Nearly 550 women passengers have sued ride-hailing platform Uber. They claimed they “were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, stalked, harassed, or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers”.
The complaint, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, has sought damages and a jury trial.
Acknowledgment by Uber
“Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously,” an Uber spokesperson said. “There is nothing more important than safety,” the spokesperson further said.
“Uber’s whole business model is predicated on giving people a safe ride home. However, rider safety was never their concern. Rather, growth was, at the expense of their passengers’ safety,” said Adam Slater, founding partner of Slater Slater Schulman representing the women, in a statement.
“While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years. Its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences,” Slater added.
Details of the lawsuit
The lawsuit claimed that the company has been intentionally concealing the fact that Uber drivers had been regularly sexually assaulting women since at least 2014 and “instead represented that Uber was a safe mode of transportation.”
The lawsuit also accused Uber of actively giving sexual predators a platform to find and assault women. They do not conduct proper background checks on the drivers or provide adequate safety measures for riders.
There were 998 sexual assault incidents, including 141 rape reports, in 2020 alone
According to the latest US safety report by Uber, there were 998 sexual assault incidents, including 141 rape reports, in 2020 alone.
Between 2019 and 2020, Uber received 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault.
Uber’s first safety report, which details incidents from 2017 to 2018, found nearly 6,000 reports pertaining to sexual assault.
