&gt; In other words, &quot;Hey, Uber hires known felons and its okay because I can think of a scenario where background checks fail.&quot;<p>You say this like it&#x27;s a bad idea to hire people who were convicted of felonies who&#x27;ve served their time and are now out of jail.<p>&gt; There are some pretty significant gaps in that coverage that shift the burden to drivers, depending on the state.<p>&gt; In fact there is an entire business built around the fact there are massive holes in that policy:<p>That &quot;entire business&quot; is &quot;an auto insurance company&quot;. Funny that. You see &quot;massive holes&quot;. I see &quot;the market at work&quot;. Do you wish to <i>force</i> insurers to take on risks that they can&#x27;t take in a fiscally responsible way?<p>Anyway. In CA, folks who drive for nontraditional taxi services like Lyft and Uber have access to (and are required to carry) coverage while transporting a fare, coverage between the time they accept that fare and the time that they pick up that fare, and all other times they are operating their vehicle. [0][1][2]<p>As with all things political, it will take far too long for this to become the policy everywhere, but it&#x27;s pretty much inevitable.<p>To analogize: just because many Red States like Alabama refused to accept no-strings-attached Federal subsidization of Obamacare premiums for their poor, and refused to use no-strings-attached Federal money to expand Medicare to cover those who fall into the &quot;Medicare gap&quot; doesn&#x27;t mean that those programs are bad, or a disaster. It&#x27;s just a fact of life that many politicians love to play football with other people&#x27;s livelihoods.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ww2.kqed.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;29&#x2F;a-look-at-farmers-new-insurance-for-california-uber-and-lyft-drivers" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ww2.kqed.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2015&#x2F;05&#x2F;29&#x2F;a-look-at-farmers-new-in...</a><p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;12&#x2F;lyft-drivers-car-insurance-policy-metlife&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;12&#x2F;lyft-drivers-car...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sfgate.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;article&#x2F;Fatal-accident-tests-Lyft-s-1-million-5867623.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sfgate.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;article&#x2F;Fatal-accident-tests-...</a>