Uber customers in the US have allegedly registered a significantly higher number of sexual assaults and sexual harassment incidents than the company had previously disclosed for the period between 2017 and 2022. A report claims that the executives of the cab booking company were aware of the situation and even backed off from plans for a women-matching safety program a few months ago. According to a report by The New York Times (NYT), a total of 400,181 Uber trips in the US ended with reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct during the six-year period. The publication cited sealed court records to suggest that this problem was "far more pervasive" than previously reported, with an average of one report of sexual misconduct for every eight minutes.
What Uber said about its safety features
In a statement to the NYT, Hannah Nilles , Uber’s director of safety in the Americas, said: “No single safety feature or policy is going to prevent unpredictable incidents from happening on Uber, or in our world.”
She also noted that the company already provides several other safety features, such as GPS tracking, an emergency button to call 911, and an optional in-app audio recording function.
In a statement posted recently on Uber’s website, Nilles said the 400,000 reports were “unaudited,” meaning they included “false reports submitted to get a refund.” She noted that the vast majority were “non-physical in nature,” involving actions like unwanted flirting, comments about someone’s appearance, staring, or inappropriate language.
She even described the reports as “extremely rare.” According to her, during that same period, 6.3 billion Uber trips took place in the United States, meaning all of the reports made up only 0.006% of total trips. The most serious reports were even rarer, at 0.00002%, or 1 in 5 million, of all trips, she said.
Meanwhile, in previous public disclosures, Uber had reported 12,522 instances of sexual assault for the same period. Uber stated its previous tally only included the "five most serious categories" it tracked, and did not account for other forms of misconduct like masturbation or threats of sexual violence.
As per the report, Uber initially approved a program in the US to match female passengers with female drivers for safety, but paused it after Trump’s election due to concerns over political backlash, cultural tensions, and potential gender discrimination lawsuits estimated at over $100 million.
The company has now started testing the option in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit, explaining the delay as part of efforts to ensure service reliability and adapt to changing cultural norms, the report added.
What Uber said about its safety features
In a statement to the NYT, Hannah Nilles , Uber’s director of safety in the Americas, said: “No single safety feature or policy is going to prevent unpredictable incidents from happening on Uber, or in our world.”
She also noted that the company already provides several other safety features, such as GPS tracking, an emergency button to call 911, and an optional in-app audio recording function.
In a statement posted recently on Uber’s website, Nilles said the 400,000 reports were “unaudited,” meaning they included “false reports submitted to get a refund.” She noted that the vast majority were “non-physical in nature,” involving actions like unwanted flirting, comments about someone’s appearance, staring, or inappropriate language.
She even described the reports as “extremely rare.” According to her, during that same period, 6.3 billion Uber trips took place in the United States, meaning all of the reports made up only 0.006% of total trips. The most serious reports were even rarer, at 0.00002%, or 1 in 5 million, of all trips, she said.
Meanwhile, in previous public disclosures, Uber had reported 12,522 instances of sexual assault for the same period. Uber stated its previous tally only included the "five most serious categories" it tracked, and did not account for other forms of misconduct like masturbation or threats of sexual violence.
As per the report, Uber initially approved a program in the US to match female passengers with female drivers for safety, but paused it after Trump’s election due to concerns over political backlash, cultural tensions, and potential gender discrimination lawsuits estimated at over $100 million.
The company has now started testing the option in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit, explaining the delay as part of efforts to ensure service reliability and adapt to changing cultural norms, the report added.
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