550 women are suing Uber for sexual assaults committed by US drivers
Almost 550 female passengers have filed lawsuits against Uber this week, alleging that the company’s drivers assaulted them. This covers physical harm, kidnapping, and rape in the US. The complaint was submitted to the San Francisco County Superior Court in California and asks for a jury trial as well as damages. These ladies claimed in the lawsuit that the Uber drivers had sexually beaten, assaulted, and raped them, among other significant types of harassment. In the court document, the Uber drivers were also accused of different kinds of harassment, such as kidnapping, false detention, stalking, and physical attacks.
Adam Slater, the founding partner of Slater Slater Schulman and the lawyer for these women, released a statement on the subject. He pointed out how Uber’s entire business strategy is “predicated” on giving consumers safe trips. However, they never gave ride safety much thought, and their expansion came at the expense of the security of their patrons. He also said that the company has been slow to deal with the problem, even though it knows about it.
The ride-hailing behemoth allegedly concealed information about its drivers’ routinely assaulting women sexually on purpose. According to reports, this has been the case since 2014, and Uber has since been shown to be a rather “safe means of transportation.” Additionally, it charges that the platform purposefully gives predators a location to locate and harass women. Accordingly, it said that by doing appropriate background checks on them or providing riders with safety precautions.
According to a recent US safety report from Uber, there were 998 reported incidences of sexual assault in 2020 alone, with 141 rape cases. Uber’s platform received 3,824 reports of the top five serious occurrences of sexual assault between 2019 and 2020. Almost 6,000 reports of sexual assault were included in its first safety report, covering incidents from 2017 to 2018. On the other hand, Uber’s shadowy side was exposed by a significant leak of internal documents. It is said that when it wanted to expand internationally, it broke the law and secretly lobbied governments.
The “Uber Files,” which included more than 124,500 papers from 2013 to 2017, were acquired by several outlets last week. According to reports, this information showed how the ride-hailing giant subtly courted presidents, prime ministers, billionaires, oligarchs, and media magnates in an effort to “shore up support.”