You've likely ridden a taxi or Uber with a DEADLY defect

SYDNEY, NSW – JUNE 30: A taxi wades through water flooding the Pacific Highway as heavy rain continues to fall across Sydney June 30, 2005 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Millions of Australian cars are affected by a faulty airbag recall – but no one seems to know whether the taxi or Uber that you’re getting into has or has not been fixed.

The federal government last year started a compulsory recall for defective Takata airbags, which are used by most popular car manufacturers, including Holden, Ford, Toyota and Honda.

The move came after 24 deaths and more than 300 injuries were reported internationally due to the defect, with one death and one serious injury occurring in Australia.

With one in four Australian cars affected, Yahoo Finance enquired with Uber Australia and the taxi councils in NSW, Victoria and Queensland to check what percentage of rideshare vehicles and cabs were still not fixed.

Unfortunately, not one of them could say how much of their fleet was affected by the recall and how many have been remediated.

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“I’m not able to provide numbers for you but we worked proactively with the [consumer watchdog] ACCC to alert driver-partners to the recall,” said an Uber Australia spokesperson.

A Victoria Taxi Association spokesperson also didn’t have any statistics on how many cabs are affected.

“Each taxi owner would have received the relevant information regarding the recall,” she said.

NSW Taxi Council and the Queensland Taxi Council did not respond to Yahoo Finance’s enquiries.

So at this stage, the only way to check whether the Uber or taxi you’re about to ride is a potential death trap is to quickly look up the number plate on ismyairbagsafe.com.au.

But even that website only shows if the car is affected by the recall – not whether it has been fixed.

As of the end of 2018, about 2.8 million faulty airbag inflators had been replaced in approximately 1.9 million Australian cars, according to the ACCC.

Around 1 million defective inflators in about 912,000 cars still needed to be replaced.

The amount of responsibility rideshare companies bear for these situations is a grey area.

“It boils down to how do you think of Uber?” Consumer Reports reporter Jeff Plungis told Yahoo Finance USA.

“Is this a professional service? Or is this a friend or neighbor picking you up?”

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