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Nabiha Nadeem
Ms. Maham Imran
English Composition and Comprehension
December 25th, 2018

The Dangers of Uber

Over the past few years, Uber has become very common in many countries. It operates in more
than 60 countries and over 630 cities. Based out of San Francisco, California, Uber is the biggest
transportation network company in the world. It was founded in 2009 but it started to earn fame
in around 2012. It has been growing ever since and gained huge success in 2017 and 2018. Now,
it provides 15 million rides every single day. Uber has been opted by its users mainly because of
its ease and availability. While the growth of Uber has been exponential, there is a huge debate
on the safety of passengers who take Uber. Is Uber really safe? Uber claims that all its services
are safe and it puts the safety of its users above everything else but the incidents reported on the
internet suggest otherwise.
According to CNN, over the world, more than 100 Uber drivers have been accused of sexual
harassment and abuse. (). This number is just an estimate and is of only those incidents that were
reported. The real number is more than a 1000. Uber has been way more dangerous for women
than it has been for men. There are so many incidents on the internet that report how women
were harassed and raped by Uber drivers. One of these incidents is the incident of a woman from
Miami. She was coming back from a night out with her friend. She took an Uber ride to her
home but she passed out on her way only to wake up the next morning to find out her clothes
lying on the floor. She told that she was raped and assaulted by the Uber driver who took her to
his apartment forcibly. “You are pretty much hitchhiking with strangers,” she told CNN. “How
many people is it going to take to get assaulted before something is done?” ()
This issue of sexual assault conflicts with Uber's brand messaging to provide a "safe ride home."
Its print and digital ads show women taking Ubers for nights out, and a partnership with Mothers
against Drunk Driving includes a "designated rider" campaign urging users to take an Uber to
avoid driving under the influence. This is significant because many of the women who were
raped, assaulted and harassed by the Uber drivers were drunk at the time of the incident. Uber
didn’t take any serious action on these incidents but tried to keep silent on these matters and tried
to keep it quiet.
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Uber is trying to compel its victims to carry out their cases through arbitration per its legal terms
of service. When users sign up on the Uber application, they agree to its terms and conditions
which includes resolving any claim “on individual basis in arbitration”. These victims are urging
Uber to remove this clause from their “Terms and Conditions Agreement”, saying it causes them
to force the issues underground and silences them. Uber has been trying to keep all such
incidents private and quiet. Many attorneys across US remained silent on their cases against
Uber when asked about it. Like most of the large scale companies, Uber requires all parties to
sign a confidentiality agreement when a case is settled. Uber has done a miraculous job at
keeping such stories quiet.
Uber has faced numerous legal issues across the world. The list of various nations where Uber
has struggled with various legal issues is a mouthful, and includes Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, The Netherlands,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Spain,
Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and even the United States. Most of these legal cases are the
cases of rape and assault against female passengers and some against female drivers that were
assaulted and harassed by male passengers. Almost all of the victims of Uber have been females.
In countries like Pakistan and India, the number of incidents involving Uber drivers as the
harassers is very high. Jeanne Christensen, an attorney with law firm Wigdor LLP, has been
pursuing Uber rape and assault cases since 2015 when her firm filed a lawsuit after a high-profile
rape case of a 26 year old girl in New Delhi. The Uber driver had a previous record of rape and
molestation but still passed the background check of Uber. He was sentenced to life in prison
after this rape case. This incident sparked protests across the country and caused the authorities
to temporarily ban Uber for six weeks in the city of New Delhi.
These are not the only dangers that Uber has posed to our society. Passengers aren’t the only
ones at risk — there are numerous reports of Uber drivers being attacked too. There was an
incident reported in the US where and off-duty Boston police officer assaulted their Uber driver
unprovoked. Another incident was reported by an Uber driver who had his jaw broken by the
passenger. According to the terms and conditions of Uber, which both the passengers and drivers
agree to when they sign up, Uber absolves itself of anything that happens to you-be it an
accident, theft, assault or even death. Hence, the safety of Uber is really questionable.
One of the main reasons that such incidents are on the rise is because of the faulty background
checks. The background checks must be better and should actually be able to check if the driver
can be violent to the passengers. The background checks are not even done usually, and when
done, done as a ‘formality’ but not to actually check if the drivers might have a bad record. An
Uber driver from New Delhi in an interview told that you become an Uber driver in less than 2
hours. They simply teach you how to use the app after you submit your license and some
documents that are required by them. The driver verification takes minimal time. This driver was
unaware of the alleged rape case of the 26 year old girl in New Delhi, but when told, he didn’t
seem surprised given the intake of the drivers. He told “There is no background check or
verification. They just need documents of the vehicle you are using. It is not difficult for the
vendor to register this many drivers.” ()
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Uber has previously had a major issue, where they were claiming to do criminal records checks
of applicants (and charging money from them), while those checks were never conducted.
Leading to employment of drivers with serious criminal histories. Unlike cab companies who
operate a tighter ship with background checks, hygiene and wellness checks, and mandatory
driving training, the previous incidents suggest that ride-sharing companies like Uber only have
their own financial interests at top of mind, not their riders’ or drivers’ safety. Real cases of Uber
victims include Assault and battery, car accidents, kidnapping, rape, sexual assault, shooting and
even death.

Works Cited:
 https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/30/technology/uber-driver-sexual-assault/index.html