Uber has responded to a BuzzFeed News investigation that appeared to show the company grappling with thousands of customer complaints about sexual assault, including rape.
BuzzFeed News obtained screenshots from a former Uber customer service representative showing that between Dec. 2012 and Aug. 2015, the company had received 5,827 tickets that included the term rape and 6,160 tickets for the term sexual assault. There were also 3,524 tickets for assaulted and 382 for sexually assaulted.
Uber says the numbers published by BuzzFeed News are misleading. Simply typing in words into the customer service system does not reflect true allegations, the company said in its open letter Monday.
In that period, Uber said that it received five complaints of rape and 170 complaints of sexual assault.
Why the discrepancy between the result in search terms and the company s statement? Here s what the company s executives said:
- Riders routinely misspell rate (as in the fare) as rape, or use the word rape in another context. For example, you raped my wallet ;
- Any email address or rider/driver last name that contains the letters R, A, P, E consecutively (for example, Don Draper) are included. After analyzing the data, we found more than 11,000 rider names and 17,500 rider emails with the letters rape ;
- The results also showed tickets from passengers who got into cars not on the Uber platform, or who were discussing unsubstantiated media reports of sexual assaults.
The company said its data — true complaints of sexual assault represent one for every 3.3 million rides — may not include incidents reported directly to law enforcement.
Rider safety of course is a big issue for ride-hailing firms such as Uber and Lyft. Uber said that when serious incidents are reported to us, we always reach out to the person who filed the report and, where appropriate, engage with law enforcement.
Uber also temporarily suspends the driver or rider (if it is a question of violence by a passenger) during the investigation.
For a passenger, it s hard to know what to make of the BuzzFeed News story.
What is safe or safe enough? How do Uber s numbers compare to taxi industry norms, public transportation norms or even just walking down the street?
And let s assume that there are 6,000 complaints from people claiming that their driver sexual assaulted them, does that mean taking an Uber is dangerous? The number lacks context that could be helpful.
BuzzFeed News claims regardless of who is right, customer service representatives are overwhelmed by the sheer number of complaints:
Simply put: The sheer quantity of these tickets makes it difficult to tell which ones are exaggerations or attempts at false escalations and which are legitimate and urgent requests.
Again, it s hard to know if Uber s customer service operation is buckling under the weight of so many complaints. Is 6,000 a lot? How many people work in customer service at Uber?
On March 17, the full California PUC will consider a proposal requiring all drivers of ride services to undergo fingerprint checks, KQED News reported.
Above: A smartphone displaying the Uber app. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
The post Uber: 170 reported sexual assaults, not more than 6,000 appeared first on SiliconBeat.
