Uber says "We perform background checks" because it reassures their customers. To implement your suggestion, it seems like people should either stop feeling sca

Uber says "We perform background checks" because it reassures their customers. To implement your suggestion, it seems like people should either stop feeling scared when driving with convicted felons or Uber should get powerful enough(possibly by making consumers dependent on them) that they can ignore people's requests for non-felons. Men would probably take the first option if you lower the cost to ride with felons. I guess you could also lie to people about doing the checks, later say "Most people who rode with convicted felons didn't get violently murdered", and people would pull out their spreadsheets and conclude that the problem isn't worth worrying about. Then the problem would go away.