[n0body]

i'm not sure why it's Uber's fault. in the uk, Uber drivers are all registered taxi drivers, because of regulations. it's not Uber's fault that the indian market is not as strictly regulated, and that one of their drivers did this.

Not that i'm saying it's ok, it's not. but uber seems to be catching a lot of flak for things they haven't done. sure they probably could have done more to prevent it, but so could the government.

companies always tend to the minimum required by law, it's cheaper that way

and the amount of rape happening in india is crazy, the government needs to do something about that, something more than blaming uber. what's the point in the state if it can't even protect it's people?

[bjacobel]

It's Uber's fault because they claim to screen their drivers' backgrounds for criminal activity, including sexual assault. This driver raped a woman in a taxi he was driving in 2011, which Uber either didn't know or didn't care about.

Pretty reasonable to expect Uber to detect and prevent people like that from driving cars for them, I think.

[auxon0]

That changes my opinion. Uber is liable if this is a) true, and b) that information was actually available.

[n0body]

same

[Karunamon]

That driver was accused of raping a woman in a taxi he was driving in 2011, not convicted of. Holding an accusation against someone is a really shitty thing to do - innocent until proven guilty and all that.

[Someone1234]

You clearly didn't read the article.

> it's not Uber's fault that the indian market is not as strictly regulated, and that one of their drivers did this.

According to the article this driver would be banned from getting a taxi permit under Indian law. Uber didn't follow Indian law.

[ssharp]

That's certainly an ethical code, but a severely lacking one in my opinion. I try to give my business to companies who actually make an attempt to act in an ethical manner, rather than ones who base their ethics and practices on the minimum required government regulations.

[annnnd]

The way I understand it Indian market is regulated, but Uber failed to comply with the regulations.

[RealGeek]

Uber hired drivers in India who does not even have a valid Delhi Transport commercial driver license required for all cab drivers in Delhi.

Edit:

> and the amount of rape happening in india is crazy, the government needs to do something about that, something more than blaming uber.

Do you know that more women are raped every year in UK & US than in India? You hear a lot more about rapes in India because Indians are more outraged towards rape than Americans & British.

Rate per 100,000 population: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#UN_Rape_statist...

United Kingdom (England and Wales): 28.8

United States of America : 27.3

According to some surveys, 20% to 25% girls on American colleges campuses suffer sexual assault.

[Someone1234]

> Do you know that more women are raped every year in UK & US than in India?

No, but I do know you don't understand reporting and statistics.

The UK has had massive reforms between the 1980s and now. Police are required, by law, to record every single accusation of rape irrespective of if it results in a prosecution or even an attempted prosecution.

That has resulted in the UK's "rate of rape" going through the roof, because the statistics now record every accusation regardless of if the police feel it is "credible" or not. There is also more willingness for the crown to try and prosecute even if they don't have a strong case (as failure to prosecute was a big political football in the UK, and many victims at least wanted to see accused in the dock).

I don't know know how "repey" the UK, US, and India are relatively to one another. I do know that the way you're using statistics is highly flawed. You assume that less police reporting means less crime, but it might be due to either less reports TO police or less willingness BY police to take the accusation seriously.

Honestly the only thing even close to comparable statistics is a blind victim survey (e.g. grab 10,000+ completely random people spread across all socioeconomic groups, and ask them what crimes they have been victims of in the last 5 years, then extrapolate). However even with victim surveys you have to be very consistent with definitions of crime across across countries (e.g. trying to compare the FBI's Crime Survey to the UK's version of the same, the definition of violent crime is different).

[dang]

> No, but I do know you don't understand reporting and statistics

No personal attacks on HN, please. This comment has a good argument. Abrasiveness tarnishes it.

[Someone1234]

That wasn't a personal attack. It was a statement of fact based on the obvious misinformation within their post (which was worse pre-edit, by the way).

If someone said "the moon is made of cheese" and someone replies "you don't understand what the moon is made of" that isn't a person attack, since it was directed at their argument not their character.

If I had called them names, broadly questioned their intelligence, accused them of bias, and so on those are all personal attacks. Poking their argument with "you don't understand the topic" is none of the above and not even in the same ballpark.

[dang]

It was personal and its presence at the start of your comment was obviously abrasive. For our purposes that counts as a personal attack. It wasn't egregious, but (a) this kind of subtle nastiness toxifies the environment here, and (b) it marred your otherwise fine comment.

"It was a statement of fact", if true, is beside the point. Facts are often used as ammunition for gratuitous jabs. Indeed, they make the best such ammunition, because then one can say "I'm just stating facts." But it's the gratuitous jab that's the problem.

[pkaye]

Please no personal attacks.

[ceejayoz]

> Do you know that more women are raped every year in UK & US than in India?

Bullshit. Your link states "does not include cases of rape which go unreported, which are not recorded, and does not account for differing definitions between countries".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/07...

> Three-fourths of the perpetrators of India's 24,206 rapes in 2011 are still at large, and that's not even including the rapes that go unreported, which are thought to be the majority of cases. The women and girls who do report being raped can sometimes face antipathy or outright hostility from police.

[_nedR]

Lets take statistics for a type of crime that does almost always get reported.

Homicide rate in US : 4.7 per 100,000

Homicide rate in India : 3.5 per 100,000

Most of the world's perception of rape in India is based exclusively on foreign media coverage of the issue which presents a heavily skewed image compared to reality on the ground. Once the media settles on a popular narrative ("India is unsafe for women") they keep reporting every incident that reinforces that narrative. Fact of the matter is India has relatively low rates of crime (especially considering the poverty and inequality).

[ceejayoz]

Hard to say how accurate a comparision that is.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-officially-under...

> The National Crime Records Bureau, India’s official source of crime data, is systematically undercounting virtually every crime in India on account of a statistical shortcoming, The Hindu has learnt.

http://newint.org/blog/majority/2012/02/07/dowry-deaths-in-i...

> For every dowry death reported, there are dozens that go unreported. Of the 8,391 reported cases in 2010, although 93.2 per cent were charge-sheeted, the conviction rate was a miserable 33.6 per cent. The murderers and their families get away with it. What’s worse, they go scot free and bring back another bride.

I'd be interested in seeing murder rates for rural versus city areas. I know the tribal areas of Pakistan set up their own alternative courts, and wouldn't be surprised if similar things happened in rural India.

[RealGeek]

Rape cases are under reported even in US. Majority of the rapists in US are also let go free. In fact, the rapists often intimidate the vicitim by hiring expensive lawyers and suing them back for reputation damages.

[ceejayoz]

Agreed, entirely. Neither country's reported rate of rapes accurately reflects the actual number of rapes, so comparing based off those official stats is absurd.

[trendroid]

Very conveniently you have left this bit from that article you cited :

'It does not include cases of rape which go unreported, which are not recorded, and does not account for differing definitions between countries.'

This is why you see such a huge difference.

> You hear a lot more about rapes in India because Indians are more outraged towards rape than Americans & British.

Wait, wat?

[Stately]

That ranking is meaningless, since what rape actually constitutes varies wildly depending on the country, not to mention the probability of a victim to report it or of the authorities to take it seriously. I suspect that is the reason why Sweden is third in case rate per capita. I also suspect that the reason why India's might be lower is that cases tend to stay within the secrecy of the family, the village, or the company.

Also "Indians are more outraged towards rape than Americans & British" is a super bold claim I'd love to see proof of.

[edgyswingset]

One of the issues in India right now is non-compliance by the police. Those statistics, while certainly valid for cases we can prove, don't tell the whole story.

[yummyfajitas]

According to some surveys, 20% to 25% girls on American colleges campuses suffer sexual assault.

Given that you believe this, I take it you will do everything you can to prevent your daughters from attending college?

(For similar reasons I'll attempt to keep my sons out of jail.)