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Uber has reported that almost 4,000 sexual assaults occurred in its U.S. vehicles from 2019-2020.
A 78-pageUS Safety Report, released Thursday, detailed that the company received 3,824 reports across five categories of severe sexual assault between Jan. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2020.
This included categories of sexual assault such as “non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part”, “non-consensual sexual penetration,” and rape.
While the report stated that the total number “represents a devastating experience for the individuals, families, and communities impacted,” it is actually 38% down from the 5,981 assaults recorded in Uber’s first safety report, published in December 2019, which covered the period 2017-2018.
The assaults also accounted for just 0.0002% of the total Uber rides during the 12-month period to Dec. 2020.
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“Uber was the first in the industry to produce a comprehensive safety report back in 2019,” Uber’s Austen Radcliff told PEOPLE. “As we said then and continue to say today: secrecy doesn’t make anyone safer.
While the 30% decline is obviously good news for Uber riders, the company also noted that the safety report studied a year in which the company experienced decreased ridership of 650 million trips in 2020 compared with 1.4 billion in 2019, according toThe New York Times.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the guidance and support of experts and advocacy groups,” he wrote. “We are thankful for the opportunity to listen, to learn, and to partner with people from around the world.
“They continue to guide our safety journey and help us create many of the policies and processes we have in place today,” he added.
source: people.com
