You Call This a Safety Report, Lyft?

Lyft has lastly launched its security report, three and a half years late, ringing in at a whopping 16 pages (two filler). It’s dated and incomplete, and subsequent to Uber’s 84-page 2019 audit, it seems like an index card. Three years? Really?

Lyft and Uber initially promised to ship in May 2018 following a CNN investigation into Uber drivers accused of sexual assault. (In the aftermath, Lyft additionally ended compelled arbitration for sexual assault victims). Lyft then stalled with guarantees in 2019, and once more in 2020. We are approaching November 2021.

What the report does inform us: Lyft counted 4,158 experiences of sexual assault by drivers and riders between the start of 2017 and the top of 2019. These embrace 5 “of the most serious” types of sexual assault as outlined by the anti-sexual violence group RALIANCE, together with: non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual physique half and a sexual physique half, non-consensual touching of a sexual physique half, tried non-consensual penetration, and non-consensual penetration. It leaves out 16 different classes of assault, together with masturbation, verbal threats, and unsuccessful makes an attempt at non-consensual kissing and touching.

As Uber did, Lyft contextualizes these as fractions of fractions of percentages of whole accomplished journeys.

Lyft additionally counted 105 motorcar fatalities and 10 deadly bodily assaults. The firm says it collected info from inner experiences, legislation enforcement experiences (to Lyft), information, and social media posts.

What’s lacking right here: 2020, clearly. Lyft informed Gizmodo by way of electronic mail that its restricted knowledge set has to do with the truth that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) hasn’t but printed 2020 numbers—that also doesn’t clarify why it didn’t rely sexual assaults or deadly assault by final 12 months as a result of it solely makes use of NHTSA info for motorcar fatalities.

But the large ole gap within the center: Lyft hides non-fatal bodily assaults, with no clarification. That class is vital! Earlier this 12 months, the Markup reported discovering 124 carjackings of Uber and Lyft drivers over the earlier 12 months and a half, which nearly actually falls far wanting the actual rely. Uber and Lyft didn’t share their very own knowledge, so the Markup relied on driver interviews, media protection, and police experiences—a particularly restricted dataset as a consequence of the truth that not all drivers report, that media doesn’t cowl each carjacking, and most police departments don’t word whether or not the sufferer was a rideshare driver. Lyft declined to supply these numbers to Gizmodo.

If that they had, it’d floor some questions on why the corporate has reportedly declined to cowl medical payments and property injury for drivers who’d been carjacked by app customers. A Lyft spokesperson informed Gizmodo that its “specialized safety team” helps drivers and households however didn’t say whether or not it provides monetary help.

“[Carjackings] are happening all the time, and the executives know it,” Gig Workers Rising, a gig employee organizing marketing campaign, informed Gizmodo by way of electronic mail. “Yet they do nothing to protect their workers and continue to take home millions of dollars each year for themselves. We demand Lyft and every other gig corporation provide transparency around not only deaths and sexual assaults, but non-fatal assaults as well. Workers who are injured matter, and we should know their stories and their names”

In an appendix, report authors from the Chertoff Group, a cybersecurity and threat administration agency, famous that Lyft requested a “limited scope” of knowledge and that they weren’t requested to examine how Lyft collected and categorized its knowledge.

Without detouring an excessive amount of on methodology, it’s vital for researchers to verify how Lyft counts incidents as related. Lyft and Uber, utilizing firm knowledge, have a tendency to provide flattering statistics by finagling metrics—like limiting how they rely hours labored, which lets them claim that drivers make greater than double the quantity exterior researchers estimate.

Lyft informed Gizmodo that it delayed the discharge as a result of they had been ready for Uber to settle a dispute with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which fined the corporate $59 million for refusing to submit extra particulars about sexual assaults in order that the federal government might examine. (It ended up settling for round $9.1 million.) Lyft believes sharing victims’ names would invade victims’ privateness.

But that case additionally aimed to assemble info needed to make sure that Uber adequately protects staff and riders. Lyft is sitting on invaluable statistics about crimes dedicated on its watch that, at minimal, deserve to be higher understood.