Uber defends nonprofit partnerships in sexual assault trial 

PHOENIX (CN) — On the twelfth day of a federal sexual assault trial in Phoenix, Uber executive Emily Bowman said she’s proud of the partnerships Uber has fostered with women’s safety advocacy groups to make the platform safer.

Uber spent more than $5 million over five years on its “Driving Change” initiative, partnering with a number of nonprofits like the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and its partner initiative Raliance. Bowman said Uber spent $2.5 million in 2023 on similar partnerships.

“As a company, we are going to shine a light on this issue,” Bowman said Wednesday afternoon.

The lawsuit, brought by Jaylynn Dean, one of thousands of women who have reported being sexually assaulted by an Uber driver, is the first of more than 3,000 individual suits in a multi-district litigation to reach trial. Dean says Uber advertised its services specifically to drunk women traveling alone at night, promising safety but failing to prevent assaults against her and other passengers.

Uber began working with advocacy groups in 2015, and while plaintiff attorneys have suggested that the work is merely “quid pro quo” public relations for Uber, Bowman called the partnerships “substantive work.”

“To suggest that they would compromise their integrity and what they stand for just because Uber is paying them an amount is just ridiculous,” Bowman, Uber’s director of global public safety, told the nine-person jury.

One of the largest contributors to Driving Change, Raliance helped Uber create tools to identify and categorize sexual assault incidents and shared with Uber prevention information and resources. It also audits Uber’s safety data to validate reports. In a statement to Courthouse News, Raliance clarified that partnerships are not endorsements and that Raliance’s opinions are its own.

Uber also works with the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network, which staffs Uber’s support hotline with trained survivor advocates.

On cross-examination, Dean’s attorney, Alexandra Walsh, said despite Uber’s efforts, evidence shows that rates of reported rapes against Uber drivers “stayed substantially the same” from 2017 to 2024. Bowman said she wasn’t aware of that stat.

Other features, Dean says, took too long to be rolled out when Uber was well aware of the rates of reported assaults.

It wasn’t until July that Uber allowed passengers to choose a “woman driver preferred” setting when hailing rides, though the option still isn’t a guarantee.

“We actually don’t have a large number of women drivers on our platform today,” Bowman said.

Bowman said Uber delayed implementing the policy because of ongoing public discourse about gender and the potential for gender discrimination accusations, which became a reality when male drivers filed a class action in November.

Walsh shared with the jury internal marketing documents that listed Uber’s target audience as “more women, more often.” The document further listed women traveling at night, women traveling alone, women looking to avoid drunk driving and women traveling to unknown places.

“I do think that we are targeting women,” Bowman said. “Transportation before rideshare wasn’t always great for women. I think rideshare helped solve the problem.”

Another internal document presented the pros and cons of sharing with the public that sexual assault rates increase in Uber rides at night. Among the cons was that public knowledge would reduce riders at peak hours.

Bowman said the data would be irrelevant because it’s true in all industries.

“Sexual assault is just more likely to occur at night,” she said. “This is not specific to Uber.”

Earlier in the day, Uber’s expert legal witness Joseph Okpaku said Uber has gone above and beyond industry standards when it comes to ensuring rider safety.

“You agree that Uber could do more?” Walsh asked.

“I believe Uber does do more,” Okpaku replied.

Among many accusations, Dean says Uber doesn’t effectively screen its drivers, requiring no fingerprints or drug tests and conducting what Dean calls “sham” background checks.

In New York City, Uber drivers must already be licensed and registered with the Taxi Limousine Commission, meaning the drivers are finger printed and undergo drug tests, and subjected to live scan background checks that Deans argues are much more effective.

Okpaku said New York City is an outlier, whose model can’t be matched in other cities.

“I don’t think rideshare exists in New York City,” he said.

Okpaku said all Uber drivers in New York City are already full-time drivers, and explained that the commercial insurance and licensing requirements would essentially eliminate part-time drivers in other cities.

After lunch, Uber attorney Kim Bueno found a pink sticky note in the elevator reading “Uber was fined millions and millions of dollars.” Dean’s attorney, Sarah London, said the note was hers, and she dropped it by accident.

U.S. District Judge Charles questioned jurors, who indicated that they saw nothing, and reminded them not to consider evidence outside of court.

The note likely referred to a $5 million settlement agreement with the California Public Utilities Commission in 2021, though it’s unclear whether that will be introduced as evidence.

Uber says it plans to rest its case Friday and deliver closing arguments on Monday.

Follow @JournalistJoeAZ