Uber Faces Litigation For Sexual Misconduct By Drivers

(RTTNews) - Uber Technologies has been sued in a class action suit by about 550 women in multiple states across the U.S. who alleged sexual assault by drivers on the ride-hailing service. The lawsuit was filed over a month after Uber disclosed in its second U.S. Safety Report that 998 sexual assault incidents occurred in Uber vehicles in 2020 alone, including 141 rape reports.

The complaint, filed by Slater Slater Schulman LLP in San Francisco, claims that women were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers paired through the Uber application. The law firm is also investigating at least 150 more survivors of catastrophic and traumatic events.

Uber also disclosed in the safety report that it received 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault in 2019 and 2020, ranging from "non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part" to "non-consensual sexual penetration," or rape.

According to the complaint, Uber became aware as early as 2014 that its drivers were sexually assaulting and raping female passengers. It also notes that sexual predators driving for Uber have continued to attack passengers in the eight years since.

The complaint details how riders were assaulted by Uber drivers as the company prioritized growth over passenger safety and failed to put adequate protections in place.

The law firm noted that, "While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences."

Additionally, Uber also has a longstanding policy that it does not report any criminal activity, even assaults and rape, to law-enforcement authorities. However, Uber acknowledged in 2018 a "deeply rooted problem" of sexual assault after widespread media reporting of Uber's sexual assault and harassment problems.

Uber has refused to install video cameras in cars, even though doing so could prevent passengers and drivers from being assaulted. It has maintained a "three strikes" policy for its drivers that kept predators at the wheel even after serious passenger complaints.

"There is so much more that Uber can be doing to protect riders: adding cameras to deter assaults, performing more robust background checks on drivers, creating a warning system when drivers don't stay on a path to a destination," said Adam Slater, Founding Partner of Slater Slater Schulman.