Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
---

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

Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2025 13:00:07 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/apps/uber-received-4...

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 ΓÇö 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.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/apps/uber-received-4...
misconduct-from-2017-to-2022-130007123.html?src=rss

---
VRSS v2.1.180528