Is Uber Safe? According to Uber, No.

Yesterday, Uber released, for the first time in history, a complete safety report. The report covered all rides in the US for the full 2018 calendar year and partial 2017 calendar year. Surprisingly, or perhaps, not so surprisingly, the report disclosed that during this time period there were 3,045 sexual assaults, 9 murders, and 58 deaths due to auto-related accidents. Of the 3,045 sexual assault cases, 235 were classified as rapes. Also, interesting, is that both drivers and riders reported assaults as roughly the same rates.

What is even scarier, is that it is very likely that these numbers are actually much higher as often times sexual assault goes unreported. In fact, just earlier this week, 19 women came forward in an attempt to sue Lyft over past sexual assault offenses. We may see more victims sharing their stories in the coming weeks as often times there is strength in numbers when formally filing sexual assault complaints.

Uber has come to their own defense saying that it has removed over 40,000 drivers from the platform since last year after implementing an improved screening process. They also have started to mandate that drivers need to verify their identity before driving with a “selfie check in”. However, these safety measures do absolutely nothing to protect drivers from passengers, which according to the report, account for about half of all offenses.

Here at RideGuru, we want all our riders AND drivers to feel safe and comfortable with ridesharing. In fact, we have put together two lists of our top resources and suggestions for both drivers and riders to help ensure that you will not be a number on Uber’s safety report for 2020!

To view the full Uber safety report, click here.