From the Daily Dot Cities and taxi services upset with Uber for cornering the ride-sharing market, the more alarming discord comes from the app's passengers. Patrons have reported sexual abuse, homophobia, and stalking at the hands of their drivers, including some who have criminal pasts. On Wednesday, Orlando-based Uber driver Ramy Botros, 28, was arrested [...]
From ValleyWag Uber has been connected to a number of sexual assaults and kidnappings this summer. The latest comes from Washington D.C., where an Uber driver stands accused of molesting a drunk passenger. According to court documents obtained by the Washington City Paper, the victim was out partying with friends on the night of July [...]
From the Washington Post Update: Executive says there are lessons from his harrowing Uber experience Was just kidnapped by an @uber driver in DC, held against my will, and involved in a high speed chase across state lines with police #Crazy — Ryan W Simonetti (@rwsimonetti) July 8, 2014 Well, the tweet pretty much says it [...]
From ValleyWag Continuing the string of safety incidents surrounding Uber, a driver was arrested in Los Angeles Monday for allegedly kidnapping a drunk female passenger after she woke up in a motel room and found her shirtless driver. A LAPD spokesperson tells ABC7 that the 26-year-old victim was drinking Sunday night and "had likely called [...]
From NBC Los Angeles A sure sign of success is when a company's name becomes a verb. Office workers frequently Xerox documents while others rush off to FedEx a package. And now, a lot of passengers say they will "Uber" their way to meet friends. The explosive growth of Uber can't be denied. In the [...]
From the Daily Beast One afternoon in late September, I opened the Uber app and requested a ride. For the unitiated, Uber is a hugely popular app that allows people to summon a private car with a few taps of their fingers. Since launching in 2009, the company has expanded to 34 countries, mainstreaming on-demand [...]
From NBC Chicago A former driver for the Uber rideshare service faces battery charges for allegedly fondling a passenger last month. Jigneshkumar Patel, 31, allegedly touched the woman’s legs and breast after picking her up about 1:40 p.m. March 8 in the 100 block of West Cermak Road, according to a Chicago Police report. The [...]
From the Chicago Tribune Chicago's new ride-sharing services market their drivers as friendly and safe, asserting they have passed stringent criminal background checks. But a Tribune investigation revealed that one of the companies, Uber, did not check some of the criminal records of its drivers, allowing thousands of drivers to ferry passengers for months, despite [...]
From Pando Last month, Pando reported that an Uber driver in San Francisco had been accused of verbally and physically assaulting a passenger, James Alva. According to Alva, the driver called him a "dirty Mexican faggot" and then struck him several times when Alva tried to take a photo of him and his license plate to [...]
From ValleyWag There are standards you have to meet before you can drive a pseudo-taxi, unregulated by the city: "As long as you are friendly and have a car and a clean record, you can drive on the Lyft platform," according to the site. If those standards seem low, it's because Lyft seems to want [...]