APOLOGIZING TO LONDON, UBER CEO OFFERS CHANGE TO KEEP LICENCE

A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph in central London, Britain Sept. 22, 2017.

Uber's new boss Dara Khosrowshahi apologised to Londoners for the taxi app's mistakes and pledged to make changes as the Silicon Valley firm tries to overturn a decision to strip it of its licence in one of its major markets.

The British capital's transport regulator on Friday deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and decided not to renew its licence to operate, which will end this week, citing the firm's approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers.

Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Labour politician who has criticised the firm in the past, said on Monday he had asked Transport for London (TfL) to be available to meet CEO Khosrowshahi.


Uber's 40,000 drivers, one third of the city's total number of private hire vehicles, will continue to take passengers until an appeals process is exhausted, which is likely to take several months.

London police complained this year that the app, which is backed by Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, was either not disclosing, or taking too long to report, serious crimes including sexual assaults and that this put the public at risk.

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