Uber pays $10m in driver vetting row

Ride-sharing company Uber has agreed to pay $10m (£7m) to settle a dispute over its background checks for drivers.

Uber was sued in 2014 after it claimed its vetting process was better than systems traditional minicab firms used. But district attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles said Uber's very public statement it was "the gold standard" for safety was misleading.

Uber said it had dealt with many of the concerns in the case, and said settling was not an admission of any wrongdoing.

Unlike traditional cab companies, Uber does not require a fingerprint check that could uncover prior convictions.

Instead, Uber uses different criminal databases to vet its drivers, with data going back seven years.

As part of the settlement, Uber has said it would no longer use the terms such as "safest drive on the road" in its advertising.

But the BBC understands the company would not be adding fingerprint checks to its process. The firm stressed that it felt no driver vetting system could ever be "100% safe".