By Sara Ashley O’Brien | CNN
Ridehail firm Lyft on Thursday launched its first ever security report, disclosing that it obtained 4,158 reviews of sexual assault on its platform in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
The disclosure comes greater than three years after Lyft and its rival Uber first pledged to launch security reviews disclosing incidents of sexual assault and abuse on their platforms after a CNN investigation.
The corporate’s launch reveals that among the many sexual assault reviews it obtained, 360 have been reviews of rape. It additionally reported 10 deaths from bodily assaults that occurred on its platform over the three years.
In Could 2018, after CNN’s investigation into sexual assault and abuse incidents by ride-hail drivers, Uber and Lyft each dedicated to releasing security transparency reviews that may disclose inner knowledge on essentially the most extreme incidents on their platforms. By the top of 2019, Uber put out its first report, which revealed it had obtained 5,981 reviews of sexual assault involving passengers and drivers within the two years prior, together with 464 reviews of rape. Lyft didn't observe by way of by itself timelines for doing so till now.
In an effort to contextualize the info they’ve launched, each firms have stated the overwhelming majority of journeys (or 99.9%) had no reported security incidents for the respective time intervals included within the reviews.
In an 18-page appendix, linked within the final web page of its 16-page security report, Lyft indicated that riders reported 52% of the sexual assault incidents, whereas reviews initiated by drivers made up 38%. One other 10% have been initiated by third events, which the appendix states could embody “regulation enforcement officers, regulators, household, buddies or media reviews.”
Uber’s report claimed that riders accounted for 56% of the reporting events of sexual assault incidents, and drivers made up 42%.
Whereas Lyft has benefited from Uber’s very public struggles with its personal popularity through the years and is oftentimes painted because the pleasant various, the 2 firms have confronted related points with regards to passenger security. Lyft, nevertheless, had confirmed to be steps behind in including security options to handle issues.
A number of the options Lyft has rolled out in recent times embody a strategy to contact 911 by way of the app, in addition to a function that claims to check-in with riders or drivers if it senses one thing irregular could have occurred, reminiscent of veering far off route.
Each firms have confronted a lot of authorized claims in recent times from riders over alleged incidents on their platforms.
Uber is slated to publish its second transparency report later this 12 months. Lyft has not dedicated to releasing any future reviews on the subject.