Uber Acknowledges Four Passengers Are Raped Every Week

At least 235 women say they were raped by Uber drivers in 2018 -- an average of four every week.

The startling number is part of an 84-page report released by Uber on Thursday. It also reveals 280 women said they were victims of attempted rape, while 1,560 claimed they were groped by their drivers. Combined with 2017's figures, Uber officials fielded a total of nearly 6,000 sexual abuse complaints in 2017 and 2018.

"Each of those incidents represents an individual who has undergone a horrific trauma," says Uber's chief legal officer, Tony West. "But I’m not surprised by those numbers. And I’m not surprised because sexual violence is just much more pervasive in society than I think most people realize."

However, West notes that the company provides four million rides a day, for an average of 45 rides per second. "When you're operating at that kind of scale, thankfully, 99.9 percent of those rides end with absolutely no safety incident whatsoever," he says.

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