TL;DR:
Reading Uber’s safety report isn’t as easy as opening a PDF and finding the answers. Uber keeps track of 21 types of sexual misconduct, but only shares numbers for 5 of them. Court files show there were 400,181 total reports from 2017 to 2022. The safety report only talks about 12,522 of those. If you want to learn how to read the Uber safety report, you have to look at what’s in the report, what’s missing, and why there’s such a big gap.
Uber puts out a safety report and says they’re being open. In some ways, they are. But the whole story isn’t there. If you really want to understand Uber’s safety report, you need to pay attention to what it leaves out. The numbers you see in court cases are almost always bigger than what you see in the official report.
This isn’t just a guess. It’s backed up by court records. Court filings in the federal MDL got hold of Uber’s internal numbers and made them public. Now, there’s a clear gap between what Uber told everyone and what it actually kept track of. Here’s how to make sense of what you see in the report.
1. What the Uber Safety Report Actually Is
Uber has put out three safety reports in the US since 2019. They talk about incidents that happened between 2017 and 2022. There’s nothing yet for 2023, 2024, or 2025. Uber decides when to share these reports. No outside group checks their work. No law says they have to do any of this. In 2024, a government study made it clear: rideshare companies don’t have to report assault numbers to anyone.
Each report only talks about what Uber calls the most serious events. That means deadly crashes, deadly physical attacks, and five types of sexual assault. Uber shows these numbers based on how many rides there are, which makes the problems look tiny. The company loves to say that 99.9% of trips have no safety issue, at least in these reports. But here’s the catch: Uber only counts five out of the twenty-one kinds of problems it keeps track of inside the company.
2. The 21 Categories vs. the 5 They Tell You About
This is the most important thing to understand when interpreting Uber assault statistics. Back in 2018, Uber worked with RALIANCE and the Urban Institute to make a big list of unwanted sexual behavior. They split it into 21 types. Some are as simple as creepy staring. Others are as serious as sexual assault.
Uber tracks all 21 categories inside the company. But when it comes to the public, they only talk about the five worst types. The other 16 never show up in the official reports. These missing categories include things like unwanted touching, making sexual comments, or even threats. Uber calls these “less serious,” but most people would call them crimes.
Court records show what’s going on behind the scenes. From 2017 to 2022, Uber’s own files counted over 400,000 reports of sexual assault or bad behavior. The safety reports only mention about 12,500 of those. That leaves almost 388,000 reports that never made it into the public eye. This isn’t a mistake. Uber decided what to share and what to hide.
3. How to Actually Read the Numbers in the Report
When you open an Uber transparency report, the first thing you’ll see is how they show their numbers. They don’t give you the total. Instead, they say things like “0.59 incidents per million trips.” That sounds tiny. But Uber gives millions of rides. When you do the math, those low rates quickly add up to a lot of incidents.
Next, look at the dates. Uber’s latest report only covers 2021 and 2022. We’re in 2026 now. That means three years with no new numbers. At the same time, more than 3,700 lawsuits are happening in federal court.
Uber also points out a big drop in serious assault rates. They say the numbers fell by 44 percent across all their reports. That sounds like a win, but it’s not the whole story. During the pandemic, far fewer people took Uber rides, so there were fewer chances for anything to happen. The GAO noted in its 2024 review that Uber’s numbers don’t show the full picture. Many survivors never even report their experiences.
4. What the Lyft Annual Safety Report Analysis Looks Like
Lyft’s story is even simpler, but that’s not a good thing. It’s hard to dig into Lyft’s numbers because they’ve only ever shared one safety report. That report talked about cases from 2017 to 2019 and said there were more than 4,000 sexual assaults in that time. After that, silence. Lyft put out one short update in 2021, then stopped sharing any new data.
Right now, Lyft is dealing with more than 2,000 lawsuits in federal court. That’s a big jump since their last report. The missing data doesn’t make anyone feel safer. It just means we don’t get to see what really happened inside Lyft from 2020 to 2025.
At the Law Offices of John C. Ye, we never just trust what Uber or Lyft choose to put in a report. We get the inside records through the court process. Those records always show a lot more than what the companies share with the public.
5. What the Numbers Miss: The Reports Only Tell Part of the Story
Any honest rideshare safety report breakdown needs to consider survivors who never reported anything to anyone. In 2024, a government study found that only about 31 percent of sexual assaults ever get reported. So even Uber’s big number is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Uber even built a safety tool called S-RAD (Safety Risk Assessed Dispatch) to try to spot risky rides. It uses 43 different clues, like driver complaints, late-night pickups, and rides from busy bars. The company has had this tool since 2018. In court, it came out that S-RAD marked one ride as almost the highest risk possible: 0.81 out of 1. Uber still sent the driver on that ride.
You won’t see that story in any safety report. It only showed up in a courtroom. That’s the big difference between what Uber decides to share and what the evidence really says.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many safety reports has Uber put out?
Uber has published three safety reports. They cover the years 2017 to 2022. The last one came out in 2023. There’s nothing new for 2023, 2024, or 2025, even though thousands of lawsuits are still moving through the courts.
Why does Uber only talk about 5 out of 21 sexual misconduct categories?
Uber calls the other 16 “less serious,” even though some are crimes. The company gets to choose what it shares. No law says it has to publish all 21 categories.
What’s the story behind the numbers 12,522 and 400,181?
Uber told the public about 12,522 serious sexual assault cases between 2017 and 2022. But inside the company, they recorded 400,181 reports of sexual assault or misconduct during the same years. We only know about the bigger number because of court records.
Has Lyft shared any new safety data?
No. Lyft put out one safety report in 2021 that talked about 2017 to 2019. There hasn’t been any new data since then, even though there are thousands of lawsuits against the company right now.
What’s S-RAD?
S-RAD is a tool Uber built to spot risky rides. It uses 43 warning signs, like bad driver feedback or late-night pickups, to score each trip for risk before sending a driver. In court, it came out that S-RAD flagged one ride as high risk right before an assault happened.
Does Uber have to publish safety reports by law?
No. There’s no law in 2026 that makes Uber or any rideshare company share assault numbers with the government. A big government study in 2024 confirmed this. Uber only publishes what it wants, when it wants, and only in the categories it picks.
What does Uber mean by a “44% decline”?
Uber says the rate of the five worst types of sexual assault dropped by 44 percent in its reports. But during the pandemic, fewer people used Uber, which made the numbers drop too. The government has said the data doesn’t show the full story, since many survivors never report what happened.
Key Takeaways
- Uber keeps tabs on 21 different types of sexual misconduct inside the company. But when it comes to public reports, they only talk about the five worst ones. The other 16 categories have never shown up in anything the public gets to see.
- Uber likes to show its safety numbers as rates per million rides. That makes the problem look small. But if you use Uber’s real trip numbers, you’ll see that the actual count of incidents is much bigger than it first appears.
- Lyft hasn’t shared new safety numbers in years. The last time they did was back in 2021, covering trips from 2017 to 2019. For everything from 2020 to 2025, the public gets nothing.
- Only about 31 percent of sexual assaults ever get reported, according to a big government study. So even Uber’s own high numbers probably miss most of what actually happens.
The Public Report Is the Edited Version. We Dig Deeper.
The safety report you can see is just the highlight reel. We use the full story behind the scenes.
If you or someone close to you has gone through this, talk to us. Your first meeting with us costs nothing. We keep everything private, and you don’t have to take any next steps unless you want to. We’ll show you what Uber’s records really say. We’ll walk you through your choices.
