Who’s Driving You? reports 287 incidents of alleged sexual assaults by Uber and Lyft drivers.
Representative examples:
Driver accused of locking customer in vehicle and demanding sex
A Chicago-area Uber driver was ordered held on $100,000 of bond based on the allegation that he demanded sex from a 19-year-old passenger. The allegations continued: When she refused, the driver repeatedly locked the car’s doors and refused to let her out. She ultimately jumped out of the moving vehicle when it slowed in traffic.
Uber said it removed the driver from its service.
Driver pondered opportunities to take advantage of a drunk female passenger
A San Jose passenger recorded an Uber driver’s remarks while driving:
My dream is to have some drunk chick by herself also going home at the end of my shift and she wants me to come in. That would be the perfect ending to my day. … Half the work is already done, man. She’s isolated and she’s drunk. … I will get really drunk too and then I can’t be held responsible.
Uber indicated that it banned the driver from further rides for Uber.
Women underrepresented on Uber’s technical staff
Fortune reports that Uber’s engineering team is just 15.1% women — calling that figure “bad–even by tech industry standards.” (Compare Facebook at 17%, Google at 19%, Apple at 23%, and Airbnb at 26%.)
Employee misconduct: drugs, theft, groping, threats of violence
In February 2017, the New York Times reported misconduct by Uber employees: A manager groped a female co-worker’s breasts at a company retreat, a director shouted a homophobic slur at a subordinate, a manager threatened to beat an underperforming employee with a baseball bat, employees used cocaine at private parties, and an employee hijacked a shuttle bus and took it for a joy ride.
Obtained medical records of a customer
After an unnamed customer reported being raped by an Uber driver in India in December 2014, Uber executive Eric Alexander obtained her medical records and showed them to CEO Travis Kalanick and SVP Emil Michael. As of June 2017, Alexander had left Uber.
In a June 2017 lawsuit, the customer filed a lawsuit against Uber as well as Alexander, Kalanick, and Michael for intrusion into private affairs, public disclosure of private facts, and defamation. In addition to noting the impropriety of Uber managers obtaining and examining her medical records without her consent, she flagged the inconsistency between Uber’s public claims (“We will do everything … to help bring this perpetrator to justice and to support the victim”) and its actual action.
Board member joked about sexism
In a meeting about the prevalence of sexism within Uber, board member David Bonderman made a joke about gender stereotypes. He resigned the same day. Details.
Escort bar visit cover-up
Uber employees visited a South Korean escort bar.
When one member of the party later complained, Uber SVP of Business Emil Michael contacted Gabi Holzwarth (who had been dating Kalanick at the time) — asking that she tell anyone who asked that it was just karaoke. She refused, taking his request for a cover-up as impetus to discuss the incident publicly.
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 305) reports that after Michael contacted Holzwarth, he alerted Uber SVP of Communications Rachel Whetstone who consulted with general counsel Salle Yoo and others — all hoping to conceal the situation so it wouldn’t leak.
CEO Travis Kalanick sent explicit email to employees
Ignored employee reports of sexual harassment
Former Uber software engineer Susan Fowler posted a 4,000+ word report of her experience reporting sexual harassment at Uber. Among other problems, she reported multiple senior managers failing to take action on the problems she reported — and retaining the employees who engaged in misconduct.
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 262, 266) adds details: Fowler’s manager hit on her during her first first day of work. She reported him to HR, with screenshots of his remarks, but Uber HR said it was his first offense and encouraged her to find a new team.