'Uber' car service in legal fight in Boston

BOSTON (WHDH) -- A popular Boston car service that lets you reserve cars through your smart phone has found itself in a legal fight -- and it could put the company on the road to court.

It’s called Uber and it's taken off in cities all over the country. But an order from state officials may force the company off the road in Boston.

How does your own personal driver sound? An app for your smart phone called Uber is delivering that with one touch all across the area.

Uber promises to pick you up in a black SUV or town car and treat you like a celebrity.

“With Uber you can actually track it on your iPhone, you can see how far they are so if they’re 10 minutes away you can still get ready, if they're one minute away you can run outside your house and they're right there,” said Michael Gowen, an Uber user.

But the new company is now in trouble with the state. Uber says they've been asked to stop operating in Massachusetts until the Division of Standards can come up with guidelines for their device; an iPhone that uses GPS to bring the customer and driver together.

So here's how it works: you pick up your smart phone and you tap on the Uber app. It brings up a map of vehicles in the area. You can see you want to set up your pick up location so you hit that it shows at 460 Harrison Ave. It then tells how far away the current driver is. You request a pick up at the location and the driver shows up. You hop in, and the driver keeps track of the ride with their iPhone.

But some Cambridge city officials say Uber is public safety concern and launched a sting operation back in May.

According to a police report, an Uber driver was cited for using a "non- conforming device.” Uber appealed to the Division of Standards but lost and were told to cease operations. But Uber vows to keep picking up customers.

“We want to make sure city officials, government officials generally understand how our system works and I think ultimately how this will end up -- we’ll end up moving forward in a productive and positive fashion,” said Travis Kalanick, Uber CEO.

The state says if Uber continues to operate, they could face further action.