Can Uber and Lyft win back user trust with growing sexual assault claims?

This appeared in The Millennial Source

Responses to Uber’s December 5 report on US user safety have been mixed, with one prominent paper claiming that the company’s 84-page safety disclosure offers more questions than answers.

What’s in the Uber report?

Uber outlined a number of steps taken in response to the over 3,000 sexual assaults reported by users of its service in 2018. These steps include sharing the names of drivers it has banned with companies offering similar services, new technology features that would allow riders to verify their drivers with secure Personal Identification Number (PIN) codes, a survivor support hotline, sexual misconduct and assault education for drivers, and a partnership with Raliance, a resource center “dedicated to helping companies and organizations create safer workplaces.”

Uber also attempted to broaden the conversation about assaults on its service, declaring that these incidents were more than just an “Uber thing” and that its intention by releasing this report was “to make an impact well beyond our own company”, encouraging “others to be more transparent with their data and to share best practices that can make everyone safer.”