It depends on the app. From ride acceptance through drop-off, Georgia law requires $1,000,000 in rideshare liability coverage (O.C.G.A. § 33-1-24). App on but no ride accepted: $50,000/$100,000 bodily injury plus $50,000 property damage. App off: only the driver's personal policy. You have 2 years to file suit.
Three insurance periods, three very different policies
Georgia's rideshare insurance statute, O.C.G.A. § 33-1-24, slices every Uber or Lyft trip into periods — and the money available to an injured person changes dramatically at each boundary. App off: the driver is just a private driver, covered only by a personal policy that can be as thin as Georgia's $25,000/$50,000/$25,000 minimums. App on, waiting for a ride request: the rideshare company's coverage kicks in at $50,000 per person / $100,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $50,000 for property damage. Ride accepted through drop-off: the big policy — $1,000,000 per occurrence.
Two more rules make the periods decisive. The statute requires the rideshare coverage to be primary during app-on periods, and it expressly allows the driver's personal insurer to exclude everything that happens while the app is on. In other words: once that app is logged in, the personal policy is usually out of the picture entirely.
The $1 million window — exactly when it opens and closes
The $1,000,000 tier opens the moment the driver accepts a ride and closes when the passenger is dropped off. It covers death, personal injury, and property damage per occurrence — and it protects passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, and people in other cars alike when the rideshare driver is at fault.
That's why the single most important fact in any Alpharetta rideshare case is the app's status at the moment of impact, down to the timestamp. A driver circling Avalon or waiting near the GA-400 exits between requests is in the $50,000/$100,000 window; the same driver thirty seconds after accepting a ping is in the $1,000,000 window. Trip logs, the ride receipt, and the driver's app history prove which side of the line the crash fell on — evidence worth requesting early, before it gets buried.
The 2023 change most riders never heard about
Until mid-2023, Georgia required rideshare companies to carry $1,000,000 in uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage during rides — protection that pays when the at-fault driver who hits your Uber has little or no insurance. House Bill 529 cut that requirement effective July 1, 2023. The statute now requires UM/UIM of $300,000 for all injuries per accident, with a maximum of $100,000 per person, plus $25,000 in property damage, and only during the engaged period — from acceptance through drop-off.
The practical effect: if an uninsured driver plows into your rideshare on GA-400, the ceiling on the rideshare UM coverage is far lower than most riders assume, and your own personal UM coverage may become an important second layer. Which policies stack, and in what order, is exactly the kind of question worth answering before accepting any settlement.
Deadlines and evidence in a GA-400 corridor crash
There is no special statute of limitations for rideshare crashes: O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33 gives you two years from the date of injury to file suit, the same as any Georgia injury claim. The evidence, though, is unusually perishable and unusually digital — app trip data, GPS breadcrumbs, driver-phone activity, and dashcam files can all be preserved if requested promptly, and all tend to vanish quietly if not.
Alpharetta sits at the heart of north Fulton's GA-400 tech corridor — the city brands itself the "Technology City of the South" — and its rush hours move a steady stream of rideshares between office parks, Avalon, and downtown. If one of them ends your day in an ER, Dream Team Law's Atlanta-area team handles rideshare injury claims and car accident claims across the corridor, and the consultation is free.
Frequently asked questions
I was a passenger. Do I file against Uber, the driver, or the other car?+
It follows fault. If your rideshare driver caused the crash, the company's $1,000,000 per-occurrence policy is on the hook (O.C.G.A. § 33-1-24). If another driver caused it, you claim against their liability insurance first — and if they're uninsured or underinsured, the rideshare UM/UIM tier and possibly your own UM coverage come next. Often more than one policy applies, which is why identifying all of them early matters.
Does my personal auto policy cover me while I drive for Uber or Lyft?+
Usually not once the app is on. Georgia's statute expressly permits personal auto insurers to exclude coverage for losses that occur while a driver is logged into a rideshare app, and it makes the rideshare policy primary during those periods. Unless you bought a specific rideshare endorsement, assume your personal policy stops at login.
What if an uninsured driver hits my Uber?+
Since July 1, 2023 (HB 529), Georgia requires rideshare UM/UIM coverage of $300,000 per accident and $100,000 per person during the ride — down from the $1,000,000 required before. Your own personal UM coverage may add another layer on top. The at-fault driver's lack of insurance does not extend your deadline: the two-year clock of § 9-3-33 still runs.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice; reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines depend on the specific facts of your case — consult a licensed attorney in your state about your situation. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.