A federal jury has ordered Uber to pay $8.5 million to a girl who says one in every of its drivers raped her throughout a 2023 journey.
Uber has confronted criticism for its security document, a lot of it spanning from 1000’s of incidents of sexual assault reported by each passengers and drivers. As a result of drivers on the ridesharing platform are categorized as gig employees — working as contractors, slightly than firm staff — Uber has lengthy maintained that its not liable for his or her misconduct.
Thursday’s verdict, reached in Arizona, “validates the 1000’s of survivors who’ve come ahead at nice private threat to demand accountability towards Uber,” stated Sarah London, one of many legal professionals representing the plaintiff — who stated the corporate has put the “concentrate on revenue over passenger security.”
Uber stated it plans to attraction the jury’s choice, and famous that the jury didn’t discover the corporate to be negligent, nor that its security programs have been “faulty.”
The decision “affirms that Uber acted responsibly and has invested meaningfully in rider security,” spokesperson Andrew Hasbun stated in an announcement. He additionally referenced the truth that the jury didn’t award the total quantity initially requested from the plaintiffs’ legal professionals.
The lawsuit stems from an Uber trip in November 2023, when the plaintiff was heading to her lodge after celebrating her upcoming commencement from flight attendant coaching at her boyfriend’s residence in Arizona. Partway by the trip, the criticism alleged, the motive force stopped the automobile, entered the again seat and raped the lady.
The lawsuit argued that Uber had lengthy identified that its drivers have been assaulting passengers, and that it didn’t implement the protection measures wanted to cease this from occurring.
Uber has beforehand confronted related allegations of not having enough guardrails to guard rider security. However Uber maintains that sexual assault reviews have decreased considerably through the years. In line with firm reviews, 5,981 incidents of sexual assault have been reported in U.S. rides between 2017 and 2018 — in comparison with 2,717 between 2021 and 2022 (the most recent years with knowledge obtainable), which Uber says represented 0.0001% of complete journeys nationwide.
Uber has taken a number of steps to attempt to repair its issues with security, together with teaming up with Lyft in 2021 to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing providers for complaints over sexual assault and different crimes.
Nonetheless, critics stress that there’s extra work to be performed — and have more and more referred to as on ridesharing firms to take accountability for assaults.
The Related Press doesn’t identify individuals who have stated they have been sexually abused, until they arrive ahead publicly or have given consent by their attorneys.
AP Author Josh Funk contributed to this report.