I guess it would depend if you have any assets to lose, other than your car. But you could be held liable and have your wages attached for the rest of your life if you got into a serious enough accident.

An interesting update today - My friend had two good things happen. One lady asked if he would be interested in being her driver every morning on her commute. It's a nice steady drive. Yesterday afternoon he chatted with a rider who was about to expand in his business and needed a person with my friend's experience. They chatted and the interview is tomorrow. He may not be driving for Uber for much longer

To be clear, Uber has multiple services, depending upon the city. Classic Uber uses livery cars. My assumption is that these cars are licensed in the same way as any other black car as they have livery plates.

Uber also coordinates with some taxis, so I don't see what the difference would be there.

Finally, there is UberX, which contracts with individuals.

Even with UberX, Uber covers you in the event of an accident. Details here:

http://blog.uber.com/uberXridesharinginsurance

On top of the drivers personal insurance, Lyft provides $1,000,000 additional coverage.

See above. So does UberX.

Lyft is better. Also cheaper.

Which is cheaper depends upon the city between Lyft and UberX. Regular Uber is, of course, more expensive, but a higher level of service. Personally, I think both Lyft and the various flavors of Uber are great and use them both.

I think the taxi drivers are more of a problem than Uber.

Exactly. Most taxis stink. If folks were happy with the service and pricing of taxis, these businesses wouldn't exist.

Interesting and useful information, travelgourmet.

I can see all sorts of language I would want my lawyer to look at if I had one sitting around on retainer, and there is a huge difference between the amount of insurance required by states and the amount one might really need if, say, a Lexus, BMW, or a Merc and a couple of high earner drivers were injured in an accident. A standard 50-100-50 policy wouldn't touch the loss.

The real issue is that if you or a third party were injured in an accident in a normal livery car, you can sue both the driver and the car service. Über NV expressly rejects any liability except for software problems.

But thanks for moving the information stream forward. This is really an emerging area.

Since the horrible accident in SF, Uber has clarified that they will cover a driver who has the app ON for some $$, and provide the 1 million if the driver is actually on a call. It is difference form what taxi drivers here get - if you are driving a taxi you are covered for the million even if no one is in your car and you are cruising looking for passengers. I think Uber's decision is relatively fair - if you have the app on, sit somewhere till you are called and you won't have any troubles.

PS I have been using Uber black car and Uber x since they started.I have ridden Uberx at least 100 times over the past year and have only had one or two problems, and only one with a poor driver The key is if a driver is bad or surly or a poor driver or anything - rate them low and Uber will get rid of them.
And as Lyft runs on donations only, in SF at least the drivers vary widely in quality. But in SF about 40% of the drivers are women, because Lyft vets passengers through Facebook which offers slightly more protection for the drivers.