Center for Auto Safety Calls on Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via to Stop Using Recalled Cars

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2019
Contact: Katherine Pedersen, [email protected], 202-328-7700 x 406

Center for Auto Safety Calls on Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via to Stop Using Recalled Cars

Today, the Center for Auto Safety sent letters to the CEOs of the ridesharing companies Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via demanding that they remove recalled vehicles from their platforms. The Center, founded in 1970, is an independent, member driven, non-profit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, DC dedicated to improving vehicle safety, quality, and fuel economy for everyone on the road.
“Uber and Lyft have the ability to have zero recalled cars on their platforms at the push of a button,” said Jason Levine, executive director of the Center. “They both claim to be technology companies yet refuse to use that technology to take this obvious step to decrease the danger to their drivers and customers from unrepaired recalls.”
Unrepaired recalled vehicles are dangerous and can kill or injure drivers, passengers, bikers, or pedestrians. Exploding Takata airbag inflators have resulted in at least 24 deaths worldwide, GM ignition switch failures have resulted in at least 170 deaths in the U.S., and hundreds of other less-publicized defects, including vehicles with a propensity for catching fire, pose equally significant threats to public safety. Yet, recent studies from Consumer Reports and others have found concerning numbers of rideshare vehicles with unrepaired recalls on the Uber and Lyft apps.
In May of 2019, Consumer Reports released a study in which they found that one in six vehicles operating on Uber and Lyft in the New York City and Seattle areas had at least one open safety recall.
Levine continued: “All rideshare companies should require every vehicle on their network to be screened for recalls. A failure to take this simple step proves their focus is on corporate profits and not customer or driver safety. The reality is cars are only recalled because they are in violation of a federal safety standard or the vehicle has a safety defect; these are not cosmetic issues.”
It is simple to determine if an individual vehicle is under recall by checking the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s website at: www.SaferCar.gov and entering each car’s unique Vehicle Identification Number. As a result of the 60 million vehicles subject to the Takata airbag recall, there are now commercial sites that can process hundreds of VINs at once. With an estimated combined value north of $114 billion, Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via have more than enough resources to stop recalled vehicles from being used in their names.
The Center for Auto Safety urges Uber, Lyft, Juno, and Via to solve this problem immediately by acting to prevent cars with unrepaired safety recalls from using their platforms.
The Center’s letters to each CEO can be found here.
Learn more about the work the Center is doing to Fix Auto Recalls.
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Over the last 49 years, the Center for Auto Safety has successfully led the fight for lemon laws in every state, airbags in every vehicle, and recall repairs being made at no cost to the consumer. The Center is a membership-driven organization headquartered in Washington, DC and is also home to the Safe Climate Campaign which fights global warming by working for big, specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Center publishes TheCarBook.com, which has for the last 39 years been America’s most comprehensive car buying guide and now offers, exclusively for members, the monthly Safety TuneUp Report, for regular alerts on safety issues relating to their cars. To learn more about the Center, please visit www.AutoSafety.org.