The battle for TNCs in Latin America: navigating policy trends and sociotechnical controversies in the regulation of ride-hailing platforms

Over the past decade, the proliferation of Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber, DiDi, and Cabify, has significantly disrupted urban mobility across Latin America, igniting intense regulatory debates and clashes in city streets. While extensive scholarship has focused on labor implications of gig work, less attention has been paid to how these platforms function as sociotechnical assemblages, actively reshaping political processes and policy responses. Addressing this gap, our study introduces the Transportation Network Companies Regulation Index for Latin America (TNCRI-LA), analyzing 21 policy documents enacted in 9 countries from 2015 to 2023 across 5 key dimensions: market access, consumer protection, labor rights, taxation, and data governance. Complementing this quantitative regulatory mapping with qualitative insights from semi-structured interviews with regional scholars, we identify significant variability in regulatory stringency and priorities among countries. Findings reveal that while policy frameworks predominantly emphasize market access and innovation-driven consumer protection measures, other crucial sociotechnical controversies, such as driver misclassification, environmental impacts, algorithmic transparency, and data-sharing obligations, remain marginal or neglected. The latter underscores persistent power asymmetries among stakeholders and highlights the value of integrating Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives with Political Science, demonstrating how platform regulation is continuously co-produced through interactions among technologies, political institutions, and social interests. We conclude by outlining implications for policymakers and suggesting pathways toward more inclusive and equitable governance of ride-hailing platforms in Latin America.