Once again, cutting costs and undercutting public safety." Kasselman called the taxicab industry's comments about safety "ridiculous and irresponsible." "At Uber we pride ourselves on using state-of-the-art technology to ensure a safe ride, including a number of fraud prevention techniques and algorithms," he said. "Throughout the testing of this limited availability BYOD beta, additional anti-fraud features are continually being built into the program." NBC4 in Los Angeles investigated claims about Uber's background checks earlier this year. The media outlet followed the story of Beverly Locke, an ex-con who applied to drive for Uber. Locke was approved by the company and found a rider. To be fair, however, the taxicab industry has its own problems screening drivers. Uber's BYOD program kicked-off on Aug. 27 and is currently operating in Boston, Charlotte and San Francisco. It is available for drivers in those cities with an iPhone 4S or newer running iOS7.