Disheartening reports about Uber have been making rounds since New York Times broke a story on Uber’s staggering number of sexual assault reports. Even worse, the true number of reports was downplayed or hidden. A woman in Tennessee broke down the article into a bite-sized video on TikTok. Honestly, it makes even me want to think twice before ordering an Uber. I think I’d rather get the exercise and walk.
TikTok user Jamie—@jaimescott5577—shared a video about the NYT article, captioned: “Uber received a sexual assault claim every eight minutes for five years.” Ultimately, they failed to disclose proper information regarding the number of filed sexual assault claims, as well as misconduct on their app. Initially, they publicly disclosed 12,522 complaints between 2017 and 2022. However, it pales in comparison to the astounding 400,000+ that were actually filed.
“More than 2,300 of these victims have banned together to bring a lawsuit to Uber,” Jamie says. Among these people is a woman who reported that she was r***d by her Uber driver at a Motel 6. She reported the ride was supposed to last 22 minutes but didn’t end for five hours. No one came to the rescue, despite Uber checking in because of suspicious stops. Even worse, the driver had been accused of misconduct before and yet kept his job.
Jaime shockingly points out Uber calls many of the sexual assault accusations ‘minor.’ In other words: Uber deemed 75% of reports less serious. For example, if a man were to make an offhand comment or flirt, Uber considers that minor. And that’s usually the dynamic—women represent the majority of victims in these reports.
As for the perpetrators of the reported crimes? They’re typically males who have histories of reported sexual misconduct and poor ratings from other users. At this point, the risk of taking an Uber doesn’t even seem to be worth it.
As Jaime says at the conclusion of her video, “I don’t like getting in cars with random strange men and this is why.” Commenters on Jaime’s video were all in agreement. One commenter stated, “This is why I take Waymo’s vs Uber by myself. A robot is safer than a man lol.” When you put it that way, it’s probably for the best. I’d trust a bear sooner than Uber at this point.
