Taxi apps Uber and Lyft have said they will leave the city of Austin in Texas after the public rejected legislation that would've enabled their drivers to work without biometric checks.This weekend, 56 percent of voters rejected Proposition 1, which would have prevented the city from demanding fingerprint-based background checks as well as banning pickups in traffic lanes.The city council imposed a raft of ridesharing regulations in December 2015, including a fingerprinting requirement for drivers, “trade dress” for all rideshare vehicles, prohibitions on where drivers can pick up and drop off passengers, and a voluminous and invasive data reporting schemeBoth firms have said the fingerprint requirements are too much of a burden on both drivers (who'd have a harder time getting started) and passengers (who'd have to be picky about where they hail rides).”Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shuttering operations in Austin. But as you've heard before, we simply cannot operate under the City's new rules. As of Monday, May 9, at 8 a.m., Uber will no longer be available within Austin city limits,” said Uber in a statement.”Lyft and Austin are a perfect match and we want to stay in the city. Unfortunately, the rules passed by City Council don't allow true ridesharing to operate. Instead, they make it harder for part-time drivers, the heart of Lyft's peer-to-peer model, to get on the road and harder for passengers to get a ride. Because of this, we have to take a stand for a long-term path forward that lets ridesharing continue to grow across the country, and will pause operations in Austin on Monday, May 9th,” said Lyft.
Uber and Lyft to leave Austin over fingerprint rules
