Lyft Has Been Flooded with Sexual Assault Lawsuits
vice.com
vice.com
"[...] I held on to her as we headed in the direction she indicated. She was in no shape to climb the stairs to her apartment either, and also could not put the key in the lock.
"There was a look of appreciation in her eyes, then the door closed. I heard the door lock, and as I walked away I heard a 'thunk', just like a body hitting the floor. Hopefully she made it through the night." [1]
[1] 22: degrees of intoxication - https://www.taxiwars.org/2012/04/22-degrees-of-intoxication....
Women have strategies for dealing with horny men in whom they aren't interested. The article doesn't say if alcohol is a factor in these lawsuits. Controlling one's alcohol intake a basic requirement for being aware enough to avoid bad situations, like if a driver parks and follows you to your door, even though you don't actually need their assistance.
Drivers deal with drunk female passengers all the time. Drivers with integrity stick to their job.
Someone complained about me once - she told the taxi company that I was hitting on her daughter. I posted about that in a previous comment, on "103 Uber drivers accused of sexual assault or abuse": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16963843
"There are certainly women who have problems with their drivers, but slander is a problem for the drivers too." (my conclusion in comment linked above)
I once had a young woman who thought I was taking her somewhere that was not her destination. This was because I had the map on my phone set to "North always pointing upwards" instead of the usual of having the map facing the direction I was driving. I do this because GPS can not accurately point you in the right direction when you're making a bunch of tight turns--something that is common when you're an Uber driver.
About half-way through the 8 minute drive she started freaking the FUCK out. It took me a while to figure out why she was getting so upset as I hadn't been talking to her and I was driving towards her destination. She must not have recognized where we were. It was so distracting that it was very difficult to drive safely and I had to pull over. I eventually was able to convince her that I was driving to her destination after all by switching the map to point in the direction I was driving.
If I hadn't been able to quickly figure out why she thought I was trying to kidnap her, I could see how this situation may have spiraled out of control and led to me being accused of assault.
>One woman claims that after spending an evening with a friend, she was “raped and sodomized” by her Lyft driver in his home. In 2016, another woman ordered a Lyft after a night out. Hours later, her friends walked in on her Lyft driver allegedly raping her in her bedroom.
And who knows, if the situations you quoted there began with a driver forcing them into his place, or following the rider into her house, then a camera could also have prevented them - or have been clear evidence.
if the woman willingly went with the driver to his home or let him into her own, this obviously has nothing to do with Lyft
Simple solution: ride in progress, camera is switched off? Send an alert. Your camera is broken? Too bad, you're not getting any rides until it's working again.
> And if they did, they would delete the evidence after as it's not feasible for driver's to upload video live from their device to Lyft during all trips.
Lots of criminal energy and knowledge required ... and they'd make themselves look guilty as hell.
Cameras obviously don't stop crime, but they would help with law enforcement and stop future crime: if a driver is in jail, they can't assault anybody else.
You can pay for it if you want, ask shareholders to pay for it, ask the banks to pay for it, or create your own premium ride sharing with cameras startup. The main point of Lyft/Uber is that they’re still cheaper than a taxi.
In England for taxicabs and private hire vehicles the drivers have to have a criminal records check. This is the enhanced DBS check. This will be repeated every few (three?) years.
If they have contracts for childrens services or vulnerable adults services they'd also be checked against the adult's and children's barred list.
This doesn't stop all sexual assault, but it stops some.
We have a lot of information from London. https://taxileaks.blogspot.com/2018/12/tfl-release-latest-ta... (With usual caveats around crime data being very unreliable).
I mean realistically, who’s going to date an Uber driver? Nowadays the dating apps are 4:1 men-to-women and women are picky beings.
if they somehow got to her bedroom it doesnt sound like something Lyft should bear responsibility for