Uber is facing a US lawsuit filed by lawyers on behalf of 550 people that allege they were sexually assaulted during rides.

The civil action says that women passengers across multiple states were “kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers”.

The company’s latest US Safety Report revealed that there had been 998 sexual assault incidents, including 141 rape reports, in 2020.

Between 2019 and 2022, Uber received 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault ranging from "non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part" to "non-consensual sexual penetration," or rape.

The complaint was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court by attorneys at Slater Slater Schulman LLP, a full-service law firm focused on representing survivors of catastrophic and traumatic events.

The firm claims that Uber prioritises growth over customer safety, suggesting that the company was “fixated on getting new drivers onboarded as quickly as possible to fuel growth, so it eschewed traditional background check standards”.

It said that former chief executive Travis Kalanick intentionally opted to hire drivers without fingerprinting them or running their information through FBI databases, and that the tech business’ current chief exec Dara Khosrowshahi continued this policy after he took over in August 2017.

"Uber's whole business model is predicated on giving people a safe ride home, but rider safety was never their concern – growth was, at the expense of their passengers' safety," said Adam Slater, founding partner of Slater Slater Schulman LLP. "While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences."

An Uber spokesperson said: “Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously. There is nothing more important than safety, which is why Uber has built new safety features, established survivor-centric policies, and been more transparent about serious incidents. While we can’t comment on pending litigation, we will continue to keep safety at the heart of our work.”

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