Between 2017 and 2022, Uber received a report of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the United States almost every eight minutes. That adds up to 400,181 reports in just five years, far higher than the 12,522 “serious” incidents Uber had publicly disclosed.
These findings, revealed by Emily Steel in a New York Times investigation and discussed in The Daily podcast episode “Every Eight Minutes,” point to a persistent, systemic crisis in ride-sharing safety, one that affects passengers and drivers alike. Women are the majority of victims. The vast majority of alleged perpetrators are men, whether they are behind the wheel or in the back seat. The blurred power dynamics of ride-sharing apps, where strangers are matched by algorithms and rides take place in isolated, private vehicles create a uniquely vulnerable environment. Many incidents follow a pattern: late-night rides, pickups from bars, intoxicated passengers, and offenders with prior misconduct complaints.
Uber’s own data scientists and safety experts developed tools that could reduce assaults, such as matching women passengers with women drivers, mandatory in-car cameras, and an algorithm that identified high-risk matches between riders and drivers. But many of these measures were delayed, limited, or abandoned.
Internal records show that business priorities took precedence over rolling out safety programs. Requiring cameras or extensive training, for example, risked reclassifying drivers as employees, which would be far more expensive for the company. Drivers being classified as “employees” would require Uber to pay benefits, follow minimum wage requirements, and be held accountable in lawsuits against Uber’s drivers.
Uber has been known to use mandatory arbitration agreements, instead of traditional lawsuits as a loophole. In Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld arbitration agreements which require parties to resolve the issues through “arbitration” or mediation. In action, this means that when a survivor of sexual assault in an Uber vehicle sues Uber for this violation happening in one of their cars, Uber can dodge the lawsuit.
Uber also highlights the classification of drivers as independent contractors to avoid accountability. With this legal argument, Uber itself cannot be held accountable for what happens in their vehicles since Uber is just the connection. This leaves survivors alone while Uber continues to allow hundreds of thousands of people to be sexually assaulted using their platform.
In response to ongoing safety concerns, Uber recently announced it would launch a pilot program in select U.S. cities offering a “Women+ Connect” ride option. This feature allows women and nonbinary drivers and riders to opt into same-gender matches. While the feature was originally supposed to roll out in November 2024, days after Trump was elected president, executives decided to hold off the decision.
Moreover, Uber’s pilot launch coincides with growing concern over the TEA app that recently suffered a data breach exposing sensitive user information. The TEA App is a dating safety app that allows women to “safest place to spill the tea” about men on dating apps.
The TEA app leak is a stark reminder of how safety for women is often framed as something they must build and maintain for themselves, rather than a responsibility shouldered by the platforms that profit from risky environments. Yet the breach not only exposed deeply personal and potentially dangerous information, it also flipped the narrative: instead of addressing the harm caused by abusers, the fallout once again puts women at risk and blames them for speaking out. This mirrors the ride-sharing crisis, where survivors are left to navigate personal safety in systems that consistently prioritize corporate liability over meaningful protection.
Hannah Nilles, Uber’s head of safety for the Americas, has stated that around 3/4 of the 400,181 reports were “less serious,” such as making comments about someone’s appearance, flirting, or using explicit language. That still leaves over 100,000 “serious” reports. In a response to the investigation, Nilles made a statement saying, “More than half of women in the US have experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes. Uber is not immune to this.”
But whether it’s a “less serious” comment or a violent assault, survivors should never be put in these situations in the first place.
The normalization of harassment, written off as inevitable background noise in public spaces, dating apps, and ride-sharing platforms, only serves to protect abusers and insulate companies from change. Corporations like Uber, have the resources to design systems that prevent harm, remove abusive users, and support survivors without re-traumatizing them. That means proactive background checks, transparent reporting processes, zero tolerance for retaliation, and public accountability for how cases are handled.
Until safety is treated as a non-negotiable part of doing business, women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized riders and drivers will continue to shoulder the cost of corporate negligence. Ending this cycle requires shifting the burden off survivors and putting it where it belongs.