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We want to take a moment and thank New York Times reporter Emily Steele, who dug into previously sealed court documents relevant to the Uber sexual assault lawsuit (ongoing) to piece together a bombshell.
Her article, Uber’s Festering Sexual Assault Problem, landed with a bang on Aug 6, 2025, exposing Uber’s fuzzy math: From 2017-2022, the rideshare giant had reported a total of 12,522 sexual assaults. Not quite. The correct number is (wait for it) 400,181 – that’s one assault reported nearly every eight minutes for six years. Steel said her calculator wasn’t capable of figuring the increase.1
To make matters worse, Steele’s research uncovered not only the astounding number of assaults, but also a disturbing pattern wherein Uber recognized the sexual assault issue, tested methods that actually reduced assault, and then abandoned those methods.
Wait … Isn’t Uber Safe?
According to Steele, Uber has understood but failed to act on the issue of sexual assault for some time. This inaction has left women vulnerable to predatory drivers. The dichotomy of what Uber portrayed as its brand and the reality of what it knew is particularly disturbing.
“Publicly, the ride-sharing service proclaimed it was one of the safest options for travel, with aggressive media campaigns and polished reports on its website about the rarity of serious attacks. Inside Uber, teams of data scientists and safety experts spent years studying the problem. The company tested tools that proved effective at making trips safer, including sophisticated matching algorithms, mandatory video recording and pairing female passengers with female drivers.” – Emily Steele /NYT
Could Uber Have Prevented Assaults?
According to Steele, there are key steps Uber could have taken (which they even identified internally) to help make rides safer. These included:
- Predictive matching: “An internal presentation a few months later called the tool potentially the ‘most effective intervention for preventing sexual assaults.”
- Cameras: “The company discovered that the threat of being monitored, even if cameras were not turned on, could be an effective deterrent of illicit behavior.”
- Women-for-women matching: “Internal documents….found it made rides much safer for both.”
“Even as Uber worked to roll out new safety features, it was inundated with media coverage of sexual assault incidents. The company deployed a plan to push a ‘steady drumbeat of safety messages’ to drown out some of those stories, according to a 2018 email sent by a marketing manager.” – Emily Steel /NYT
Is Uber Doing Enough to Protect Women?
Great question. We wish we could give a solid answer, but the NYT noted the following alarming comment in the unsealed Uber documents:
“Our purpose/goal is not to be the police,” stated a 2021 brainstorming document about Uber’s global safety standards. “Our bar is much lower and our goal is to protect the company and set the tolerable risk level for our operations.”
Additionally, per NYT: “Uber has found that sexual assaults follow distinct patterns. Women most often are the victims, whether they are passengers or drivers. The attacks typically occur late at night and on the weekend, with pickups originating near a bar. In the vast majority of cases, the offenders are men — drivers or passengers — with records of sexual misconduct complaints and low ratings, the internal documents show. Intoxicated passengers are especially vulnerable.”
Yet, “Still, Uber delayed or did not require its drivers to adopt some of the most promising programs, nor did it warn passengers about factors it linked to attacks, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, internal documents and court records. Hundreds of the records have been under seal as part of large-scale sexual assault litigation against Uber.”
What do you think? Is Uber safer now – and is it enough?
You’re Not Alone. How Can A Case for Women Help You Pursue an Uber Sexual Assault Lawsuit?
ACFW has long dedicated itself to helping women take their power back after sexual assault and forcing accountability for companies who may have turned a blind eye to assault (usually in the name of profits). The Uber sexual assault lawsuit is particularly near and dear to our hearts. We’ve been involved in the cases since 2019, and we want to see things through to the end for these women who were brave enough to stand up and tell their stories.
Want to help stop Uber assault (Lyft too) cold in its tracks? Please bring us your story – in strictest confidence if you like. Our CHOIR is growing and we need more voices to command more drastic, immediate attention. You can be anonymous if you like + your voice will still echo.
Contact us 24/7/365.
