Uber’s Assault Report Erodes the Power of Trust
The company’s ability to sell us on safety was a secret to its success. The disclosures of crimes within its network put that to the test.
Will Uber’s alarming disclosures make customers think twice?
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergWhat to make of the alarming data on assaults, murders and other unsafe incidents reported by Uber Technologies Inc. on Thursday?
More than 3,000 sexual assault allegations were made in 2018 by Uber drivers and passengers in the U.S., the company said in a first-of-its-kind safety report. We can't know from the data if Uber is statistically safer than other forms of transportation, or safer than being a human — particularly a female human — in the United States in 2019. Taxis, public-transit agencies, professional-car services and other transportation providers don’t make comparable national reports of crime as Uber has done.