Consumer Watchdog Report Warns Uber Is Undermining Legal Accountability For Accident Victims While Expanding Use of Unproven Autonomous Vehicles, Public Safety At Risk

LOS ANGELES, March 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report by Consumer Watchdog warns that Uber is pursuing a deceptive campaign to weaken legal accountability for motor vehicle crashes as it accelerates the rollout of robocars, raising significant concerns about public safety and consumer protection.

The report, "A License To Kill: How Uber's Rush To Close Courthouse Doors And Roll Out Robocars Threatens Public Safety," details how Uber is pushing legislation and ballot initiatives in multiple states—including California—that would restrict the ability of crash victims to recover damages and obtain legal representation, according to California-based advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.

These efforts coincide with Uber's plans to rapidly expand robotaxi deployments across the United States despite unresolved questions about safety standards and transparency, said the nonprofit.

"Uber is trying to change the rules in all motor vehicle accident cases so that when its drivers or its robotaxis cause harm, victims have fewer rights and less access to justice," said Justin Kloczko, the report's author. "Limiting its legal liability at the same time the company is scaling new and largely untested technologies poses serious risks to the public."

Read the report here.

Among the report's findings:

Dangerous Drivers Approved Through Weak Background Checks: Uber's history of inadequate background checks have allowed drivers with serious traffic and criminal records to operate on the platform. Consumer Watchdog found documented cases in which passengers, pedestrians, and other motorists in California were killed or injured by Uber drivers who had prior violations, including DUIs, that should have raised red flags during a background check. Uber's push for limited liability will allow it to continue to do weak background checks and put lives in jeopardy.

Multi-State Campaign To Limit Legal Accountability: Uber's efforts are an unprecedented, multi-state push to weaken motor vehicle liability laws. In California, the company is spearheading a proposed ballot measure that would reshape the civil justice system in its favor and restrict access to attorneys in motor vehicle crash cases. The report also uncovers how Uber has been promoting variations of pro-corporate tort reform proposals in New York, Indiana, Florida, and Nevada. The details differ from state to state, suggesting a coordinated effort to reduce the company's legal exposure rather than address any single policy concern, such as shutting down "billboard lawyers."

Medical Cost Caps Limit Access To Care: The California proposal would also cap recoverable medical expenses at levels tied closely to Medicare reimbursement rates. These limits could prevent accidents victims from getting care and healthcare providers from treating crash victims because the capped reimbursements would not cover the actual cost of care. 

Proposed CA Law Would Block Seriously Injured Victims From Finding Lawyers: Under Uber's proposed California law, seriously injured accident victims would not be able to get contingency lawyers because the proposal makes it economically unviable for an attorney to take a case on a contingency basis. The proposal requires that, for the purposes of an attorney fees contract, medical expenses and contingency fees come out of the same 25% pot that attorneys would receive. If, for example, medical expenses total more than $250,000 on a $1 million accident policy, the attorney would receive nothing. 

Product Liability Cases Would Be Eviscerated: The initiative would also apply to product defect claims related to vehicle crashes. This would make it significantly harder to pursue cases involving defective airbags, braking systems, steering failures, battery problems, or faulty software. Such lawsuits have historically played a critical role in forcing manufacturers to improve vehicle safety. Weakening these legal tools would reduce incentives for companies to address dangerous defects, including those in autonomous driving systems.

Liability Limits Will Normalize Robotaxis Before They Are Ready For The Road: Uber has announced plans to deploy up to 20,000 robotaxis in partnership with autonomous vehicle developer Nuro over the next six years. However, its partner Nuro's testing record in California lags far behind competitors. Nuro could not go 700 miles without a human intervention when Waymo could go nearly 20,000 miles. In 2025, Nuro vehicles reportedly logged fewer than 160,000 autonomous miles in California, compared with more than 3 million miles driven by Waymo. The Nuro cars are cheaply made and without the sensor capacity of Waymo's. Expert interviewed by Consumer Watchdog say little is publicly known about Uber's testing protocols, safety standards, or vehicle specifications. "There are a lot of unknowns," said Bryant Walker-Smith, an associate professor in the School of Law and the College of Engineering and Computing at the University of South Carolina, in January. "Uber is running a prototype that it started testing last month. We don't know what safety standards, if any, Uber is adhering to. We don't know the specs of the car. We don't know about their internal testing. We don't know cost of production." At recent Senate hearings, lawmakers also raised concerns about autonomous vehicles being monitored by remote operators overseas, so-called "trans-Atlantic backseat drivers," who are not covered by existing regulatory frameworks. 

Transparency Concerns Persist: The report also highlights concerns about transparency in rideshare safety reporting. For years, rideshare crash data collected by the California Public Utilities Commission was withheld from the public, and reporting from 2021 through 2024 remains incomplete after the Commission bowed to lobbying pressure from the ridesharing companies. City enforcement data from San Francisco indicates that ride-hailing vehicles account for a large share of traffic violations, including bike-lane blockages, illegal U-turns, and bus-lane violations.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog