(KTLA) – According to sealed court records reviewed by The New York Times, Uber received reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the United States nearly every eight minutes between 2017 and 2022. This number significantly exceeds the previously disclosed figures by the company.

Publicly, Uber has positioned itself as one of the safest transportation options, highlighting in safety reports and marketing campaigns that 99.9% of U.S. trips occur without incident. However, the newly unsealed records, part of a large litigation against the company, reveal that Uber documented 400,181 reports of sexual assault or misconduct over those five years.

In contrast, Uber’s prior safety reports disclosed 12,522 accounts of serious sexual assaults for the same timeframe, without mentioning the total number of incidents across all categories. Since 2022, Uber has not publicly released comparable data, though court filings suggest an increase in incident reports.

Court documents suggest that Uber’s safety decisions were influenced by its focus on expanding its customer base, limiting legal exposure, and maintaining its business model, which classifies drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, as per The Times. This classification helps reduce labor costs since the company does not have to provide benefits or overtime and limits oversight because drivers are not held to workplace rules like traditional employees.

“Our purpose/goal is not to be the police,” stated an internal 2021 brainstorming document on Uber’s global safety standards, as reported by The Times. “Our bar is much lower and our goal is to protect the company and set the tolerable risk level for our operations.”

Uber indicated that about 75% of the 400,181 reports involved “less serious” conduct, such as flirting, comments on appearance, or explicit language. The company added that the figures were unaudited and might contain false or incorrect reports. Of the 6.3 billion U.S. trips conducted over the same period, Uber stated that such reports constituted 0.006% of rides, with the most serious assaults comprising 0.00002%.

“There is no ‘tolerable’ level of sexual assault,” Hannah Nilles, Uber’s head of safety for the Americas, told The Times. She said the company has invested in safety features such as GPS tracking, optional audio recording, and a 911 emergency button, while also launching sexual assault and misconduct training for drivers in the United States.

According to court documents reviewed by The Times, internal Uber teams studied patterns in sexual assault cases for years. Incidents were most likely to occur late at night and on weekends, often with pickups near bars, and women were most frequently the victims. Offenders were typically men, either drivers or passengers, with prior complaints and low ratings.

Uber tested safety interventions, including pairing female riders with female drivers and developing a “Safety Risk Assessed Dispatch” algorithm to avoid high-risk matches. The company found the female-to-female pairing reduced incidents but delayed introducing it in the United States, citing potential legal and cultural backlash, following the 2024 presidential election. That option is now being piloted in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit.

In a public statement responding to The Times investigation, Uber disputed suggestions that it downplayed safety issues. “Safety is a core value at Uber, and we have invested billions of dollars and countless hours to reduce safety incidents during trips,” the company said, adding that reports of serious sexual assaults on its platform have fallen by 44% since it began publishing safety reports in 2019.

Uber also noted that it was one of the first major companies to end forced arbitration in sexual misconduct cases, a move that has since led to thousands of lawsuits. This policy change allowed survivors to bypass private arbitration and file their sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct claims in federal or state courts, making the allegations and proceedings part of the public record.

Lyft has also reported thousands of sexual assaults. In a statement to The New York Times, Lyft said that reports of sexual assault are “statistically very rare” and represent far less than 1 percent of rides. The company added that it will continue investing in technology, policies, and partnerships to try to prevent and detect unsafe situations.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report last year found sexual violence to be severely underreported across all modes of transportation and noted the absence of a centralized database for tracking such incidents.