
Uber: 3,045 Sexual Assaults Reported in U.S. Rides Last Year - vo2maxer
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/technology/uber-sexual-assaults-murders-deaths-safety.html
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0zymandias
The majority of sexual assaults are not reported. The true number is likely
10,000+ sexual assaults based on ratios that are used for reporting rates.

* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-compassion-chron...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-compassion-chronicles/201809/stop-shaming-victims-sexual-assault-not-reporting)

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zsgoldberg
They can't put the percentage or denominator in the headline? Seems borderline
click-baity to me. Even a percentage probably wouldn't cut it -- I can't tell
from either whether it's lower or higher than I should expect. Obviously I
hope for 0 sexual assaults, but it'd be nice if the headline communicated
meaningful information

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ocdtrekkie
Trying to downplay sexual assaults as a small percentage is a way of trying to
dismiss that it happens, and that it happens a lot.

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tuesdayrain
But if the percentage is actually small then it doesn't happen a lot. Looking
at the literal number of occurrences instead of the percentage just gives you
a biased impression, because any number of assaults > 0 can _seem_ like a lot.

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tzs
For comparison, it looks like the probability of a random passenger on a 737
MAX dying in an MCAS related accident was about 10 times the probability that
a random passenger would report a sexual assault on their Uber ride.

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samcheng
They grounded the 737 MAXes because that probability of death was too high.

If the probability of assault in an Uber is within an order of magnitude, that
suggests to me that it is reasonable to expect some additional scrutiny /
regulation.

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nwah1
Maybe there should be government cameras in all the vehicles, and other
sensors that can detect what is going on and provide it all directly to the
NSA.

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samcheng
That seems a bit obscene! I'm sure there are much smaller / fairer measures
that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

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rhegart
Taxis if you commit assault you lose your 250k medallion hence you don’t
commit sexual assault. Uber driver, you switch careers or countries (happened
to friend of friend, she got assaulted he fled).

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xmprt
But taxis are horrible in so many other ways. Either they are allowed to act
in the way they do ("oops. My card reader isn't working") or the rules aren't
enforced. The average Uber ride is miles better than a taxi ride and just as a
matter of scale, the extremes will be worse.

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rchaud
If the card reader isn't working, that's their problem. Cab company policies
are clear regarding payment methods. If the driver is looking for a cash fare,
they can let the customer know before the ride starts. If they don't, they're
SOL.

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amscanne
I think the comment is that even if you’re willing to confront the driver,
you’re forced into an awkward social situation (the confrontation, yelling and
anger, having them angrily “get the card reader worker”).

Many people (myself included) would pay to avoid such nonsense, so the “cost”
of a taxi is often much higher than the meter fare.

There’s other factors: dangerous driving, refusal to take you to your
destination and the following confrontation (also illegal, but happens often),
etc.

All this also depends on where you are. Some cities have great taxis. I’m
basing my opinion here on Toronto pre-Uber taxis.

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jmpman
They should provide the breakdown of accused specifically for Non-Consensual
Sexual Penetration. They lump all sexual assault together and then break down
by accused, which seems like they’re trying to hide that it’s the drivers who
are doing the actual raping, and it’s the backseat passengers who are trying
to cop a feel during a drunken makeout session.

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hodgesrm
Uber and Lyft seem to be engaged in a race to the bottom that's degrading
rider experience as they struggle to bring costs and revenue into line.

It feels as if there's still a market opportunity for safe, clean, timely
rides. Zoom did something similar for web conferencing, which at the time was
regarded as a solved problem.

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altShiftDev
I see this comment everytime a post about ride hailing services pops up... but
I can't figure out how it's relevant to this discussion this time.

The only word you mentioned that was relevant was safe... So are you
suggesting that because they're fighting over costs with lyft, they pay
drivers less which reduces reputable drivers and "poorer and more likely to
rape" drivers join the app?

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hodgesrm
Yes, or more accurately less desirable drivers. My recent rides on Lyft and
Uber have not been good. Either the cars were clapped out or the drivers were
telling me how they could not make a living and were looking for other work.

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rdlecler1
I find this interesting. 58 car related deaths from 1.3 billion rides. In the
US you have about 100 car deaths per day. Let’s assume 100m cars on the road
each day, for 100 deaths for 200 million trips. Uber could be an order of
magnitude safer.

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663e1b
Wouldn't most Uber trips be on roads with lower speed limits since they're
almost entirely intra-urban? In that case it'd make sense that they're safer
than national average.

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duelingjello
Let's suppose there were 1000 rapes in NYC cabs in a year because NYPD doesn't
keep good stats for various political, economic, social and tourism concerns.
And ~2 billion rides/year.

Uber posted their stats: 3100 rapes/year. Let's call it 5500/year or 15/day.

NYC cabs: ~2,000,000 rides/rape

Uber: ~140,000 rides/rape

On the face of it, on average, NYC cabs seem over an order-of-magnitude safer
than Uber.

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Bostonian
I suggest that women be allowed to specify that they want a female Uber
driver. Maybe some women would accept a male driver during the day time and in
safe areas but require a female driver at night and in less safe areas.

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dagav
A few problems with that:

* Couldn't a man identify as female, and then be in the perfect situation to find women in "less safe areas" who feel vulnerable?

* This would also allow men to request female drivers, are you sure that's a good thing?

* Only 14% of Uber drivers are female, so you might be waiting awhile for that ride...

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minimaxir
> This would also allow men to request female drivers, are you sure that's a
> good thing?

The OP explicitly mentioned women-asking-for-female drivers, and not implying
the inverse. That type of program is not uncommon for safety.

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dagav
I don't remember Uber ever asking for my gender, just a phone number. How
would they enforce that?

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minimaxir
Given increased political scrutiny, I wouldn't be surprised if Uber/Lyft was
compelled to do more rider-side verification in the future.

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CryptoBanker
What political scrutiny of Uber riders are you referring to?

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tonyarkles
Not political scrutiny of the riders, but increased scrutiny of the companies
themselves and their practices.

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danbolt
I hope we can regulate this somehow!

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BubRoss
Was that just from the former CEO?

