Roughly 10,000 ride-hailing drivers for both Uber and Lyft were not working beginning Monday after the two companies lost a vote over mandatory fingerprint background checks for drivers.
Voters in Austin, Texas, over the weekend rejected a measure, Proposition 1, that would have exempted drivers from required fingerprinting as part of their background checks.
Uber shut down in Austin at 8 a.m. Central time. “Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shutting down operations in Austin,” said Chris Nakutis, general manager of Uber Austin, in prepared remarks.
