New Uber Report Reveals At Least Eight Passengers Are Sexually Assaulted Daily

Uber is one the most availed transportation services but how safe it is for the passengers to ride? The transport company has been slapped with complaints where the passengers claimed that they have been sexually assaulted while in an Uber ride.

Now the company is aiming to be transparent as its admitted there are unfortunate incidents like this. Further, for the first time, Uber revealed the extent of the offense by releasing the number of complaints they received.

According to Fox Business News, Uber took in thousands of complaint reports concerning allegations of rapes and other forms of sexual assault covering the years 2017 and 2018. The number was known based on the statistics coming from the ride-share company.

Both passengers and drivers have reported around 5,981 instances of sexual assault and this figure is out of the 2.3 billion trips that Uber completed in the said period around the U.S. In 2018, it was disclosed that 235 of the complaints were about rape and 1,560 claims of kissing and non-consensual touching of a sexual areas of the body. While there are drivers who were victimized as well, 92% of the reports were from passengers.

On the day-to-day basis, The Daily Mail reported that the figure revealed is equivalent to eight sexual abuse incidents per day. Uber released the 84-page safety and security report just two weeks after the company stated that it would make an appeal for the decision to scrap its license to operate in London, citing its frequent failure to provide safe and secure rides to the passengers.

"At the scale that Uber operates, we're going to see both the good and the bad that happens in society because we're operating so many trips every single day," said Uber's chief legal officer, Tony West. "One of the unfortunate but sad truths is that sexual assault, sexual violence is far more prevalent in American society than a lot of people recognize. It exists in companies, classrooms, university campuses, homes and Uber's not immune to that."

Meanwhile, the Uber report does not include other kinds of sexual abuse such as verbal threats, masturbation and openly requesting for sex. In its effort to improve its service, Uber reportedly asked the assistance of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center to develop the company’s safety guidelines and to address other issues.