[Chronos]

You can be damn sure Uber has a record of every Uber ride ever taken. Even if Uber had incorrect records in their database about which car picked up the rider, because the driver had e.g. failed to update Uber with their current car and plates, there is no plausible reason why Uber would believe that the ride itself had never occurred, because they have the rider's account information. They could have produced "rider account X requested a trip in Boston on such-and-such date, we matched that person with driver account Y, and driver account Y was registered in 20xx to Vernon Dudley, 4 Privet Drive, ...". But they deliberately didn't provide that information.

"this article is muddled and confusing"

Reality is muddled and confusing. Real life never has the clarity of an omniscient third-person narrator telling the reader the actual facts of the matter.