With Miami's newest rideshare service , your driver could be packing heat.
State of play: Black Wolf, a gun-toting, TikTok famous rideshare service , recently expanded to Miami with a fleet of armed drivers from police, military and security backgrounds.
Zoom in: Founder Kerry KingBrown — a private security guard and University of Miami alumnus — launched the company in Atlanta in 2023 and now has 25 drivers across Miami, Fort Lauderdale and other Florida cities.
How it works: Riders can request an armed or unarmed driver.
- The drivers must have at least four years of policing, military or private security experience, KingBrown says.
- Front-facing cameras in the car record live video of the trip.
By the numbers: Rides cost more than the average Uber or Lyft, but KingBrown says prices are comparable to the high-end Uber Black .
- A 15-minute drive from Miami City Hall to Domino Park in Little Havana with an armed driver could run you $76.58, per the app.
Zoom out: KingBrown ran into regulatory issues in Georgia last year, when a judge ruled that he had marketed Black Wolf as a private security company without the proper licensing .
- The judge issued a cease-and-desist order preventing him from "engaging in the practice of private security in Georgia."
The other side: KingBrown tells Axios the court order only applied to his private security company and the Black Wolf app has never stopped operating in Georgia.
The intrigue: KingBrown has previously said his drivers serve as bodyguards, but he told Axios that Black Wolf is a tech company — not a security firm.
- He says drivers are responsible for safely transporting a rider, but security services don't continue once they're dropped off.
- "It's not their job to go out there and put themselves at risk."
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