Uber USA received sexual assault complaint every "8 minutes"

[watty]

No wonder it's so hard to get through to customer service!

Uber received 400,000 reports of sexual misconduct from 2017 to 2022

Between 2017 and 2022, 400,181 Uber trips resulted in reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the US, or around one every eight minutes, according to sealed documents seen by The New York Times. The company had only disclosed 12,522 accounts of serious sexual assaults during the same time period. The report is based on interviews with current a former employees, internal documents and court records under seal as part of "large-scale sexual assault litigation against Uber."

"There is no 'tolerable' level of sexual assault," Uber's US head of safety Hanna Nilles told the NYT. She added that about 75 percent of the reports were "less serious," including comments about a passenger's appearance, flirting or using explicit language. In addition, reports had not been audited by the company and could have include incorrect or fraudulent reports submitted by passengers.

Publicly, Uber has stated in marketing campaigns that it's one of the safest options for travel, citing the rarity of assaults. However, the NYT notes that the company had failed to take actions that would likely have improved passenger security — like pairing female passengers with female drivers, using sophisticated matching algorithms and warning passengers about factors linked to attacks.

In several cases cited by the report, drivers with a recorded pattern of inappropriate behavior were kept on the platform and then proceeded to sexually assault passengers. It also shows that Uber rejected safety measures like cameras in cars so as not to disrupt its business model dictating that drivers are contractors and not employees. It also stopped a potential feature pairing female drivers with female passengers over fears of stoking culture wars, among other business reasons.

Uber told the NYT that millions of rides happen each day and vast majority in the US, around 99.9 percent occur without incident. However, with details of horrific assaults and Uber wilfully failing to deal with the problem, the report is yet another damning indictment of the company's growth-above-all culture.

 

Their Irish motto might be céad míle fáilte sexual assault!

[mercenary for hire]

I watched the CEO of Uber on the news yesterday talking about how safe robotaxis are going to be in the future and that they've already noticed extra demand for the current robotaxis in thier fleet.The "rapist driver" theme is going to be how these apps will try to push us out of the driving seat.

There will be more and more of these stories across various media outlets as Ubers share price get squeezed up on the promise of robotaxis.Wall street doesn't really care who gets assaulted as long as the money keeps coming in.All helped along with President Dumbass.

[taxi1990]

There are far more benefits to having a human taxi driver. The chances your driver is going to harm you are very slim. People will likely seek out human businesses and services in future as they will be sick of dealing with robots run by greedy uncaring companies like amazon, Google, uber with zero customer service.

[mercenary for hire]

I was in the laughter lounge a few weeks ago and I've been going in there for nearly 30 years on and off.The new setup means they don't allow customers to go to the bar to get their own drinks.Instead you spend 10 mins downloading and navigating an app to order some drinks which you pay by card and they ask for a tip at the end.Service was fairly slow so we were 20 mins waiting on a drink.

I was thirsty and getting wound up..I got into a huff and was moaning to the wife about how shite things have become.

Then a group of kids in their 20s sat behind us and they were commenting on how "professional and well set up" the place was which gave me my first laugh of the night.

I realised that young people think everything through your phone is better than human interaction and that's what's considered the best practice nowadays.. what old bastards like me think  irrelevant..

Robotaxis to them will be there safest option.... because their phone told them.

[Rat Catcher]

The unions have always told us that taking a taxi in Ireland is extremely dangerous with clients being raped and/or murdered by unvetted drivers being commonplace. Rape is the least reported crime and murder victims rarely speak up so don't think it's not happening because it's not reported in mainstream media.

On the subject of Uber customer service I did have cause to contact them recently regarding their allowing €2.50 commission/VAT free in respect of a toll (M50) that is charged at €3.80. As they only apportioned €2.50 of said fare to Tolls I was charged commission on the other €1.30 i.e. I was out of pocket to the tune of 19c inc. VAT.

Their response was swift and they significantly overcompensated me as follows:

Hi Stephen‍, ******** here from Priority Support.

Thank you for reaching out.

We have reviewed your request and can see that you already received a refund of €2.50 for the West Link Toll Bridge on your driver receipt.

We have gone ahead and added a miscellaneous payment of €1.30 to your Uber wallet.

Going forward, we recommend that you get the electronic tag for automatic payment to eFlow.

Thank you for your understanding and for being a gold driver.

[Rat Catcher]

In fact, I think I will go ahead and reach out to eFlow in pursuit of an electronic tag. It costs €1+VAT/month and the M50 toll is €0.60 cheaper than with a video account so you'd almost recoup the full monthly fee with one return journey and it would (presumably) mean that the amount I add on (i.e. €2.50 with a tag) will be the same amount shown on the client's electronic receipt. I do find it annoying that Uber don't automatically add the itemised toll to the fare or at least allow us add it in such an itemised fashion as facilitated Free Now. I suspect they want us to forget to add it and pay it out of our own pockets.

[taxi1990]

I was in the laughter lounge a few weeks ago and I've been going in there for nearly 30 years on and off.The new setup means they don't allow customers to go to the bar to get their own drinks.Instead you spend 10 mins downloading and navigating an app to order some drinks which you pay by card and they ask for a tip at the end.Service was fairly slow so we were 20 mins waiting on a drink.

I was thirsty and getting wound up..I got into a huff and was moaning to the wife about how shite things have become.

Then a group of kids in their 20s sat behind us and they were commenting on how "professional and well set up" the place was which gave me my first laugh of the night.

I realised that young people think everything through your phone is better than human interaction and that's what's considered the best practice nowadays.. what old bastards like me think  irrelevant..

Robotaxis to them will be there safest option.... because their phone told them.

Yes, at the moment it seems the younger generation prefer not dealing with humans, I remember listening to young customers years ago talking about an air b&b they used, they were happy the key was left out so they didn't have to meet the owner.
They wouldn't talk to strangers on a train or bus like we used to but then it all comes out at night in the taxi after a few drinks or drugs, they will tell you their life story, people are social animals so eventually they will get sick of robots and A.I.

[silverbullet]

No wonder it's so hard to get through to customer service!

Uber received 400,000 reports of sexual misconduct from 2017 to 2022

Between 2017 and 2022, 400,181 Uber trips resulted in reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the US, or around one every eight minutes, according to sealed documents seen by The New York Times. The company had only disclosed 12,522 accounts of serious sexual assaults during the same time period. The report is based on interviews with current a former employees, internal documents and court records under seal as part of "large-scale sexual assault litigation against Uber."

"There is no 'tolerable' level of sexual assault," Uber's US head of safety Hanna Nilles told the NYT. She added that about 75 percent of the reports were "less serious," including comments about a passenger's appearance, flirting or using explicit language. In addition, reports had not been audited by the company and could have include incorrect or fraudulent reports submitted by passengers.

Publicly, Uber has stated in marketing campaigns that it's one of the safest options for travel, citing the rarity of assaults. However, the NYT notes that the company had failed to take actions that would likely have improved passenger security — like pairing female passengers with female drivers, using sophisticated matching algorithms and warning passengers about factors linked to attacks.

In several cases cited by the report, drivers with a recorded pattern of inappropriate behavior were kept on the platform and then proceeded to sexually assault passengers. It also shows that Uber rejected safety measures like cameras in cars so as not to disrupt its business model dictating that drivers are contractors and not employees. It also stopped a potential feature pairing female drivers with female passengers over fears of stoking culture wars, among other business reasons.

Uber told the NYT that millions of rides happen each day and vast majority in the US, around 99.9 percent occur without incident. However, with details of horrific assaults and Uber wilfully failing to deal with the problem, the report is yet another damning indictment of the company's growth-above-all culture.

 

Their Irish motto might be céad míle fáilte sexual assault!

We're going to have to up our auntie!!