Uber obtained 400,000 reviews of sexual misconduct from 2017 to 2022

Between 2017 and 2022, 400,181 Uber journeys resulted in reviews of sexual assault or sexual misconduct within the US, or round one each eight minutes, in accordance 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 staff, inner paperwork and courtroom information below 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 informed the NYT. She added that about 75 p.c of the reviews have been “much less critical,” together with feedback a few passenger’s look, flirting or utilizing express language. As well as, reviews had not been audited by the corporate and will have embrace incorrect or fraudulent reviews submitted by passengers.

Publicly, Uber has acknowledged in advertising campaigns that it is one of many most secure choices for journey, citing the rarity of assaults. Nonetheless, the NYT notes that the corporate had did not take actions that might seemingly have improved passenger safety — like pairing feminine passengers with feminine drivers, utilizing subtle 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 conduct have been stored on the platform after which proceeded to sexually assault passengers. It additionally reveals that Uber rejected security measures like cameras in vehicles in order to not disrupt its enterprise mannequin dictating that drivers are contractors and never staff. It additionally stopped a possible characteristic pairing feminine drivers with feminine passengers over fears of stoking tradition wars, amongst different enterprise causes.

Uber informed 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. Nonetheless, with particulars of horrific assaults and Uber wilfully failing to take care of the issue, the report is yet another damning indictment of the corporate’s growth-above-all tradition.