You’ll want to remember his case so you don’t forget something on your next ride.

Arthur Weiss’ 45-mile Lyft ride from San Jose International Airport to Nob Hill in San Francisco started just fine. 

He loaded his bags into the trunk of his driver’s car and they headed north, just like hundreds of other trips he’s taken.

“All my rides were pleasant,” Weiss said. 

But when this trip ended, Weiss was at a loss. Literally. 

”As I got out to remove my baggage from the back of the vehicle, the driver took off,” Weiss said. 

He chased the driver up the street, then messaged him to tell him his bags were still in the trunk. 

“[I]got no further response, I had to go to a dinner after and there was still no response, and I kept sending texts,” Weiss continued. 

Weiss messaged Lyft, too. 

It told him to file a police report. He did. 

Later, Weiss says Lyft told him the driver claimed the bags weren’t in his trunk. Lyft also said it doesn’t insure rider’s belongings. 

“My problem has been what I think is a lack of good customer service and not really working to make the customer happy or to resolve their issue,” Weiss said of the situation. 

Arthur estimates he’s out $3,000. So he contacted NBC Bay Area Responds for help. 

When airlines find lost bags and such, they store them — and eventually, sell them at a clearinghouse if they’re unclaimed. Same for BART, forgotten stuff is cataloged, held, and eventually sold if no one claims it. 

So, what happens to lost items at Lyft? We asked. 

Chiefly, we wanted to know what Lyft requires drivers to do if a rider leaves something behind? What happens if they don’t follow that policy? Or ignore riders like Weiss? 

Lyft said the same things it said to Weiss and noted its drivers are independent contractors — different from BART and the airlines’ staffing. 

Lyft also said, “If the police reach out to us with the proper paperwork via email, we’ll assist them in any way we can.”

San Francisco Police Department only said Weiss’ case is still open. 

So, still no bags, even with our intervention. 

“I do appreciate everything you have done and NBC has done to support me through this journey,” Weiss said. 

We wondered what Uber’s policy is. But it didn’t respond to us for this story. 

Like Lyft, Uber’s website says you can message your driver, though it’s not responsible for items you leave in a vehicle. 

But Uber does track those forgotten things and even publishes a yearly “Lost & Found Index.”

The most common items forgotten include clothes, phones, backpacks, and purses. Uber says it got more lost item reports on April 5 than any other day, more than 1,000 of them.

Besides many other curiosities in the index — like 40 pairs of dentures reported lost in Ubers last year — there’s some useful info to help you, too.

In 2022, Uber found people were most likely to lose stuff on Saturdays and Sundays. So, be extra mindful of your stuff when ridesharing over the weekend.

Weiss has a parting practical tip for you too. 

“Moving forward, if someone is getting in and they have something of value and it’s in a purse or a briefcase or a tote bag, I would highly recommend they take that with them to the back seat so their hands are on it at all times,” Weiss said. 

Two more things we want to drive home: 

• Consider a WiFi tracker like an Apple Airtag for your bags. In some well-publicized cases, airline passengers located their lost bags that way. 
• See if your insurance will cover you. Some phone protection plans cover loss. Try your travel insurance if you’re on a trip. If your ride is local, consider a claim under your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Arthur considered that, but ultimately just moved on and wrote off his three-grand loss. 

Have a consumer complaint? Let us know, so we can help.

Kuan-Yu told NBC Bay Area that he was driving at night to work on his English and get more rides, but he said that he never imagined one of those trips would put his life in danger.

He said that still has headaches, nightmares and blood stains in his van from the attack.

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Two weeks ago, Kuan-Yu said that he picked up two men and two women from a bar in Walnut Creek. He said that one of the passengers refused to put on his seatbelt and fell forward onto the back of the driver’s seat during the ride.

“’Oh please put the seatbelt and have a seat, we are going in the highway, that’s dangerous,” he said. “I almost hit somebody and they don’t care.”

During the trip to San Leandro, Kuan-Yu said that same rider opened a window and leaned out.

“I looked and he had already put the, the hand up,” he said.

Kuan-Yu said that’s when he decided to exit the freeway and found a neighborhood, where he thought it would be safe for his passengers to get out.

But that’s when Kuan-Yu said things took a drastic turn.

“The guy hit my head, the first time and I tried to push him,” he said.

Kuan-Yu added that one of the men attacked him as he tried to get back into his car.

“Another guy came to my back side and chokehold me,” he said.

The driver told NBC Bay Area that he lost consciousness several times.

Someone called for help because a patrol arrived while Kuan-Yu was still on the ground, he said his attackers were still there. But the next time he woke up, he was in a hospital and was surprised to learn no one had been arrested.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a battery had taken place and the parties were separated. They added that an ambulance was called for a person who sustained injuries and the incident is still under investigation.

Uber told NBC Bay Area it took action right away, as they said in a statement:

“The brutal attack reported by [Kuan-Yu] is extremely troubling and we removed the rider’s access to the Uber app as soon as it was reported to us. We stand ready to assist law enforcement with their investigation.”

Kuan-Yu told NBC Bay Area that his health insurance is covering his $20,000 hospital bill and Uber said it has insurance as well, that should help him with any other medical expenses and lost wages.

Kuan-Yu said he still does not know who alerted the deputies who might have saved his life. He said the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office told him they didn’t take action against his alleged attackers because his testimony was incomplete.

He said that he took care of that over the phone and has contacted an attorney.

Liccardo’s ordinance builds off the Washington Post’s 2019 investigation that rideshare companies did not report hundreds of allegations of rape to local law enforcement agencies.

Liccardo alleges that survivors are thinking their reports of sexual assault are going somewhere, but they aren’t.

“Survivors likely believe that if they report their victimization to Uber or Lyft, the companies will do something to protect them and the public,” Liccardo said in a statement. “But they won’t — the survivor will see no restraining order, no arrest or conviction of the assailant, and no restitution. At the very least, these companies should be honest with survivors and tell them so.”

The ordinance would also require companies to inform sexual assault survivors of medical care and counseling services, as well as their option to send information to law enforcement.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen alleges that Uber and similar companies are not working to ensure the community is safe. Despite donating millions of dollars to sexual assault survivor advocacy programs, they do not share allegations of their own for the sake of “privacy” and “agency,” he said.

His office said that from 2017 to 2018, 62 incidents of sexual assault in rideshare vehicles occurred in the county, yet their office only received and filed one Uber-related case that year.

“Please ask yourself if you want a potential rapist showing up at your pickup spot,” Rosen said in a statement.

The ordinance also allows survivors’ right to privacy and the right to decline reporting assault.

Liccardo’s ordinance will be reviewed at a joint meeting for the Rules and Open Government Committee and Committee of the Whole, scheduled for Dec. 7.

But some think it may not be as good as it sounds. 

“Uber is a company with a terrible track record of trust,” said Mark Gruberg of the SF Taxi Worker Alliance, who has been a taxi driver in San Francisco since 1983. 

He said his bottom line has not been the same since ride sharing apps entered the picture and he’s not sold that aligning with them is the solution. 

“We would like more transparency, we would like some guarantees that cab drivers aren’t going to be hurt by this and the public isn’t going to get hurt,” said Gruberg.

Among the concerns are the base rate pay for drivers, a cap commission rate for Uber and stricter, local regulations for Uber.

“The Public Utilities Commission regulates them and they do so very lightly,” said Gruberg.

But not all drivers agree with him.

“Especially just coming out of this brutal pandemic, we need this business so bad,” said Muwaffaq Mustafa, operations manager at Flywheel. “The taxi industry went down almost to the ground as we are trying as owners as workers to lift it up a little bit.”

A few weeks ago, New York approved a similar deal between Uber and Cabs. 

San Francisco has been trying it out as a pilot program since September.

City transportation leaders now have to decide whether to make it permanent. 

“We can help taxis by bringing in more business, and riders by adding more transportation choices,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

So far, Flywheel and Yogo are the two Taxi booking apps being considered to partner with Uber. 

After a period in which waits for an Uber ride grew longer due to a driver shortage, the partnership will boost the number of rides available, and it gives NYC cab drivers access to a massive pool of commuters with an Uber app on their phones.

There had been hints that tensions between Uber and taxi services had begun to thaw as Uber expanded aggressively into the very lucrative food delivery business and needed a growing supply of delivery drivers.

During the pandemic, Uber’s food deliveries outpaced rides given to humans as millions sheltered at home. Gross bookings for delivery services at Uber reached $13.4 billion in the final quarter of 2021. That’s compared with $11.3 billion in gross bookings for Uber rides.

The agreement announced Thursday comes amid the backdrop of more cities moving to regulate the explosive growth of Uber and other app-based ride services, including New York City, which placed a temporary cap on new licenses for ride-hailing services in 2018.

New York City is the largest American market for Uber.

The New York City Workers Alliance, a group that represents taxi drivers and has been critical of Uber and other ride-hailing apps, said it would push for negotiations.

“After its business model has shown the failures to protect drivers from ridership downturns and rising gas prices, Uber is returning to its roots: yellow cabs,” Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the NYCWA, said in a prepared statement Thursday.

Calls to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission were not immediately returned Thursday.

Uber Technologies Inc. has been incorporating taxi drivers around the world into its system for the past several years. In Spain, the company has integrated taxis Madrid, Málaga, Valencia and Barcelona.

It teamed in Colombia with TaxExpress, which has more than 2,300 active drivers. Half of all Uber taxi trips in Latin America come from the TaxExpress partnership in Colombia. Uber also has relationships with taxi software and fleet operators in Austria, Germany, Turkey, South Korea and Hong Kong.

In New York City, Uber is teaming with tech platforms Creative Mobile Technologies and Curb to eventually have all New York City taxi cabs available on its app.

Anyone with the Uber app will have access to thousands of yellow taxis that operate on the CMT/Arro platform. Taxi drivers will see Uber-originated fares on their driver monitors which they already use to service e-hails from the Arro taxi app.

“Uber has a long history of partnering with the taxi industry to provide drivers with more ways to earn and riders with another transportation option. Our partnerships with taxis look different around the world, and we’re excited to team up with taxi software companies CMT and Curb, which will benefit taxi drivers and all New Yorkers,” Andrew Macdonald, senior vice president, Mobility and Business Operations, at Uber, said in a prepared statement.

Creative Mobile Technologies said Thursday that taxi drivers on its platform, which includes the taxi app Arro, will gain access to Uber’s customer base, giving them the opportunity for a higher volume of trips and expanded revenue.

Creative Mobile said a beta version for taxis will be rolled out this spring and reach the general public this summer.

Curb, which offers a ride-hailing app for licensed taxi and for-hire rides in North America, said the new agreement with Uber will start in New York City, but that the partnership will expand to its nationwide network over the coming months.

Drivers on the Curb platform will be able to receive and accept Uber trip offers through their existing in-vehicle systems, in addition to Curb app demand and traditional street hails.

“We’ve found great success in creating incremental trip demand and revenue for drivers by integrating with several aggregators over the past two years, and this partnership builds on that success by delivering even greater opportunities for cab drivers to have access to an ever-widening pool of riders,” Curb CEO Amos Tamam said.