On March 10, 2025, a rideshare driver unknowingly drove off with a 5-year-old child asleep in the back seat of their vehicle. While the child was safely returned to the parent, it took just over an hour for Toronto Police to get connected with the driver through Uber’s support processes.

Uber acknowledges the deeply distressing nature of this incident for the family involved. We are grateful that the child was safely reunited with their parent. As the safety of everyone who uses the Uber platform is our highest priority, we initiated an internal review to assess our existing processes and identify opportunities for improvement.

Additionally, we engaged with the Toronto Police Service to provide a comprehensive overview of how Uber handles emergency requests. We also distributed internal reference materials and spoke at a monthly meeting of senior officers. Further, in-person training sessions with officers have been scheduled for this fall. We also met with senior leadership from the City of Toronto’s Municipal Licensing and Standards Division to discuss the incident.

Following our internal review, Uber has implemented updates to specific safety protocols and operational procedures. Although we are unable to disclose the full scope of these updates to protect the operational integrity and security of our safety systems, we want to be transparent about one specific change related to frontline agents, given its relevance to the incident.

That change is as follows: while our standard protocol for serious safety incidents directs that only trained law enforcement should initiate contact with a driver, we recognize that exceptional circumstances, such as the incident on March 10, 2025, may require frontline customer support agents to step in and facilitate communication. As a result, we have updated our internal procedures to reflect this important clarification.

We are deeply sorry for the distress experienced by the family in this incident. No parent should ever experience the fear and uncertainty of being separated from their child in this way. We are profoundly relieved that the child was safely reunited with their parent. Ensuring the trust and safety of everyone who uses Uber remains at the heart of everything we do.