Uber hired 25 drivers with criminal records

The debate intensified this week. Jackie Lacey. “I support technological innovation“, “Innovation, however, does not give companies a license to mislead consumers about issues affecting their safety”. The original lawsuit, filed in December, charged the startup with misleading consumers about their safety on the service and the quality of its driver background checks. The driver Suresh Babu stopped at Ecospace, Marathahalli and did not want to go further. It is one of the fastest-growing sharing-economy companies.

“Most cab companies do same thing right?”

At a press conference, George Gascon, district attorney in San Francisco, said problems with the data that Uber relied on to check drivers meant it could miss some former criminals. The suit led by Gascon here is not focused on which background checks Uber users, but if customers are being deceived.

He added that this was “troubling and misleading to Uber customers and to the public at large”.

Uber has also faced bans in Germany, Spain and Thailand. No background check is “100% foolproof”, Uber spokeswoman Eva Behrend said.

The prosecutors allege Uber’s background checks failed to pick up 25 drivers with criminal records in the state, including for murder and assault. They stated Uber’s screening doesn’t essentially catch felony convictions courting greater than seven years earlier.

It is claimed that the driver joined Uber in 2014 using a fake name, and gave 1,168 rides with Uber before being discovered.

The latest disclosures by the district attorneys don’t appear to have changed the political dynamics at City Hall. They also said the company has been charging an extra $4 fee to passengers traveling to airports, without paying anything to the airport. “The regulations that were in place for the taxis, why would they have to be by-passed, to make room for this modern entity”, said Qualo. “If you have a fingerprint background, the fact that they were arrested and convicted would show”, he said.

Although it won’t vote on final rules Thursday, the council has set aside three hours to hear the recommendations and take public comment.

The company has scrapped with regulators from Houston to Berlin on issues from whether it’s required to follow existing taxi laws to how it handles rider data.

A source in Uber told PTI that no police complaint had been filed and the matter had been settled between the driver and the woman passenger.

A representative of the taxi industry presented the criminal backgrounds of those drivers to a city official, according to LA Times. In that year, 13 cab drivers were convicted of crimes that led to the revocation of their permits. “Nothing else beats that”.