A safety report released by Uber on Thursday reveals that thousands of drivers and riders have reported being sexually assaulted in the past two years.
The 84-page report, part of the company’s effort to “improve the safety of our platform,” provides stark details about Uber rides between 2017 and 2018.
Among the findings, Uber states that nearly 6,000 people reported instances of sexual assault while using the service in the U.S. Approximately 464 of those cases were reported to involve rape.
Despite the shocking statistic, Uber argued that 99.9% of trips end without issue. The company said that during the same timeframe, more than 2.3 billion rides were taken in total.
Uber says it believes that revealing the numbers will help bring awareness to the fact that such issues touch “every corner of society.”
“Confronting sexual violence requires honesty, and it’s only by shining a light on these issues that we can begin to provide clarity on something that touches every corner of society,” the report states. “And, most importantly, by bringing hard data to bear, we can make every trip safer for drivers and riders alike.”
The report notes that the vast majority of sexual assault accusations were made against the drivers and not the riders.
“According to an analysis of 2,894 media mentions that referenced sexual assault with a possible connection to Uber, the vast majority of references (92%) focused on the driver party as the potential perpetrator, while only 8% highlighted incidents in which the rider party was accused,” the report adds.
The company says anytime a driver is accused of sexual assault, their access to the Uber app is immediately revoked while an investigation is carried out. Uber also said more than a million people attempting to become drivers were denied due to Uber’s background checks.
Uber says it is taking steps to decrease the number of incidents by, among other things, requiring sexual misconduct and assault education for all U.S. drivers in 2020.
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