Uber acquired 400,000 experiences of sexual misconduct from 2017 to 2022

Between 2017 and 2022, 400,181 Uber journeys resulted in experiences of sexual assault or sexual misconduct within the US, or round one each eight minutes, in line with sealed paperwork seen by The New York Times. The corporate had solely disclosed 12,522 accounts of great sexual assaults throughout the identical time interval. The report is predicated on interviews with present a former workers, inner paperwork and court docket information underneath seal as a part of “large-scale sexual assault litigation towards Uber.”

“There isn’t any ‘tolerable’ degree of sexual assault,” Uber’s US head of security Hanna Nilles advised the NYT. She added that about 75 p.c of the experiences had been “much less critical,” together with feedback a few passenger’s look, flirting or utilizing express language. As well as, experiences had not been audited by the corporate and will have embody incorrect or fraudulent experiences submitted by passengers.

Publicly, Uber has said in advertising campaigns that it is one of many most secure choices for journey, citing the rarity of assaults. Nevertheless, the NYT notes that the corporate had didn’t take actions that may doubtless have improved passenger safety — like pairing feminine passengers with feminine drivers, utilizing refined matching algorithms and warning passengers about components linked to assaults.

In a number of instances cited by the report, drivers with a recorded sample of inappropriate habits had been saved on the platform after which proceeded to sexually assault passengers. It additionally exhibits that Uber rejected security measures like cameras in vehicles in order to not disrupt its enterprise mannequin dictating that drivers are contractors and never workers. It additionally stopped a possible function pairing feminine drivers with feminine passengers over fears of stoking tradition wars, amongst different enterprise causes.

Uber advised the NYT that tens of millions of rides occur every day and overwhelming majority within the US, round 99.9 p.c happen with out incident. Nevertheless, with particulars of horrific assaults and Uber wilfully failing to cope with the issue, the report is yet another damning indictment of the corporate’s growth-above-all tradition.