Uber and other ride share companies offer a handy service. Access the app from your phone and you can get a paid ride nearly anywhere you want to go.
While this can be handy if you have had a couple of drinks and don’t want to risk driving or if parking is a burden where you’re going, there are more than a few stories of “Uber gone bad.”
Have you reviewed the risks of this service?
While you certainly run your share of risks any time you get in a car or even leave your house, the risks with Uber run deeper. In reality, there is an unknown risk—one you should learn about before you call for your next ride.
Signing Your Life Away?
When you sign up as a passenger on Uber (Lyft or another ride share company), you are given a set of terms and conditions that you must accept before you agree to ride with the company's drivers.
If you are like most people, your eyes may have glazed over as you saw the “wall of text” and you clicked accept so you could call for a ride. However, by accepting these terms, you made an agreement with Uber regarding their services to you.
What If?
While most rides on Uber are smooth and seamless (other than the occasional disagreement over music or eating in the car), there are occasions where the ride turns bad. Consider, an incident (reported by CNET) involving 35-year-old bartender Roberto Chicas.
He called UberX for a driver to take him and his coworkers home. During the trek home, the driver (Patrick Karajan) took a route that did not agree with the passengers and there wound up being a heated disagreement. The driver allegedly intentionally injured Mr. Chicas.
While an incident like that is uncommon, more likely an Uber driver may get into an at-fault auto accident and potentially injure passengers or occupants in another vehicle.
What happens then?
Once again, the ride share company does not take on any responsibility. The injured party will be working with the driver's insurance for reimbursement. Since ride share is a relatively new concept, many insurance firms aren't equipped to deal with this situation yet.
However, if in the care of an accident, Uber carries in Texas one million dollars in coverage for underinsured or uninsured drivers.
“This means that if the at fault driver has only $30,000 in coverage, there is an additional one million in underinsured coverage in Texas that Uber provides for the loss. That same policy of insurance provides a passenger one million in liability coverage in Texas for the Uber driver’s own negligence,” said the Houston car accident lawyer, Jonathan Harris of Schechter, McElwee, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P.
For individuals who choose to use a ride share, the important thing is to be informed. Know that if something goes wrong that Uber or Lyft likely won’t have your back. This is truly the biggest hidden risk of Uber and one that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon—especially if more people keep signing up and clicking that “accept” button without reading all the details.
What is Next?
The case referenced above regarding Mr. Chicas has not yet made it to court yet, but the results will go a long way towards deciding whether Uber, Lyft (and other similar) companies can duck out of responsibilities with their “terms and conditions.”
Therefore, the results of the case will have a huge impact for Mr. Chicas himself as well as anyone who uses services like Uber.