Quarter uber lost $1.8 billion because of the covert pandemic. I mean, think about it. How often have you called up an uber or a lift? To catch a ride since the pandemic hit. I mean, I know personally, we used these uber and our family quite a bit a couple times a month between the five of us now we probably haven't used it twice. In four or five months. The company is trying Teo, you know, survive and come back and part of that involves expanding and having rideshare all around the world, including London, where Uber was able to get their license back after winning the court challenge and join us on the phone Now to talk about this is Simon Oh, and Fox News correspondent Welcome to the Bobby Smith Show. My morning, Kevin. So sort of walk us through this. What is what has been the history of uber in London? And then where do we stand today? Why's this ruling so important? That is a troubled history. But this is certainly a crucial victory for uber the taxi service that, as you say, spread all over the world in in recent years, But that rapid expansion as bean bumpy at times on DH no less so than here in the British capital on who ended up being stripped of its license to operate here last year. There's bean a Serie of skirmishes with the transport authority before that, on DH Uber was then told last November that that was it. It was being banned for what transport for London said with a pattern of failings, including summit said that puts passengers at risk well. Uber appealed that ruling. Went across it apologize. It was contrite. It accepted there had bean flaws in the past, but it said it had changed, but it has put things right on DH. Now A judge has sided with the company and the magistrate who heard this case. 10 a crime, said that while Uber wass guilty of historic failings, he said, its record Was improving on that he was satisfied that it is now in the words they used fit and proper to hold a license. So whoever is back it is very happy. London today particularly lucrative market it count 3.5 million regular customers here, so those 3.5 million people can continue to use. That the service transport regulator says it will be watching you that very closely. Yes. So you know here in the states, uber had a bumpy start here is well, And the biggest concern, of course, was people safety and there would be a report here and then a report there and and all of a sudden people were very concerned about how safe they were getting in a car with a stranger. But uber seemed to put together quite a lengthy list of Of things that they that they go through to make sure that the rider's air safe the background checks and being able to identify that driver actually is a driver. The biggest problem after they started went through their their safety checks was, you know, making sure customers got in the right car that they were supposed to be getting in more than anything else? I have had They done that in London. Do they have the same safety procedures? Do they? They make sure that they do background checks on all of that on the drivers, and they do checks on the cars. You know, At first, there were there were not Checks on the actual fitness of the automobiles, But they changed that as well. The car's all have to go in and get checked out before somebody can become another driver. Well, I mean, it's certainly change from the kind of it's almost quite loose seeming ride, hailing service that it used to be way you accepted that it was just going to be a stranger, perhaps rolling up in their car, making a few dollars on the side and taking you around now it's very much much more like a taxi company on duty, said that it'd have increased its safety precautions that said that this verdict is a recognition of its commitment to safety and that it will continue to work constructively. With the regulator. But transport for London laid out a series of floors that it that I had identified last year and perhaps the most car racing complaint from the regulator. It's said that there was a florin uber systems that was allowing unauthorized drivers to upload their photos to another drivers accounts essentially borrow the accounts and make some money. For themselves, and so uber had Bean saying, You know, we've got this sorted. We're doing background checks on the drivers. They've overto have accounted their photos on. And then it turned out there was this huge loophole in the system that meant that wasn't really a promise that was worth more than the paper. It was. It was written in because transport for London said that those uninsured rides involving an unauthorized drivers It says that they carried out more than 14,000 rides before uber fixed this floor so pretty kind of damning indictment from the regulator now at the same time Stream, a half million regular customers. That's a lot. That's a significant proportion of London's population. And so I think this is probably quite helpful for the transport regulator and the mayor of London as well because they had officially kicked to browse and got rid of it. Then you would have some Customer to kind of got attached to ever much cheaper than traditional black cabs here. And so this perhaps works for both sides that the Duke said it has tightened up its safety precautions on for the regulator. It's able to keep you were operating and keep happy that the three million Londoners who use it