For the first time in its company history – Uber has released data on the number of physical and sexual assaults that occurred related to its platform.
Uber’s US Safety Report examines data from 2017 and 2018 from the company’s ridesharing platform – a time frame where an average of 3.1 million trips took place each day.
The data was released after a 21-month long effort in partnership with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and the Urban Institute.
“Voluntarily publishing a report that discusses these difficult safety issues is not easy,” a statement reads on the company’s website. “Most companies don’t talk about issues like sexual violence because doing so risks inviting negative headlines and public criticism. But we feel it’s time for a new approach.”
Here’s What Uber Found:
One key finding in the report is that drivers were the victims in at least 42% of all incidents reported. Riders filed a majority of the complaints (56%), and third party complaints made up 2% of the total.
Sexual Assault Data
Uber used five categories to report sexual assault: non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part; attempted non-consensual sexual penetration; instances of non-consensual touching of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part, and non-consensual sexual penetration – the most serious sexual assault categories.
In 2017, there were 229 rapes out of the 1 billion US trips completed. In 2018, 235 rapes were reported out of the 1.3 billion US trips completed
From 2017 to 2018, Uber saw a 16% decrease in the average incidents across the most serious assault categories reported.
Fatal Physical Assault Data
During 2017 and 2018, there were 19 fatal physical assaults occurring in a total of 18 incidents in relation to Uber, which accounts for approximately 0.000001% of total trips or 1 in 122,000,000 trips (see Table 11).
“Among the 19 deceased parties in 2017 and 2018 included in this report, 8 were riders using the Uber platform, 7 were drivers using the Uber platform, and 4 were third parties,” the report reads.
Motor vehicle fatalities
There were 107 total fatalities in 2017 and 2018 across 97 fatal crashes reported in relation to the Uber app, the report revealed.
So, What’s Next For Uber?
With the data, Uber plans to enhance its safety features.
“This Safety Report is just one part of our commitment to helping drive accountability in our industry,” a statement reads. “What matters most are the actions we take to raise the bar.”
This upcoming year Uber plans to expand sexual misconduct and assault education to all US drivers by partnering with RAINN, the nation’s largest sexual violence organization.
In addition, Uber will off riders to verify their rides with a unique 4-digit PIN to give to their drivers to make sure they are getting in the right car.
Deactivation sharing is another enhancement Uber plans to expand, which will share the names of drivers who have been banned from their platform with other companies.