Understanding Uber: It's Not About the App
Of all the things that have been revealed about Uber, this is among the worst:<p>“The facts are that on the 30 January 2016 a female was sexually assaulted by an Uber driver. From what we can ascertain Uber have spoken to the driver who denied the offence. Uber have continued to employ the driver and have done nothing more. While Uber did not say they would contact the police the victim believed that they would inform the police on her behalf.<p>On the 10 May 2016 the same driver has committed a second more serious sexual assault against a different passenger Again Uber haven’t said to this victim they would contact the police, but she was, to use her words, ‘strongly under the impression’ that they would.”<p>Horrible things will happen at scale. But here Uber was directly involved in enabling sexual assault and misleading the victim.<p>EDIT - some comments believe that this is overly harsh in judging Uber:<p>1) Uber has had ongoing issues with sexual assault in the US preceding this event. If preventing sexual assault was a priority they would have designed the right policy. Lack of strong policy on sexual assault is an explicit choice:<p>“firstly it seems they are deciding what to report (less serious matters &#x2F; less damaging to reputation over serious offences) and secondly by not reporting to police promptly they are allowing situations to develop that clearly affect the safety and security of the public.” *<p>2) If a serious crime (like this one) is suspected, companies have an obligation to report this and not just conduct their own investigations which will have an inherent bias.<p>3) Both passengers came away with the impression that Uber was going to take action. If Uber had no intent to take action, this made the situation worse by reducing the likelihood of direct reporting and enabling further sexual assault.<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.londonreconnections.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;12042017-NB-to-Helen-Chapman_Redacted-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.londonreconnections.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;12042017-NB-to-Hele...</a>