[kayodelycaon]

From the article, it was reported to the police. The lawsuit came later and Uber didn’t try to deny it happened.

From a civil law perspective, it doesn’t matter who did it.

The police report is substantial evidence that the event wasn’t made up for the purposes of the lawsuit. Her story was credible to the jury. And Uber’s own algorithms showed significant increased risk for that ride. In other words, Uber knew this could’ve happened and deliberately did not do anything to mitigate the risk.

Even if a rape didn’t really occur in this specific case, Uber knows it has happened many times before. This isn’t a criminal case and they don’t get the assumption of innocence when they have a pattern of guilt.

Let’s put it this way, it’s wrong to assume that an innocent man is always going to be abusive. It is reasonable to assume that someone with a long history of abuse will continue to be abusive.

[bdcravens]

The driver acknowledged he knew she was drunk, and that he didn't get explicit consent.

Uber had already flagged it internally as a high-risk ride (drunk female, alone) and didn't take additional security measures.