London transport authorities announced this week that they will not be renewing Uber's license to operate in the city. The Transport of London stated that the decision was made after an investigation had found out that the ride-hailing service hosted more than 14,000 trips with drivers who had faked their identities.
In September, the Transport of London gave Uber a two-month probationary extension for its license after it found lapses in its operations related to checks on its drivers and its insurance and safety regulations. Within the two months, Uber apparently failed to satisfy the requirements set by the London transport authorities.
In a statement released on Monday, Transport of London officials stated that it has identified a "pattern of failures" within the company's operations. While most of the violations were minor, there were apparently some that had placed passenger safety at great risk.
An investigation into Uber's operations has revealed that the company still hasn't addressed the security breach within its app that allowed unauthorized drivers to upload their own photos onto other drivers' accounts. This had reportedly resulted in more than 14,000 trips, where Uber cars driven by someone other than the registered driver had picked up passengers in the city.
According to the Transport of London, the illegal trips occurred between late 2018 up until early 2019. The regulator revealed that it has so far identified 43 fraudulent drivers, most of which have had their licenses revoked. One fraudulent driver reportedly had a record for distributing indecent images of children.
The regulator acknowledged that Uber had complied with some of their requests, but the actions were apparently not sufficient enough to convince them that the issues would not reoccur in the future. Due to its lack of confidence in Uber's capabilities of complying with regulations, Transport of London officials have unanimously come to a decision to bar the company from operating in the city until it addresses all of its shortcomings.
The Transport of London's refusal to renew Uber's license will not immediately translate to the disappearance of Uber cars in the city as the ride-hailing firm has announced that it will be filing an appeal. Uber stated that it will continue to operate in the city while it files an appeal and waits for the outcome.
Uber clarified that it has already implemented several fixes to its systems to address the problem. The ride-hailing firm also stated that it is currently exploring the possibility of using facial recognition technologies to solve the issue.
