Uber Says Sexual Assaults Down but Traffic Deaths Up

Uber said in a safety report on Thursday that sexual assaults in its ride-hailing vehicles were down significantly since its last report but that fatal car crashes had increased.

The company said 3,824 sexual assaults were reported on its U.S. platform in 2019 and 2020, while 20 people were killed in assaults and 101 died in crashes.

The report was a sequel to Uber’s initial report, which it released in 2019. The company committed to releasing reports every two years, but it said the new review had been slowed by a pandemic-related delay in 2020 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Uber uses the agency’s methodology and data standards to analyze vehicle fatalities.

Reported sexual assaults were down from 5,981 in 2017 and 2018, the period covered by Uber’s first report, though the company logged far fewer trips in 2020 because of the pandemic: 650 million compared with 1.4 billion in 2019. Still, Uber said the rate of reported sexual assaults had decreased 38 percent.

Deaths from assaults were up from nine in the previous period, as were fatal crashes, which killed 58 people in 2017 and 2018. Uber said the spike in fatal car crashes reflected an overall deadlier year on the roads in 2020, which is backed by data from NHTSA.

Deaths increased that year in part because of speeding on less-crowded highways during the pandemic, making it the deadliest year since 2007, NHTSA said, Though most of the Uber-related vehicle deaths in the two years occurred in 2019, the rate was higher in 2020.

The company said that 99.9 percent of Uber rides take place without incident, and that just 0.0002 percent of all rides include one of the critical safety incidents mentioned in the report. The data does not include injuries and tallies only rides, not food deliveries on UberEats.

Uber has tried to reshape its image, and releasing safety data has been seen a key component of that makeover.

The company has added safety options in recent years, such as the ability for drivers to film rides and for both drivers and riders to record audio from them in the Uber app. Uber said that more than 500,000 prospective drivers had failed to pass its screening process in 2019 and 2020, and that more than 80,000 drivers had been removed from the app as a result of the company’s continuous checking of criminal records.

“Secrecy doesn’t make anyone safer,” Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. “That’s why we call on companies across the industry to step up and also be honest with the public about their safety records.”

He added. “By confronting the issue and counting reports consistently, we can work together to help end sexual violence.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.