because of how the app works, Virda told the court he only had seconds to accept the order if he didn’t want it to be sent to another driver.

Virda successfully challenged the ticket, securing an acquittal from a judicial justice in September of last year “on the basis that the legislation permitted a person operating a handheld electronic device to touch the device once while they were operating a vehicle,” the decision says.

But the case came before …