A woman who says an Uber driver raped her in New Delhi,
India, on Thursday accused the company in a lawsuit filed in US court of
failing to properly investigate the alleged assailant's background.
The woman's lawyers filed the lawsuit
in San Francisco, where the company is based, and asked the court to protect
the woman's identity.
The alleged rape last month prompted
widespread protests in India against sexual violence and led to demands there
for more effort to ensure women's safety. It also added to the legal woes the
ride-service company is facing around the globe even as it attracts more customers
and investors. Protesters in India called for a permanent ban of Uber there.
"Our deepest sympathies remain
with the victim of this horrific crime," Uber spokeswoman Nairi Hourdajian
said in a prepared statement. "We are cooperating fully with the authorities
to ensure the perpetrator is brought to justice."
The India woman's lawsuit called Uber's
service a "modern-day equivalent of electronic hitchhiking" and
accused the company of failing to ensure passengers' safety. The lawsuit seeks
unspecified damages. The woman's alleged assailant has been arrested and
charged with her rape.
Law enforcement officials in India have
interviewed a New Dehli-based Uber executive. New Delhi police official
Brijendra Kumar Yadav said last month that there is a possibility of criminal
charges against the company if police find evidence the company misrepresented
the safety of its service.
A week after the woman reported that
she was raped, prosecutors and Los Angeles and San Francisco jointly filed a
lawsuit in state court accusing the company of exaggerating the quality of its
background checks of California drivers. The California lawsuit says that Uber
can't claim its background checks are the best available because the company
doesn't require its drivers to submit their fingerprints for checking against a
national criminal database.
On Dec. 17, Uber's head of global
safety posted a long comment on the company's Web site promising to focus on
rider safety while defending the company's safety record.
"We are finding solutions in many
places that range from polygraph exams that fill gaps in available data to
adding our own processes on top of existing screening for commercial
licenses," wrote company security chief Philip Cardenas. "We are
exploring new ways to screen drivers globally, using scientific analysis and
technology to find solutions."
The taxi alternative, valued at $40
billion, lets passengers summon cars through an app in more than 250 cities
around the world. It faces multiples legal and regulatory challenges as it
expands in the United States and abroad.
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