WASHINGTON — An Uber driver on just his third day on the job was viciously beaten and choked by a passenger, investigators say.

The driver, 65, picked up a 16-year-old passenger on Lyons Boulevard in the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area last week, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office says.

But instead of the planned trip to a nearby McDonald’s, the teen passenger diverted the driver, telling him he needed to go to his home to pick up something.

Once the car got to a secluded cul-de-sac on June Court in the England Run neighborhood, investigators say the passenger hit the driver on the head with an outdoor solar light fixture and began choking him.

During the attack, the car slowly hit several residential mailboxes.

The driver had to be treated for injuries to his neck and left leg.

The next day, the teen was arrested and charged as a juvenile with malicious wounding, strangulation, abduction and attempted robbery. He’s being held in juvenile detention.