Uber discloses almost 6,000 reported sexual assaults in US over last 2 years

[midian182]

In brief: Uber has released its first-ever safety report, revealing that 3,045 passengers in the US reported sexual assaults in 2018. Nine passengers were murdered, while 58 were killed in crashes.

Over 3,000 sexual assaults, which include 229 rapes, is no small number, though the company points out it represents just 0.0002 percent of Uber’s 1.3 billion rides in the United States last year. Taking into account incidents from 2017 as well, that number jumps to nearly 6,000, but as many sexual assaults aren’t reported, the numbers could be higher.

Across 2017 and 2018, 107 people died in crashes involving Uber vehicles, and 19 were killed in physical assaults during or soon after a ride. There were 2.3 billion Uber trips during those two years.

Although there are no similar statistics available for taxis, the New York Times notes that there were 533 recorded sex crimes and rapes on transit systems last year, according to the New York Police Department.

"At the scale that Uber operates, we're going to see both the good and the bad that happens in society because we're operating so many trips every single day," said Tony West, Uber's chief legal officer.

"One of the unfortunate but sad truths is that sexual assault, sexual violence is far more prevalent in American society than a lot of people recognize," he said. "That exists in companies, it exists in classrooms, it exists on university campuses and homes. Uber's not immune to that."

In the long run, we will be a better company for taking this step today—because I firmly believe that companies who are open, accountable, and unafraid are ultimately the companies that succeed. (3/3)

— dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) 5 December 2019

Some of the changes Uber has implemented to improve safety include letting passengers record audio if they feel uncomfortable, the RideCheck feature for detecting crashes and unexpected stops, and an in-app feature that dials 911. The company will also be sharing the names of deactivated drivers with other platforms, expanding its sexual misconduct education training, and introducing an option that lets riders verify their drivers with a PIN code.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83059-uber-discloses-almost-6000-reported-sexual-assaults-us.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Apparently the Uber experience submits clients to a whole host of criminals. I would be interested to see a comparison between them and the "professional" cab company's in the same geographic areas .... In the case of NYC there is simply no good reason for them not to have a detailed summary of such crimes ....

 

[Hexic]

As much as I’m inclined not to agree with legal from a large company in this position... crime happens everywhere.

Don’t get worked up without doing actual math.

 

[Slappy McPhee]

Apparently the Uber experience submits clients to a whole host of criminals. I would be interested to see a comparison between them and the "professional" cab company's in the same geographic areas .... In the case of NYC there is simply no good reason for them not to have a detailed summary of such crimes ....

It really seems that the traditional taxi system has gone to great lengths to obscure data on many fronts. Thing is that both Uber and Lyft are publicly traded companies so their transparency comes to the forefront compared to traditional taxi cab companies. What I do find laughable is how many I have actually come across championing using a traditional taxi service as it is some sort of much more secured and less likely to have a negative impact on the riders. I have ridden in several questionable taxis through the years in multiple countries and in some cases even reported them to the central dispatcher feeling in the end like my complaints have fallen on deaf ears. At least with Uber and Lyft I can report and also rate drivers so that it can possibly impact them whereas with a traditional cab good luck with that.

 

[DarkRift]

Driverless and autonomous vehicles can't become reality fast enough for use in these services. Remove the human drivers from the equation, eliminate or at least reduce the risk of sexual assaults perpetrated by human drivers.

 

[Yynxs]

It really seems that the traditional taxi system has gone to great lengths to obscure data on many fronts. Thing is that both Uber and Lyft are publicly traded companies so their transparency comes to the forefront compared to traditional taxi cab companies. What I do find laughable is how many I have actually come across championing using a traditional taxi service as it is some sort of much more secured and less likely to have a negative impact on the riders. I have ridden in several questionable taxis through the years in multiple countries and in some cases even reported them to the central dispatcher feeling in the end like my complaints have fallen on deaf ears. At least with Uber and Lyft I can report and also rate drivers so that it can possibly impact them whereas with a traditional cab good luck with that.

so..while protesting knowledge about taxis, going to conflate comparing multiple country's taxis with US taxis and Uber US? And the Uber report is about the US only. Interesting. Good luck with that with Techspot readers.

 

[Slappy McPhee]

so..while protesting knowledge about taxis, going to conflate comparing multiple country's taxis with US taxis and Uber US? And the Uber report is about the US only. Interesting. Good luck with that with Techspot readers.

*golf clap*