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On New Years Eve, 2013, a cab driver named Syed Muzaffar struck a mother and her two children in the crosswalk of San Franciscos Tenderloin district, killing the six-year-old Sofia Liu. The tragic event immediately took on controversial overtones when Muzzafar told police at the scene he was working for Uber, the transportation startup. Uber initially released a statement saying the crash did not involve a vehicle or provider doing a trip on the Uber system. Later it updated that statement to clarify that the driver in question was a partner of Uber … the driver was not providing services on the Uber system during the time of the accident. It’s fuzzy language, but it boils down to this: Uber wants to operate in the real world with the relative freedom and impunity most online startups enjoy — but without the regulations placed on most taxi services.