Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc, under fire around the world for its safety record, on Thursday said that it had tallied nearly 6,000 sexual assaults in the US over the past couple of years.
That included more than 450 cases of rape, said Uber’s first public report into the issue, which counts attacks by both passengers and drivers in 2017 and last year.
It also revealed 19 fatal assaults related to the company over the two-year period, when it averaged more than 3.1 million trips each day in the US.
Photo: AFP
Sexual assaults were reported on 0.00002 percent of trips, Uber said.
“While these reports are rare, every report represents an individual who came forward to share an intensely painful experience,” it said. “Even one report is one too many.”
Uber said that the figures also showed its drivers were attacked at about the same rate as passengers reporting sexual assault.
“Drivers are victims, too,” it said.
While the report was confined to the US, the company faces complaints worldwide that it is doing too little to protect passengers.
In London, Uber lost its license after transport authorities said the company had failed to fix a litany of safety issues — including at least 14,000 cases of drivers handing their permits to unlicensed friends or relatives.
Uber continues to operate in London pending an appeal.
The US report classified 5,981 sexual assaults ranging from “non-consensual sexual penetration” to unwanted kissing or touching.
It showed that the total number of reported assaults rose last year in three of the five categories covered, but the firm said that the frequency of attacks dropped 16 percent due to a rise in overall passengers.
A woman raped by an Uber driver in India in 2017 filed a US lawsuit accusing the service of invading her privacy and defaming her character.
Chinese authorities in September launched a security audit of ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行) following a public outcry over the rape and murder of a passenger the previous month.
Uber’s rival Lyft Inc is facing a series of lawsuits over sexual assault or rape that allegedly occurred in vehicles affiliated with the California company.
Twenty women on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Lyft in San Francisco, following another 14 complaints filed in September.
“The bottom line is that Lyft does not take safety of their passengers seriously, and never has,” said attorney Mike Bomberger, who is representing the women.
He recounted the story of Caroline Miller, who he said was raped by her Lyft driver after going out to celebrate her birthday.
“As a consequence of her assault, they offered her a refund of her ride,” Bomberger said.
A Lyft spokeswoman said that the company understood that women faced “disproportionate risks” when they traveled.
“We recognize these risks, which is why we are relentless in our work to build safety into every aspect of our work,” she said.
Both ride-sharing firms have made it more difficult for people to impersonate drivers, tightened controls to detect convicted criminals and added a panic button to their apps.
Bomberger said the panic button was a “joke.”
“Who can operate a smartphone when they are being sexually assaulted?” he said.
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