A Chicago rideshare driver sought the help of the ABC7 I-Team after claiming she was unjustly deactivated from the platform, a situation advocates say is becoming increasingly common.
The I-Team’s investigation not only yielded results but also uncovered local data indicating a spike in deactivations among rideshare drivers.
The driver reported that her temporary license had been erroneously flagged as fraudulent, resulting in a significant loss of income.
This “deactivation error” has led her to question the processes behind the flagging, though Uber clarified that the mistake was not due to “AI” interference.
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“I cherish the flexibility it provides, as a single mother, it enables me to earn money while my child is in school,” shared Aiesha Knowles.
Dependent on her earnings as an Uber driver, Knowles was left distraught after being abruptly removed from the platform.
“They came back and said your account has been deactivated for fake documentation,” Knowles said.
The documentation in question was a temporary driver’s license downloaded from the Secretary of State’s website that she says was submitted twice to Uber.
“They denied it again,” Knowles said. “It’s very real.”
Knowles now has her permanent license, but that has not helped either.
“I called Uber probably eight times, and the first three representatives told me that it was flagged by their, they use an AI system to confirm everything, and it was flagged by that,” Knowles said. “And since I called in, that they would submit it for someone to look at.”
She says she was told she couldn’t show her license in-person, but could appeal electronically.
“With the appeal they said we have to await 24-72 hours to get back to you and I did that too,” Knowles said. “Denied.
She says it was taking a toll on her finances.
“I have not been able to pay my car note and a great deal of my bills since January,” Knowles said.
Just days after the I-Team’s inquiry, Uber reactivated her account. They even gave her cash, estimates of what she could have made during the three months she was off the platform.
Uber insists that a “human”, not AI ultimately reviewed the issue and “mistakenly determined the document was fraudulent,” adding that “Uber has numerous checks in place to help prevent bad actors from using fraudulent documents to gain access to our platform. Unfortunately, this driver’s paper provisional license was mistakenly flagged as fraudulent. We’ve been in touch with her to apologize and welcome her back to the Uber platform.”
“The deactivations are extremely destabilizing,” said Lori Simmons with the Chicago Gig Alliance. “I mean we’re talking about people that often are working to get their money for rent that they need tomorrow, or today even.”
Simmons represents thousands of rideshare drivers and gig workers with the “Chicago Gig Alliance” and says she’s hearing from several drivers who say they too were wrongly deactivated.
“I would say it happens with all types of documents but the ones that we see the most are insurance cards,” Simmons said.
Simmons says it’s then up to the driver to prove their innocence.
“There’s no way to prove that it’s not fraudulent, and there’s nobody to talk to even if you could prove it,” Simmons said.
The I-Team reviewed all rideshare deactivations registered with the city of Chicago’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection and found that deactivations are rising for the alleged use of fraudulent information or documents. In 2024, they accounted for just under 20% of deactivations. In 2025, almost 32%. And so far in 2026, more than 41%.
The data doesn’t distinguish between valid and erroneous deactivations.
Uber did not comment further on the I-Team’s data, and Lyft has not yet gotten back to ABC7.
Knowles says she’s excited to be back on the road and making money again.
“If it was not for the I-Team, I would be on the verge of losing everything,” Knowles said.
The platform says it’s reviewing what went wrong in this case and will make appropriate changes to help make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Uber says some reviews incorporate AI, but that all fraud reviews are done by humans.
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