Uber is restarting shared rides in a handful of major U.S. cities after a more than two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the company announced on Tuesday.The revamped rideshare carpool option, dubbed UberX Share, is now available in nine cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The company said it has plans to expand UberX Share to more cities this summer.Uber suspended its former iteration of the shared ride service, Uber Pool, in March 2020 as health officials urged social distancing to curb the spread of COVID-19. Lyft restarted a version of a similar service in July 2021, after having also suspended the option in 2020.Related video above: Uber is adding a gas surcharge on all trips and Uber Eats ordersFor years, both Uber and Lyft attempted to broaden adoption of shared rides, with the promise that carpooling could disrupt other transportation methods by making ride-hailing cheaper and more convenient. But the pandemic forced the companies to pause those plans. Andrew Macdonald, Uber's SVP of mobility and business operations, said in a statement Tuesday that UberX Share "reimagines the future of shared rides with greater efficiency and safety top of mind." He also said riders can expect to receive "an upfront discount and up to 20% off the total fare, if matched with a co-rider along the way."In an apparent nod to pandemic concerns, Uber is also taking steps to limit the number of people in a carpool at once, for now. The company said in a blog post that customers can currently request only one seat with UberX Share and will share the ride with only one other passenger at a time. Masks are optional but recommended, the company added, except in locations that still mandate masking. Uber also referenced the importance of making transportation more affordable and accessible, "especially in the current economic climate." Fears of a major economic downturn have loomed large over the tech sector in recent months. Meanwhile, sky-high gas prices have been an added burden for all drivers, including those working in the ride-hailing industry. In response, Uber and Lyft previously announced they were adding temporary fuel surcharges to rides. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview at the Bloomberg Technology Summit earlier this month that he sees the company as "recession resistant." His comments, however, came just a month after the Wall Street Journal reported Uber was planning on cutting costs as investor optimism recedes.

A Massachusetts man is suing Uber and one of the company's drivers, claiming he was left a quadriplegic following a crash because the company was negligent.Attorneys for 31-year-old William Good said the crash happened on April 30, 2021, on Highland Avenue in Somerville. Good, who was a passenger in the vehicle, said he felt the vehicle swerve before it crashed into a parked car, according to his attorneys. The Uber driver allegedly asked Good to get up, insisting he was not injured, Good's attorneys claim.The lawsuit claims Uber "failed to appropriately screen, hire and supervise their driver, resulting in severe and life-changing injuries to Mr. Good, who is now a quadriplegic."“I struggle daily with the knowledge that this Uber employee was hired as a professional driver – the last thing he should have been hired to do. But most of all, I struggle to understand how a company that is so sophisticated has been completely unable to ensure the safety of its drivers on the roads,” Good said.Good is seeking $63 million in damages.Uber has not commented on the lawsuit.

BOSTON —

Uber says it is working with the Boston Police Department after one of the company's rideshare drivers allegedly dragged a woman with a vehicle in South Boston.

Boston police said they responded to the incident, which happened in the area of 930 East 4th St. just before 3 a.m. Sunday.

Officers were met by a woman at the scene who told them that she had left her phone in an Uber earlier in the night and had arranged for the driver, a man, to deliver it to her at the East 4th Street location.

The woman then told police that the driver demanded a cash payment for delivering the phone, but she did not have any cash on her. A verbal argument ensued, and when the woman reached inside the vehicle to retrieve her phone, the driver put the vehicle in gear and accelerated toward P Street as she was still holding onto the vehicle.

Ed Booth, a rideshare driver who works for Lyft, was picking up passengers in the area where the incident occurred and captured it on camera.

"They were talking in the window for a couple of seconds and then, all of a sudden, you saw the car take off with her still hanging in the window," Booth said.

The video Booth shared with sister station WCVB showed the woman eventually fall to the ground while the vehicle continued to move down East 4th Street.

In addition, the video shows a man who was with the woman chase the vehicle down. The driver eventually got out of his vehicle and Booth said more verbal arguing took place outside of his camera's view.

"Being a little nervous about what this guy was going to do, I locked the doors so that I was safe and my passengers were safe," Booth said.

Boston police said that the Uber driver did stop his vehicle about half of a city block away and that the woman was able to retrieve her phone, which had a cracked front screen.

"What's been described is unacceptable and in clear violation of our community guidelines," reads a statement from an Uber spokesperson. "We have been in touch with both the rider and driver and will take appropriate action."

Booth said he stopped to check on the woman after the Uber driver had left the scene.

"She was just sitting on the ground with her head down and her hands over her head, and I think dazed and confused about what just happened," Booth said.

According to police, the woman complained of pain to her right cheek and officers observed minor swelling to the area. Police said the woman refused treatment from Boston Emergency Medical Services.

No charges have been filed at this time in connection with the incident.

According to Uber, riders are charged a $15 fee if a driver retrieves a lost item on their behalf. However, no cash should be exchanged for those transactions.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Uber is utilizing selfie technology to make sure both its drivers and passengers wear face masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The ride-sharing company has been requiring drivers and riders to wear masks since May, but only required drivers to use its technology to verify their face coverings.

“Before starting to drive passengers or deliver food, they are asked to take a selfie showing their mouth and nose are covered,” Uber wrote in a press release.

Now, the requirement is being expanded to passengers as well. If a driver reports that a rider isn’t wearing a mask, the rider will be required to take a selfie with their face covered before they’re able to take another trip with Uber.

“With the addition of this new feature, one driver’s feedback can help ensure the safety of Uber for the next driver,” said Uber.

The mask verification feature will roll out to the U.S. and Canada by the end of September, and across Latin America and other countries after that.

Uber assured that the mask verification tool detects the mask as an object in the photo and does not process biometric information.

“As always, riders and drivers are free to cancel a trip, without penalty, if the other person isn’t wearing a mask,” Uber wrote. “As more and more riders and drivers take their ‘second first trip,’ we hope this increased accountability provides more peace of mind.”

The additional safety measures are part of Uber's efforts to rebuild a service that has seen ridership plunge by 56% in the company's most recent quarter, The Associated Press reports.

Two ride-sharing companies have announced that they would cover drivers' legal fees if they are sued under Texas’ new abortion law.

Lyft and Uber said on Friday that they would cover the legal fees of their drivers if they are sued for driving someone to a clinic to obtain an abortion.

The new law, which went into effect on Wednesday, bans anyone from getting an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, a time period that many women don't know if they’re pregnant.

Under the new law, patients won't be sued, but those who aid the patient in any way of obtaining the procedure, paying for it, or transporting them there could face a possible $10,000 fine.

“Drivers are never responsible for monitoring where their riders go or why," Lyft said in a statement. "Imagine being a driver and not knowing if you are breaking the law by giving someone a ride.”

Shortly after Lyft's announcement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a tweet that the company would also do the same.

"Drivers shouldn’t be put at risk for getting people where they want to go," Khosrowshahi said. "Team Uber is in too and will cover legal fees in the same way."

News of Lyft and Uber's plans comes after Texas-based dating app company Bumble, and Match CEO Shar Dubey announced Thursday that they each were setting up relief funds.

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Uber and Lyft have teamed up to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing services for complaints about sexual assault and other crimes that have raised passenger-safety concerns for years.

The clearinghouse will initially consist of drivers expelled by the ride-hailing rivals in the U.S. but will be open to other companies that deploy workers to perform services such as delivering groceries or take-out orders from restaurants.

According to The Associated Press, the companies will use third-party company HireRight, to oversee the background checks.

The safety program follows through on a promise that Uber made 15 months ago when it revealed that more than 3,000 sexual assaults had been reported on its service in the U.S. during 2018.

The AP reported that passenger's information will not be shared in the database in order to protect privacy.

According to The AP, if a driver is dismissed, the reason they were booted will be arranged into six categories: attempted non-consensual sexual penetration; non-consensual touching of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part; non-consensual sexual penetration; and fatal physical assaults.

LOS ANGELES —

Cellphone video captured a tense confrontation at Los Angeles International Airport after an Uber driver said a rider hurled racist insults at him.

Stella Hwang, who can be heard yelling in the video, said she was outraged after the man in the video shouted racial slurs at a Filipino Uber driver at the LAX-it lot Tuesday evening while his children stood nearby, KCAL-TV reported.

“I was feeling so much anger and frustration,” Hwang said. “I just wanted to make sure that was OK, so my first initial action was to yell.”

Hwang said she was waiting for her own ride when she heard the commotion and had to speak up. According to Hwang and the driver, it started when the man got into the front passenger seat, which is not allowed under Uber’s COVID-19 safety protocol.

The video does not capture the racist tirade, but the driver, who did not want to be identified, said by phone that the rider started yelling after being told he could not sit up front.

“Saying... 'you don’t even have papers to work here to be here,’ and ‘Just go back to your country,'” the driver said.

The driver told the TV station that he offered to cancel the passenger’s trip so he would not be charged and even helped the man unload his luggage in an attempt to deescalate the situation but said things only got worse.

Video of the confrontation went viral, even making headlines in Korea where Hwang has family ties.

The rideshare company said it banned the driver and released a statement that said, in part:

“Uber does not tolerate racism or hate in any form, against any community. When one community is being attacked, we are all being attacked. We are shocked and saddened by the recent increase in anti-Asian hate, particularly when it affects a driver or rider.”

LAX police said they responded to the incident, but neither party wanted to initiate a private person’s arrest.

Hwang said she was saddened by recent incidents of hate toward Asian Americans and had to take a stand.

“Everybody has a voice, and everybody knows right from wrong,” she said.

Attempts to contact the passenger were not immediately successful.

Watch the video above to learn more about this story.

A Black-owned rideshare service by women for women is being rolled out in Portland. It's called Go Girl Ride.

The owner's mission is to provide a service for women and non-binary people to ride and feel safe.

Founder Trenelle Doyle says the idea was sparked while she was an Uber driver and would hear stories about people feeling unsafe in other rides.

She says it's also something she experiences firsthand. Pairing that with rising sex trafficking crimes, Doyle says she wants to inspire change.

Go Girl Ride is launching on Juneteenth.

Doyle says that's the perfect launch date because it's about the liberation of Black people.

After being rolled out in Portland, the ride-share service will expand to other cities that have high rates of sex trafficking.

Eliana Moreno and Alex Livingston at Newsy first reported this story.

As more states and cities ease COVID-19 regulations in businesses and sporting events, people are coming across one major problem: getting there.

There is a massive shortage of rental cars, and major rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber are offering heavy incentives for drivers so they can overcome their own shortages.

According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, production last year dropped 19 percent in the U.S. Some in the industry called it the worst crisis to ever impact the automotive industry.

The drop in cars led to a drop in rental availability. Models in rental company lots were older and they were scarce, and if you absolutely had to rent, prices were inflated.

All of those drops have led to a rise in profits for current ridesharing drivers like Uber and Lyft.

“Trying to stop for lunch is virtually impossible,” said Jerry MacKissock, who has been driving for a rideshare company since late March. “You’ve got two miles to go on your ride and they are dinging you to do another ride.”

Since MacKissock started, he says his weekly profits have steadily risen. In the week ending April 19, he says he earned $1,300 for driving 46 hours.

“It has been extraordinary,” said MacKissock. “The expectation was to replace the money I was making when I retired and it’s been three times that.”

It does not hurt that Uber and Lyft have promised massive incentives to overcome their own shortages. Drivers stopped driving because of slower pandemic business. which has not helped accommodate the 80 percent rise in demand Lyft reported last month and 76 percent rise in demand Uber reported.

To help meet the demand, Uber said it will spend $250 million in incentives to drivers to attract more.

“The $250 million driver stimulus will go directly to drivers who start driving again as well as new drivers who join Uber,” said Uber spokesperson Kayla Whaling in an e-mailed statement. “The money will take the form of special bonuses and new guarantees. It will be in place for the next several months. This is to help meet the returning rising demand, so we are reinvesting in bringing back drivers who are an essential part of their communities and have been vital in delivering food and goods, and helping get their cities moving again.”