Most people who get into an Uber or Lyft assume the same thing: if something goes wrong, there’s a $1 million policy to cover it. Then the accident happens, and the adjuster starts asking about the driver’s app status at the moment of impact. Coverage depends on which “period” the trip fell into. The $1 million policy may not be the one that applies. What seemed straightforward suddenly isn’t.
This confusion isn’t accidental. California’s rideshare insurance framework is built on layered statutes and tiered coverage windows that insurers know well and injured victims almost never do. At Dolen, Tucker, Tierney & Abraham, we’ve spent more than 100 years of combined practice in San Bernardino County, and we understand how TNC insurers approach these claims locally. The information below reflects how coverage actually works, including changes that took effect in 2026 that many attorneys haven’t fully absorbed yet.
Why Rideshare Insurance Isn’t One Policy
California classifies Uber and Lyft as Transportation Network Companies, or TNCs, under the California Public Utilities Code. That classification matters because it subjects them to a tiered insurance structure with no equivalent in ordinary car accident law. The governing statute (California Public Utilities Code Section 5433, operationalized by Assembly Bill 2293 effective July 1, 2015) divides coverage into distinct periods based on what the driver was doing at the exact moment of the crash. Whether the app was open or a ride had been accepted can mean a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars in available coverage.
Personal auto policies complicate this further. Nearly every standard personal auto policy contains a livery or commercial use exclusion, which means a driver’s personal insurer will deny claims that occur while the rideshare app is active. When that happens, the question shifts immediately to which TNC coverage tier applies and whether the TNC agrees on the app-status period. That disagreement is where most rideshare claims get stuck.
The Four Coverage Periods & What Each Means for Your Claim
Which period a crash falls into determines who pays, how much, and how hard the fight will be.
Period 0: App Off
When the app is completely off, the rideshare company provides zero coverage. This is a standard car accident governed by the driver’s personal auto policy. Under Senate Bill 1107, which took effect January 1, 2025, California updated its minimum liability limits to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. Those are floors, not guaranteed recovery amounts, and they may fall far short of what serious injuries cost.
Period 1: App On, No Ride Accepted
This is the most contested period in any rideshare claim. The TNC’s contingent liability coverage steps in only if the driver’s personal insurer first denies the claim. If it does, TNC coverage applies at $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident, and $30,000 in property damage. There’s no collision coverage for the driver’s vehicle during Period 1, and the two-step trigger (personal insurer denial followed by TNC secondary coverage) creates exactly the kind of gap that leaves victims waiting while both sides point at each other.
Periods 2 & 3: Ride Accepted Through Passenger Drop-Off
Once the driver accepts a ride request and until the passenger is dropped off, the TNC’s $1 million third-party liability policy is the primary coverage. This is the coverage most people picture when they think about rideshare insurance, and it applies in full during active trips when the rideshare driver is at fault.
What SB 371 Changed in 2026 & Why It Matters Now
Senate Bill 371, signed by Governor Newsom on October 3, 2025, took effect January 1, 2026. It made one change that significantly affects passengers: it reduced mandatory uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM) for rideshare passengers from $1 million down to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, a reduction of roughly 94 percent in the UM/UIM component of TNC coverage. The $1 million third-party liability policy, which applies when the rideshare driver is at fault, was left intact. The reduction applies specifically to UM/UIM coverage, which responds when a third-party driver with no insurance or insufficient insurance causes the crash.
For passengers in the Inland Empire, this matters more than it might elsewhere. California consistently ranks among the states with the highest uninsured driver rates, and the Redlands area is no exception. The scenario SB 371 directly affects (an uninsured third-party driver causes a crash) isn’t rare here. It’s a routine claim type, and the coverage backing those claims dropped substantially when the law took effect.
The Period 1 Gray Zone Where Claims Fall Apart
Period 1 produces more disputes than any other phase of rideshare coverage, and understanding why helps explain what victims are actually up against.
The driver’s personal insurer denies the claim because the app was active, citing the commercial use exclusion. The TNC then argues the driver wasn’t actively working because no ride had been accepted, and the contingent coverage hasn’t clearly triggered. The victim is caught between two insurers who both have financial reasons to place the crash in the lowest-coverage window possible. This isn’t hypothetical. It’s the practical reality of Period 1 claims.
Proving the driver’s actual app status at the moment of impact requires app telemetry, GPS data, and digital trip logs. These records can be overwritten quickly, and getting access to them typically requires a formal legal preservation demand sent directly to Uber or Lyft. Without that demand, critical data disappears before any attorney enters the picture.
There’s another complicating factor: drivers sometimes report a crash to their personal insurer rather than through the TNC platform because they’re afraid of being deactivated. That decision can obscure the true coverage period and give insurers additional ammunition to dispute which policy applies. Victims often don’t realize the coverage dispute has already started before they’ve made a single call.
How to Protect Your Claim from the Scene Forward
The steps taken in the minutes and hours after a rideshare crash can determine how much coverage is actually available.
- Screenshot your in-app ride status immediately. A screenshot showing the driver’s name, trip status, and timestamp is direct evidence that the crash occurred during Period 3. It’s the single most useful piece of documentation a passenger can preserve on the scene, and it prevents TNC insurers from disputing app status later.
- Collect both the driver’s personal insurance information and the TNC insurance certificate. Depending on which coverage period applies, you may need one or both. Getting both at the scene avoids having to chase that information through less cooperative channels later.
- Check your own personal auto policy for UM/UIM coverage. Your own UM/UIM coverage can follow you into a rideshare as a passenger. After SB 371 reduced TNC UM/UIM limits to $60,000 per person, a personal policy with higher limits can be a meaningful gap-filler when injuries are serious and the at-fault driver was uninsured or underinsured.
- Don’t give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster before speaking with an attorney. Adjusters for both personal insurers and TNCs are experienced at building an early record that limits coverage. Anything said in the first days after a crash can lock in facts about the accident that are very difficult to walk back later.
What Riders & Drivers in Redlands Need to Know
Coverage in a rideshare accident comes down to a single moment: whether the app was on, whether a ride had been accepted, and whether the trip was in progress. That moment is actively contested by insurers who have every financial incentive to place the crash in the lowest-coverage period. They know the statute. They know the periods. They know the exclusions in the personal auto policy. In most cases, they’ve already reviewed the driver’s app telemetry before the victim has hired anyone.
Our attorneys have handled both plaintiff claims and institutional defense work, which means we understand how TNC adjusters and corporate insurers actually evaluate these cases from the inside. That perspective shapes how we build claims for injured people in Redlands and across San Bernardino County. Civil personal injury cases originating in Redlands are filed in the San Bernardino District of the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, handled at the San Bernardino Justice Center, a court we know well after more than 100 years of combined local practice.
If you or someone you care about was hurt in a rideshare accident in the Inland Empire and you’re trying to make sense of what coverage applies, Dolen, Tucker, Tierney & Abraham offers free initial consultations. Reach us at (909) 473-4948.