Ride-hailing app Uber „not fit and proper“ to operate in London, transport regulator says.
Uber will not be issued a new private hire licence, Transport for London (TfL) has said.
TfL concluded the ride-hailing app firm was not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence.
Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrated a lack of corporate responsibility which could have potential public safety and security implications, it said.
Uber said it would immediately challenge the decision in the courts.
Some 3.5 million passengers and 40,000 drivers use the Uber app in London.
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In a statement, Uber said: „Transport for London and the mayor have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice.“
It said the decision showed the world that „far from being open, London is closed to innovative companies“.
There had been growing speculation that the app could be banned from London.
Opponents of the firm claim it causes gridlocked roads and does not do enough to regulate its drivers.
Analysis: From BBC London’s transport correspondent Tom Edwards
The Uber app has completely changed the London minicab and taxi market. As a „disruptive“ technology it was popular and cheap.
But although Uber claims 3.5m Londoners use the app and there are 40,000 drivers, the company has been dogged with controversy in London.
It has been blamed for congestion, failing to report sexual offences, not doing proper criminal checks and a rise in collisions.
It has also been criticised by unions for poor working conditions of drivers.
Right up until the last minute, even the black cab organisations which have been fighting Uber since their arrival in 2012 were not certain they had won.
So this is a big shock to the industry and it will reverberate right around the world where the company is trying to operate.
This decision will be appealed and eventually probably go through the courts so it’s not quite over for Uber in London yet.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a statement: „I fully support TfL’s decision – it would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners‘ safety and security.“
General secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers‘ Association Steve McNamara said: „The mayor has made the right call not to re-license Uber.
„We expect Uber will again embark on a spurious legal challenge against the mayor and TfL, and we will urge the court to uphold this decision.
„This immoral company has no place on London’s streets.“
Uber has 21 days to appeal.

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© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41358640
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London stripped Uber [UBER. UL] on Friday of its license to operate from the end of September in a huge blow to the taxi app that will affect more than 40,000 drivers in one of the world’s biggest cities.
LONDON (Reuters) – London stripped Uber [UBER. UL] on Friday of its license to operate from the end of September in a huge blow to the taxi app that will affect more than 40,000 drivers in one of the world’s biggest cities.
Regulator Transport for London (TfL) said Uber’s conduct posed risks to public safety and it would not renew its license when it expires on Sept. 30. Uber has 21 days to appeal and can continue to operate until the appeal process has finished.
“Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications,” TfL said.
Uber, which accounts for a third of private hire vehicles on London’s streets, said it would contest the decision.
“Transport for London and the Mayor have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice,” said Tom Elvidge, Uber’s general manager in London. “We intend to immediately challenge this in the courts.”
Uber has been attacked by London’s black cab drivers who say it has undercut safety rules and threatened their livelihoods. The U. S. firm has also faced criticism from unions and lawmakers and been embroiled in legal battles over workers’ rights.
Uber has endured a tumultuous few months after a string of scandals involving allegations of sexism and bullying at the Silicon Valley start-up that forced out former CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick.
The app has been forced to quit several countries including Denmark and Hungary and faced regulatory battles in multiple U. S. states and countries around the world.
One of Uber’s British competitors in London, Addison Lee, is also awaiting a decision from TfL about a longer-term license. The company declined to comment on Friday.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he backed the decision to reject Uber’s application for a new license.
“All companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect – particularly when it comes to the safety of customers,” he said.
“It would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners’ safety and security.”

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New FaceID biometrics will unlock the smartphone and provide access to Apple Pay and other apps
Your face is the future of smartphone security. Apple made that clear last week when it unveiled the pricey iPhone X, which trades in the familiar home button and TouchID fingerprint scanner for a new camera system that unlocks the device using facial recognition.
The company has repeatedly proved its ability to push emerging technology into the mainstream—but with FaceID, Apple claims to have conquered many of the challenges that have prevented the widespread use of facial biometrics. But a number of computer-vision researchers say they are skeptical that a smartphone-based system like FaceID can account for things like variable lighting conditions or subtle changes in a person’s appearance to create a secure-yet-practical way to unlock a phone a dozen or more times a day.
Apple’s new technology does sound promising. The company says FaceID creates a “precise depth map” of one’s visage by projecting more than 30,000 infrared dots against a person’s face, then using the phone’s infrared TrueDepth camera and high-power microchip to collect and analyze the results. Users are also asked to turn their head as they scan so the phone’s machine-learning algorithm can measure the face from several angles and create a more detailed 3-D map of their features. Once the map is created and stored, the iPhone X uses infrared light to help FaceID scan a person’s face even in the dark. Meanwhile, machine-learning algorithms running on the phone’s new A11 Bionic chip keep track of changes in a person’s appearance—including glasses, facial hair and hats—so the smartphone’s accuracy improves over time.
Despite advances in facial recognition in recent years—law enforcement agencies including the FBI use it to check suspects against data bases of mug shots—it remains unclear whether FaceID will work in a variety of conditions while also keeping the iPhone X secure. Hackers, for example, quickly found a way to bypass the Samsung Galaxy S8’s facial-recognition scanner when it was introduced in March: They tricked the device by simply showing it a photo of the user. FaceID’s use of 3-D facial maps could address that problem. But historically it has been a big challenge for such a system to recognize faces under different lighting conditions and from a variety of angles, says Jonathon Phillips, an electronics engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which develops standards for the technology industry.
At the September 12 iPhone X rollout, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, acknowledged some of those challenges. He pointed out that FaceID will not unlock the phone if the user’s eyes are closed or are not lined up properly with the camera. Such limitations are significant, given that iPhone X customers will use FaceID to access their Apple Pay app, which is used to make purchases and linked directly to a person’s bank account.
Apple showed off FaceID last week under relatively controlled conditions, says Arun Ross, a professor of computer science and engineering at Michigan State University. “Clearly the demo was very interesting,” he says. “But at the same time some extraordinary claims were made.“ Apple’s Schiller said, for example, that the chance a random person’s face could unlock someone else’s iPhone X was one in a million—much more secure than TouchID, which relies on fingerprint biometrics. Ross says, however, that it is not clear how often FaceID fails to recognize its owner. When contacted, Apple declined to elaborate on Schiller’s comments.
Most facial-recognition systems rely on an algorithm that compares certain points on a face against those same points on a stored image, and then generates a score based on similarity, says Anil Jain, also a Michigan State computer science professor. A system will first check basic parameters that most faces have, such as two eyes and a nose. It will then take more precise measurements, such as the angle between the edge of the mouth and the nose, for added security.
That unique data can, however, also be a liability for biometric security. “Like all biometrics, FaceID will have a problem with revocation,” says Vitaly Shmatikov, a computer science professor at Cornell Tech. “If a password is compromised, it can be changed—but a face cannot be changed.” Apple touts its ability to secure data on its iPhones, which do not share biometric information with the company’s servers. Still, Ross says, hackers always seem to find a way around even the tightest security.

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