Uber to up background checks for drivers
DETROIT — Uber will start doing annual criminal background checks on U.S. drivers and hire a company that constantly monitors criminal arrests as it tries to do a better job of keeping riders safe.
The move announced Thursday is one of several actions taken by the ridehailing company under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who said that the changes aren’t just being done to polish the company’s image, which has been tarnished by driver misbehavior and a long string of other embarrassing failings.
“The first thing that we want to do is really change Uber’s substance, and the image may follow,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The announcements that we’re making are just a step along the way of making Uber fundamentally safer for drivers and riders.”
Other safety features include buttons in the Uber app that allow riders to call 911 in an emergency, as well as app refinements that make it easier for riders to share their whereabouts with friends or loved ones.
Since it began operating in 2009, Uber has been dogged by reports of drivers accosting passengers, including lawsuits alleging sexual assaults. Last year the company was fined $8.9 million by the state of Colorado for allowing people with serious criminal or motor vehicle offenses to work as drivers. The Public Utilities Commission said it found nearly 60 people were allowed to drive in the state despite having previous felony convictions or major traffic violations including drunken driving.
Khosrowshahi, formerly CEO of the Expedia travel booking site, replaced hard-charging co-founder Travis Kalanick in August and faced problems almost from the start. Most recently, he has had to grapple with his company’s autonomous vehicle program after one of its SUVs struck and killed a pedestrian last month in Tempe, Arizona.
Moving forward
Khosrowshahi said the company’s exponentially fast growth prevented steps like the annual background checks from being done sooner. “I can’t change the past, but I can change the things that we do going forward,” he said.
Uber does 15 million trips per day worldwide, and its drivers “reflect the good and the bad and the random events of the world,” Khosrowshahi said.
It was bad policy for Uber to do just one background check for drivers and never follow up, said Thomas Mauriello, a senior lecturer of forensic science at the University of Maryland and former defense department agent who was involved in background checks. But he sees the changes as positive, potentially catching bad behavior after a driver is hired on.
“Any check is better than no check,” he said. “Nobody should think that any check they do is going to be 100 percent foolproof and get all information.”
Some governments now require background checks after drivers are hired, but the company’s policy makes it uniform nationwide, Uber said.