A large black SUV turns into the driveway at the main visitor entrance of the Fairmont Hotel.

Proposed Ruling on Substandard Uber Luxury Rides Would Threaten Public Safety, Appeal Says

Safety officials at the California Public Utilities Commission thought they had a powerful case against Uber for endangering the public.

In 2019 they discovered that Uber had allowed luxury limousine companies to provide hundreds of thousands of rides for Uber Black, its premium car service, even though these firms had given Uber blatantly false documents or employed drivers not fully insured or enrolled in mandatory drug testing and driving record reviews, the officials later alleged in a legal brief.

As their investigation continued, the safety officials learned that in almost two dozen cases, drivers for these unauthorized subcarriers had allegedly assaulted passengers or engaged in other misconduct, they said in the brief, some of which could have been prevented had Uber properly vetted the limousine firms.

Joe Castiglione presents a report on ride-hailing to the Transportation Authority board on April 25.

Local Planners Say State Failed to Track Safety Incidents on Uber and Lyft

The state agency responsible for ensuring Uber and Lyft rides are safe failed to consistently track the number of accidents, assaults and drunk driving complaints that occur on them, according to a new study by San Francisco traffic planners.

The California Public Utilities Commission did not even consistently collect the most basic industry information, such as ride requests and miles driven, the report from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority shows.

A car with a Lyft sign drives along a city street.

Uber, Lyft Must Adopt Measures to Prevent Sexual Assaults, California Regulator Rules

Nine years after becoming the first agency in the nation to legalize ride-hailing — and after thousands of publicized sexual assaults on Uber and Lyft rides — the California Public Utilities Commission for the first time is requiring the industry to adopt comprehensive measures to prevent such attacks.

In a previously unreported vote last month, the commission issued a decision requiring that all ride-hailing firms train drivers to avoid sexual assault and harassment, adopt procedures for investigating complaints and use uniform terminology in their annual reports to the agency so it can accurately monitor them.

One of the containment domes at San Onofre nuclear power plant in San Diego.

Court Says California Utilities Commission Must Obey State Public Records Act

In a broad victory for government transparency, an appeals court has ruled that the California Public Utilities Commission must comply with a state law requiring all agencies to promptly release information to the public.

In a unanimous decision issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the commission’s lengthy and open-ended administrative procedures violate the strict timelines of the California Public Records Act.

The ruling could bring more accountability to the commission, which has faced criticism of excessive secrecy and ineffectiveness, advocates said. It regulates corporations ranging from utilities to ride-hailing services.

Workers in white suits sift through burned debris after the Camp Fire, the largest in California history.

How California Utilities Commission Undermines the Public Records Act

Despite vows to become more transparent, the California Public Utilities Commission has systematically violated the public’s right to know about its handling of deadly disasters and corporate scandals, according to court records and First Amendment attorneys.

Applying century-old laws meant to fight corruption, the commission has effectively limited court enforcement of the state’s public records act. But a state appeals court on May 3 is hearing a lawsuit challenging that practice and could bring more transparency to the commission. 

a ride-hailing car displays Uber and Lyft logos

Utilities Agency Admits More Problems in Tracking Ride-Hailing Assaults

The state agency responsible for ensuring that rides with Uber and Lyft are safe has acknowledged that it failed to consistently monitor passenger complaints about rapes and assaults for years. The California Public Utilities Commission confirmed in an unpublicized ruling that it had let the ride-hailing giants use varying definitions of sexual assault and harassment in their mandatory reports to the agency since at least 2017.

Uber and Lyft vehicle

Officials Demand Reform on Uber, Lyft Assault Reports

Two key elected officials have criticized the California Public Utilities Commission’s inconsistent collection of information on passenger complaints about assaults and threats on Uber and Lyft rides and called for reforms. A leading researcher on sexual assault added that the commission’s methodology was out of line with accepted practice and that it suggested a “lack of concern” about monitoring the incidents.

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CPUC Proposes Repealing Secrecy of Uber, Lyft Accident Data

In a dramatic reversal, the agency that regulates the state’s massive ride-hailing industry has proposed that annual safety reports filed by Uber and Lyft should be presumed public. A San Francisco Public Press investigation published Jan. 7 found that the California Public Utilities Commission, the primary regulator of the state’s ride-hailing industry, has permitted the firms to file the reports confidentially on the basis of a single sentence inserted into the regulations as footnote 42, without prior public notice amid heavy industry lobbying.