A young Australian woman has recorded a horrifying Uber trip in which her driver repeatedly propositioned her for sex – and even suggested a threesome with her grandmother.
Samsara Sylvester recorded the disturbing encounter which took place recently in Brisbane.
The 20-year-old is currently studying at King’s College in London, but was home visiting family when the harassment occurred.
In the recording, the middle-aged driver can be heard asking a string of appalling questions, such as, “Do you like sex?” and whether or not she had a boyfriend, before telling her: “You tease me.”
Sylvester politely rebuffs the man, but he went on to suggest they have sex at her home.
When she informed him she lived with her grandmother, things took an even creepier turn.
“Your grandmother, you, and me,” he responds.
“Your grandmother at home?”
The student later complained to Uber, and claims she was offered free therapy sessions in response, as well as having her trip fare refunded.
She said she had shared the footage on social media to alert other young women to the danger posed by the man, explaining she was “flabbergasted” by the experience, which she described as “disgusting.”
“I’m posting to spread awareness. This is real – not just things we read about,” she said.
“I don’t need therapy. There’s worse things that have happened to me,” she said.
“I want to clarify. I was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, I had my hair up, didn’t have any makeup, and you could barely see my face.”
“You can’t just say that sexual assault happens because we’re dressed suggestively, it just happens because you are a female, and I think people need to accept that.”
She explained that she was so disturbed by the driver’s behavior she had shared her location with others as she feared for her safety during the drive.
“I was doing my best to kind of reply curtly and not enrage,” she said.
“I felt a little bit panicked by some of the things he said, like him asking who was at home or if he could come over.”
“I also planned for the possibility I’d have to get out of the car before I arrived home or what I’d do if he got out with me.”
She added that Uber had initially told her it would investigate the incident, but that she was yet to hear what repercussions, if any, there had been for the driver.
“I came forward in the interest of protecting other young women from this specific driver, and they couldn’t inform me of any action taken against him and stopped replying after a few emails back and forth,” she said.
“I think as a business that is responsible for their staff, they could’ve taken so much more initiative in doing something about this and maybe filtering people they hire because I’ve had multiple Uber drivers behave in a way that’s anything but professional.”
“These instances only serve to highlight the abhorrent treatment women face from some men. I think it depicts the lack of respect for women they deem to be available.”
“In the moment it made me feel like he thought I was easy and because I was a single female I was up for anything that came my way.”
Sylvester was inundated with messages of support from fellow social media users.
“Being in someone else’s car is a very vulnerable place to be and not wanting to obviously stick up for yourself is an absolutely valid survival strategy,” one person posted.
“You handled this 100 per cent perfectly. You survived,” another said.
“This gave me so much anxiety. Something similar happened to me, it’s so scary because you’re stuck in the car, no place to go,” another added.
An Uber spokeswoman told news.com.au in a statement that the safety of customers was paramount.
“Safety is a top priority and we are committed to ensuring we have robust processes and cutting edge features built into our technology to support the safety of everyone who uses our app,” the statement reads.
“Our technology makes it possible to focus on safety for riders before, during, and after every trip in ways that simply were not possible before smartphones.”
“Through Uber’s Safety Toolkit, users can push a button to share their trip details with loved ones, receive support 24/7, share feedback on a trip and connect with emergency services.
“Everyone who signs up for an Uber account is expected to follow our Community Guidelines, which is developed to make every experience feel safe, respectful and positive.
“Breach of these guidelines can result in loss of access to the Uber app.”