Uber is back in the news for sexual assault by over 100 Uber drivers

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I mean… that sounds horrible, but I wonder what the number would be if we were talking about taxi drivers…

That’s a very good question, and I have researched it a fair amount. It is difficult to get concrete, reliable data on this. Someone would have to do the legwork and go to all the cities and municipalities and dig through the records. As far as I know, this has not been done thoroughly enough to have a definitive answer. I’m a former yellow cab driver and was very concerned about this issue. My perception is this. It happens more amongst the Uber people but how much more I don’t know. My guess would be 20% more.
And Uber will often cover up complaints so that they don’t make the news. How many of these were covered up is hard to tell. It could have been a lot.
Another factor is… Uber and Lyft have at least double the number of drivers as regular cab drivers have in the United States. So if you have a lot more people applying to drive and the requirements are less stringent, the Logical result is quite a few more Predator type individuals will be able to slip behind the wheel of a Rideshare car. With less stringent requirements which is what uber and Lyft have now and over double the number of drivers you would naturally end up with more sexual predator harassment incidents Etc. So keep the regulations that we now have for taxi drivers in place for Uber and Lyft drivers too. It’s the safe and right thing to do for the most vulnerable of our society. And… Let’s add to that increased security features in the smartphone technology itself and the willingness of both cab and Rideshare companies to spend more money on the smartphone technology monitoring capabilities that would increase security. But none of this is a good reason to drop or reduce background safety checks. Not now not yet I’m willing, to pay a fee to get the Nationwide check. I think the problem will be getting Uber and Lyft to pay for increased security.

I’d bet many of them aren’t true, just passengers looking for free rides and money, or pissed off at their drivers. Real easy lawsuit to settle out of court for a quick payday.

My scariest Lyft drive, just before I picked up my pax, I received a call, and a man said please make sure she gets home safe (???)
So this scanty dressed teenaged girl got in the back, and I proceed to drive her home she started out on her phone but, when I get to the destination (about a 20 minute drive) she was out cold I mean I did everything I could think of from blasting the AC to rolling down the windows even cranking the Radio and she was not waking up. No way in HELL was I going to touch her!!!
Then I remembered the phone call and called that number back never so happy as when that guy said he’d be right out…

Yes among Riders and drivers. Since Society is corruptible and some people are just bad a few safety checks and security measures are beneficial. There are sick people everywhere. But we can do what we can to minimize the number of these incidents.

Comparing the pax, I get and the ones my husband does we both have the opposite situation in my area lol. As a lyft driver, I’m the one who gets all the ghetto rides.

But as for picky, I had to call for an uber for my son today, because I’m out of town. The trip he took usually costs 40+ one way. I told him to tell his driver if he wants to come back to take him home in an hour is welcome to put our address in destination filter. In an hour if he’s in the area where my son was. The guy told him “No thanks.” Guess he didn’t want another 40 or 50$$ ride today (or whatever it is after uber gets their cut)! I have a feeling why. The location my son was at there is little to no pax requests & its 30min away. But it was good $$! I made 40. Myself driving a lyft pax to SAME exact location two weeks ago. And I know Uber is more $ because I compared the quote with lyft in m pass app. I was happy about getting that ride as a driver.

The only time I almost physically touched anyone was this lady who had a broken foot or something in a wheelchair. She complained that I didn’t pull up to a curb with the flat part that has no curb so she could step out the car easier. My first time with a disability and I loaded her wheelchair and bags for her already. So when she complained about that, I apologized and offered to move up a few feet. Shes like no no I got it then had trouble getting out the car. So I moved in to give her my arm so she could grab onto me for support and she seemed taken aback I even did that! Offended or didn’t want to touch me I don’t know. I was only trying to help.
But yeah I don’t like people touching me for NO reason. Like when I went out to eat, and the server puts her hand on my husband’s shoulder and calls him sweety the whole time. Doesn’t call me sweety doesn’t touch me. Now that angered me touch my husband but not me then don’t touch him at all.

Simple. Mandatory LIVE dashcams or you CANT DRIVE…AND a panic button for PAX. OR have FEMALE UBER DRIVERS that only pick up FEMALE pax. The panic button immediately brings the uber/lyft “panic team” eyes right into the car instantly and automatically… Or in a case like the passed out girl…if, anything should happen (like the camera tampered with in ANY WAY, example: lens purposely blocked out)…it would qualify as a felony to the driver!

Many of us would have certain parts of our Behavior we would modify knowing we were on camera. I’m not an angel. But overall it would be good. Especially since I think Uber and Lyft both know all about us anyway. Or should I say certain Personnel in management and it have glimpsed a lot of personal and private information about each of us? If you give them all the permissions on your phone one time they suck all that data right out and can find every site every page you visited. So they have the info it’s just a matter of who all gets data-mined completely and who all gets to view it

I’ve done a lot of research on this subject and written about it. There’s a genuine need to try to minimize the number of incidents.
Taking away safety procedures is the wrong thing to do. No, you cannot predict human behavior for sure. But the best predictor of what a person will do is what he has done in his life. So thorough background checks are good for society. They will cost us a little. If Uber and Lyft increase their ride monitoring capabilities through the smartphone technology, it could increase the safety Factor in this industry. But the background checks are still needed.

Another Factor you have at least twice probably three times the amount of uber and Lyft drivers as you do regular cab drivers in the United States. The last guesses I read were well over a million Uber and Lyft drivers and about 250,000 cab drivers. So if you have a lot more people driving with Uber and Lyft and going through a less thorough screening process… Then you will end up with a quite larger number of sexual predators who have gotten behind the wheel of an Uber or Lyft driver car.

I read maybe a hundred articles on this issue. I’m a former yellow cab driver who monitored Uber and Lyft takeover of the cab industry. I now Drive Uber and Lyft. My informed guess is that there have been quite a few more incidents against the passengers by The Uber and Lyft drivers than the regular taxi cab drivers in America in the same amount of time. It does not make sense to reduce regulations or procedures that help to minimize this issue. I am willing to pay my $40 a year to get a nationwide FBI conducted a fingerprint background check as regular cabs do. Uber does a check so does Lyft, but they are not as thorough. Incidents and cases come in so cities must do something. They may get a little greedy, but the need is there something has to be done. Both sizes use specious arguments to Discount the other side.
If Uber and Lyft use the smartphone technology to monitor all rides much more closely that would be a wonderful Improvement in the safety Factor for all concerned. How about this? I’m willing to pay the 40 bucks a year for the background check. Will Uber and Lyft be willing to pay for the cameras and security people to monitor them? That is the limiting factor for them.
I say let’s all do a little something that can and does reduce or minimize these kinds of attacks.

In my investigation of this issue, I spoke to an individual with a local police department who handled sexual complaints by passengers of taxis and Uber and Lyft. He said there were more complaints against Uber and Lyft as a whole but many of these complaints never were formed into an official charge. And many of the charges were dropped after the victim would not cooperate. Uber especially had quite a few reports that they were exercising damage control on all rape and newsworthy incidents. Included in that was evidence Uber suppressed the incident immediately. Sometimes agreeing to a settlement with the passenger so that it never goes to court or makes the news. If you have a lot more drivers in your group, you’re probably going to have a lot more incidents. The key is what percentage of Rideshare drivers harass customers versus the percentage of cab drivers.

Safety regulations and safety procedures and background checks and security measures are all helpful in minimizing rape and sexual harassment incidents. If the smartphone technology monitoring capabilities were used to the full, it would be a big Improvement in reducing the number of these incidents by drivers and passengers

My conclusion at this time is… an Uber or Lyft customer has a slightly increased percentage of a chance to be attacked or assaulted or harassed by the driver versus the driver of the regular taxi cab.

As a whole, the Uber and Lyft drivers are nicer and more pleasing to the customers. This gave the customer the impression that Rideshare drivers we’re Simply Better People and less likely to commit bad crimes.
And… The regular taxi cab drivers were also often rude crotchety Penitentiary type people in big cities in the United States.
The crucial factor that I think was overlooked was you had an increased chance that Uber and Lyft had predatory individuals slip into the driver’s seat because the background check they went through was not as thorough and there were a lot more drivers

I read thru the comments here on this subject and wonder what happened to common sense, unfortunately sometimes bad things happen to good people, i have to ask how many of these women are actually telling the truth? We have one guy posting here comparing uber/lyft drivers to cab drivers, first of all theres no way you can compare the two without actual facts, proof or data, these types of things have been going on with cab drivers for decades longer than uber and lyft has been around, not saying uber and lyft drivers havent done these things either, both companies do background checks, three things i do to protect myself abd my passebgers is this, i do have a camera in my car, it records my passengers and myself all the time, i have sighns in my car informing passengers the camera is there, on and recording, this is legal so dont let anyone tell you differently, remember if your not leasing a car from either uber or lyft your using your personal vehicle and as long as your following the law no one including uber or lyft can dictate to you what you have in your car, what you put in your car or even who you let in your car, second thing i dont do and this is uber and lyft policies i do not pick up anyone under 18 years without an adult and yes i do ask for i.d. people who order rides for their kids are either ignorant to the policies of both companies or simply choose to ignore the rules, cab drivers accept anyone because most have to cover a lease fee before they actually start making a profit so stop ignoring policies and stop accepting underage kids, and lastly if someone is so drunk that they cant walk they dont get into my car, ive gone thru this problem numerous times and thank god i did have a camera, i have veen accused of things that never happened not to mention ive had too many people throw up in my car costing me any oppurtunity to make any money the rest of the night, uber and lyft may not like it but again its ny vehicle not theirs, ultimately it comes down to being a judgement call on my part , some may think me doing things the way i do is either ignorant or simply wrong and thats their right to think that but it all comes down to one thing, my own safety and protecting myself, so in the end you have to do what you feel is going to keep you as the driver safe.