That's a real stretch - on the app you have their license plate, car make/model/year and a picture of the persons face so that when their car comes to pick you up you can verify the plate and car match exactly whats in the app, there isn't any way to fake that. Fake name? Maybe, I don't know how extensive the background check is when someone registers as a driver but from what Uber drivers have told me you need a clean driving record among other things so there is at least some kind of verification going on on the persons license. The more likely scenario is that an Uber driver who is committing a crime is just someone who doesn't understand technology/how easy they are to track down or they just simply don't care (as most criminals are, they see a crime of opportunity and don't think of the consequences). But even assuming they are some criminal mastermind and they stole a car and gave a fake name - at least you have a reference point for the police - meaning that at least now you can say "a red Mazda 3 with license plate xxxxxx and driver named yyyyy with this picture is the guy that assaulted me" versus "I was in a beck taxi, I think the guys name was Mohammad, I didn't have time to write down the plate number because I was in shock and he sped off but he was one of 20 beck taxis parked outside of this bar I went to".

So I stand by my argument that I think Uber is safer. I've been in Taxi's where they break laws and drive dangerously and put me in situations where I didn't feel safe and I've never felt like those Taxi drivers were accountable. Even if I had the foresight to take down their name and cab number I'm fairly sure if I called Beck they wouldn't care or do much anyways and that guy would be back out there doing the same stuff whereas an Uber driver doing the same thing would immediately get removed from the app