Sarah Ashley O’Brien | CNN
Ridehail’s Lyft released its first security report on Thursday, saying it received 4,158 sexual harassment reports on its platform in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The disclosure comes more than three years after Lyft and rival Uber first promised to release safety reports revealing incidents of sexual assault and abuse on their platforms following a CNN investigation.
The company said that among the reports of sexual harassment it received, 360 were reports of rape. He also reported 10 deaths from physical attacks on his platform in three years.
In May 2018, following CNN’s investigations into incidents of sexual assault and abuse by taxi drivers, Uber and Lyft pledged to release security transparency reports that would reveal internal data on the most serious incidents on their platforms. By the end of 2019, Uber published its first report, which revealed that it had received 5,981 reports of sexual assault involving passengers and drivers two years earlier, including 464 reports of rape. Lyft has so far failed to meet its own deadlines.
In an effort to contextualize their published data, both companies stated that the vast majority of trips (or 99.9%) had no safety incidents for the respective time periods included in the reports.
In an 18-page app, linked to the last page of its 16-page safety report, Lyft indicated that drivers reported 52% of sexual assault incidents, while driver-initiated reports accounted for 38%. Another 10% were initiated by third parties, which in the application may include “law enforcement officials, regulators, relatives, friends or media reports”.
Uber’s report states that drivers account for 56% of those reporting sexual harassment, and drivers for 42%.
While Lyft has benefited from Uber’s public struggles with its own reputation over the years and is often viewed as a friendly alternative, both companies have faced similar challenges when it comes to passenger safety. Lyft, however, lags behind in adding security features to address issues.
Some of the features that Lyft has implemented in recent years include a way to contact 911 through an app, as well as a feature that claims to check in with drivers or passengers if it detects that something irregular might have happened, such as too far away. route.
Both companies have faced a number of lawsuits from passengers in recent years over alleged incidents on their platforms.
Uber plans to publish a second transparency report later this year. Lyft has no plans to publish reports on this topic in the future.
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