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Uber received reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct almost every eight minutes between 2017 and 2022, according to sealed court records reviewed by the New York Times. This figure is much higher than the company previously disclosed.
Officially, Uber has promoted itself as one of the safest transportation options. It also highlights the release of safety reports and marketing campaigns and the fact that 99.9% of travel in the US will occur safely. However, newly sealed records, part of a massive lawsuit against the company, show that Uber has recorded 400,181 reports of sexual assault or misconduct over its five years.
In contrast, Uber’s previously released safety reports disclosed 12,522 accounts of serious sexual assault over the same period, without including the total number of cases in all categories. Uber has not released similar data for many years since 2022, but court filings show an increase in case reports.
Court records show that Uber’s safety decisions focused on expanding its customer base, limiting legal exposures, and maintaining a business model that treated drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, according to the Times. This classification reduces labor costs because the company does not need to provide benefits or overtime, and limits monitoring as drivers are not subject to the same workplace rules as traditional employees.
“Our purpose/goal is not to become police,” as reported by The Times, read the internal 2021 brainstorming document on Uber’s global safety standards. “Our bars are much lower, and our goal is to protect the company and set acceptable risk levels for our business.”
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Uber said about 75% of the 400,181 reports were related to “not very serious” behavior, including flirting, appearance comments and explicit language. The company added that the figures have not been audited. This means that it may contain false or false reports. Of the 6.3 billion US trips over the same period, such reports accounted for 0.006% of rides, with the most serious attacks accounting for 0.00002%.
“There’s no “bearable” level of sexual assault,” Hannah Nilles, Uber’s American Safety Director, told The Times. She said the company has invested in safety features such as GPS tracking, optional audio recordings and 911 emergency buttons, while also launching sexual assault and fraud training for US drivers.
For years, the internal Uber team studied patterns of sexual assault cases, according to court documents reviewed by The Times. Incidents are most likely to occur late at night or weekends, with pick-ups often near bars, and women were the most frequent victims. The offenders were usually either drivers or passengers, and received prior complaints and low ratings.
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Uber tested safety interventions, including pairing female riders with female drivers and developing a “safety risk assessment dispatch” algorithm to avoid high-risk matches. The company found that women-women pairings reduced incidents from women, but following the 2024 presidential election, citing potential legal and cultural backlash, delaying its adoption in the US. That option is currently being piloted in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit.
In an official statement in response to the Times’ investigation, Uber challenged the proposal that it downplayed safety issues. “Safety is Uber’s core value, and we invested billions of dollars and countless hours to reduce safety during our travels,” the company said, adding that since the launch of its safety report in 2019, reports of serious sexual assaults on the platform have fallen by 44%.
Uber also said it was one of the first major companies to terminate forced arbitration in cases of sexual misconduct, a move that led to thousands of cases. This policy change has resulted in survivors being bypassed private arbitration, filing claims of sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct in federal or state courts, and making the claims and cases a part of their public records.
Lyft has also reported thousands of sexual assaults. In a statement by The New York Times, Lyft said reports of sexual assaults were “statistically very rare” and represent less than 1% of vehicles. The company added that it will continue to invest in technology, policies and partnerships to prevent and detect unsafe situations.
Last year, a report from the US Government’s Accountability Office found that sexual violence was severely underreported across all modes of transportation, noting that there is no centralized database to track such cases.
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