Voters made a decision to keep city rules that require ride-hailing company drivers to undergo fingerprint-based background checks by February 1, 2017.
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Uber and Lyft spent a combined $8.7 million to support Proposition 1 via their lobbying committee, Ridesharing Works for Austin.
Austin Councilmember Ann Kitchen, who spearheaded the effort to increase regulation of ride-hailing companies, told KUT that nobody wants Uber and Lyft to withdraw from Austin. Get Me, a startup that operates in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Las Vegas, is a similar ridesharing service that also lets users ask drivers to pick things up for them.
Lyft and Uber terminated its services in Austin on the morning of Monday, May 9.
Austin based KUT radio reported that Uber’s Austin general manager Chris Nakutis said, “Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shutting down operations in Austin”. The ride-sharing companies today suspended service in Austin, Texas.
Uber said it hopes the City council in Austin would reconsider the ordinance. Lubbock City Council member, Karen Gibson, said council is working with Uber to ensure they will not leave Lubbock.
A Lyft van sits outside the Austin Convention Center in March, during the 2016 SXSW Festival. The Austin election marked the first time a major United States city put the regulations to a vote.
The $8.6 million campaign isn’t a huge deal considering Uber has a $62.5 billion valuation.
The companies, reeling from the defeat, are acting on their earlier threat of suspending service should the vote pass, and paused their operations on Monday.
Lyft left Houston in November 2014 but Uber remains there.
Advocates for fingerprinting say it’s the best way to weed out drivers with criminal records.
But Mary Salimi, another passenger, says, “if they obviously don’t want to do the fingerprints then they have something to hide”. But that could come to a screeching halt if Mayor Turner gets his way and requires background checks for drivers.
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The reason? Austin voters decided they wanted extra regulations, such as mandatory fingerprinting for ride-sharing drivers. The vote was conducted after a petition drive by Ridesharing Works, the political group underwritten by Uber and Lyft.
