Hillicon Valley — Uber report finds thousands of assault claims

by Chris Mills Rodrigo, Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare - 07/01/22 7:52 PM ET

Uber released its latest safety report revealing thousands of sexual assault claims, though the report emphasized that the overall rate has declined from previous years.

Meanwhile, more former Tesla employees sued the company over allegations of racial abuse.

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Assault claims still in thousands, but dropping: report

Uber received more than 3,800 sexual assault reports from U.S. rides between 2019-2020, a decline of 38 percent from the previous two years, according to a safety report the company released Thursday.

The company said the decline could be in part related to the impacts of the pandemic, citing a drop from 2.3 billion rides in 2017-18 to 2.1 billion rides in 2019-20, but it also hailed recent safety investments and strengthened background check requirements.

“We’re constantly innovating and investing in the safety of our platform,” the company said in the report. “We’ve prioritized robust screening processes and technology, built new safety features and invested in providing riders and drivers with support in times of need.”

Uber said riders were the accused party in 43 percent of sexual assault reports in 2019-20, which it noted was on par with previous years.
The report further broke down five categories of sexual assault, saying a majority of the reports involved nonconsensual touching of a sexual body part.

More Tesla employees allege racial abuse

A group of 15 Black current and former employees of tech giant Tesla sued the company on Thursday over accusations of racial abuse.

Plaintiffs claimed that they were harassed based on their race, with colleagues and managers using the N-word and other racially charged terms, including “slavery” and “plantation,” in daily interactions, according to Reuters.
Tesla’s “standard operating procedures include blatant, open and unmitigated race discrimination,” the lawsuit reads, particularly at its Fremont, Calif., factory where the abuse is said to have occurred.

“It is rare for Blacks to work here. I don’t know how long you will be able to stay here,” one plaintiff recalled hearing alongside racial slurs.

One more thing: Robot workplace woes

American workers who work alongside robots are more likely to suffer negative mental health effects, despite being less prone to physical injury, according to a recent study.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on workplace injuries in the U.S., finding that injuries were reduced by 1.2 cases per 100 workers in regions with one standard deviation increase in robot exposure.
But in regions where there were significant numbers working with robots, there was an increase of 37.8 cases per 100,000 workers in drug or alcohol related deaths.

Osea Giuntella, an expert in labor economics and economic demography and an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a news release that although there’s evidence how robots affect workers’ employment and wages, researchers “still know very little about the effects on physical and mental health.”