Westchester County Unveils Plan To Vet Uber & Lyft Drivers
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Ride sharing is coming soon to Westchester County, and officials say they are the driving force behind a new program to make sure passengers are in good hands.
County Executive Rob Astorino unveiled what he called a first-in-the-nation initiative Tuesday.
"The program is called Thumbs Up, and participating drivers can volunteer to have their fingerprint on record with our law enforcement," he said.
Uber and Lyft have agreed to vet drivers that volunteer for the new program.
Decals giving the "thumbs up" will then be placed on the drivers' cars, indicating they have been fingerprinted and passed a criminal background check.
But as WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported, riders won't know whether that's the case until a car shows up. He asked Uber's Josh Gold why that information won't be available on the app.
"This is something new, and we're going to explore it," Gold said.
Uber and Lyft are expanding their services to Long Island and upstate New York on Thursday.