-I kind of moved to Boston to start my internship at Facebook,
and the first night I got there,
I had experienced, like, my first, like,
I think ever, sexual harassment, and it was in a Lyft ride.
So, we were going from the airport,
we pull up to my apartment,
and then he, like, reaches behind
and, like, blocks the handle of the door.
And I think the part that was really scary
was, like, he was blocking my exit.
So it was like, "Okay, I know, if I give them my number,
then I'll get a chance to leave."
And I kind of brushed that aside,
but then, over the summer,
it actually happened two more times.
The third time it happened,
I started maybe shifting my mindset, being like,
"Okay, maybe this isn't my fault.
Maybe it's not just me.
Maybe there could be a problem with how the company is,
like, taking in drivers and training them, that's, like,
making them think this behavior is acceptable."
-Tielking is a computer-science major at Stanford University.
She proposed several changes to Lyft's app,
after a student tour of Lyft's headquarters.
-Even when I got this opportunity
to go tour tech companies in the Bay,
and I, like, saw that Lyft was on the list,
I didn't think that I would talk about my story there.
I just had this huge emotional reaction, and I was crying.
And then I finished my, like, first question by asking them,
like, what they're planning to do to improve safety.
They kind of jumped to the assumption that, like,
a solution would be a call center
to have a more personable experience
when you're reporting.
And they were like, "That's way too expensive."
I was kind of shell-shocked.
I was like, "That's the only solution that you see?"
And from there, I kind of immediately
got down to brainstorming again.
I was like, "Okay, how can I give them like three --
two or three -- like, really easy engineering fixes?"
I was lucky that one of the engineers
actually did listen to me.
She teamed up with me and had me kind of send
over pictures of the current user reporting process,
and we developed maybe a pitch that she could give to her team.
And over the next few months,
the responses that I got from her slowed down.
She said that it had gotten pushed
from Operations to Trust and Safety.
So, in December, I had a call with a Trust and Safety rep.
And she didn't really talk at all about my suggestions.
It was mainly, I think, like damage control.
-Soon after, Tielking wrote
a column in "The Stanford Daily,"
criticizing Lyft's response to her concerns,
including a submission form for others
to share their stories of harassment.
She and a classmate launched the Instagram account
"Take Back The Ride,"
highlighting some of those stories.
After the column ran,
Tielking took her campaign back to Lyft,
who invited her to present her critique in person.
-And then I proposed these solutions,
so I just gave them ways to, like, make it more empathetic
and reduce the number of steps it takes,
and also just prioritize, like, help in the app.
Because it's kind of buried in every step of the process,
where, like, the help-menu options is the very bottom.
Or, like, when you click on a ride,
you have to scroll to the bottom of the screen to then report it.
So it was just very out of the way and hard to find.
So, what I wanted to hear from them was,
I guess, more empathy, more acknowledgement
of what I was going through, and maybe recognition
that this is a bigger problem than just me.
I got the sense that my issue was too small to have them,
like, dedicate resources to it.
And I also felt like it was hypocritical.
Because they would preface every response by saying,
"Yeah, safety is our number-one priority."
But the words that came after each time were not the case,
like, not demonstrating that.
-Representatives of drivers,
who are often vocal critics of ride-hailing companies,
say they'd welcome sexual-harassment training.
-Having taken many sexual-harassment courses
as a supervisor,
I think anybody, whether man or woman,
could benefit from those types of courses.
The stories that I hear from both female passengers
and female drivers are kind of horrendous.
Some of the things they experience just aren't okay.
So I'm an advocate of just about any training
that they would want to provide.
-Training is only one piece of the puzzle.
Uber implemented ongoing driver background checks in 2018,
and says that since then,
it has removed more than 20,000 drivers.
In April, Lyft announced its continuous background checks,
but it declined to share concrete data
on the number of drivers removed from its service.
Uber was first to add a panic button to its app in 2018.
Lyft announced in May, it would add a similar function
sometime this year.
In the same blog post, it also said it would make
changes to its platform, increasing the visibility
of the driver's license-plate number in the app,
creating a voluntary sexual- harassment training for drivers,
and adding the ability to call 911 in the app.
-Lyft constantly, like,
stresses how safety is its number-one priority,
but in reality, I believe that, like, image is its top priority.
-Internally, Uber and Lyft have used forced arbitration
as a tool to prevent employees
from joining sexual-harassment class-action lawsuits.
The companies ended that practice within hours
of each other, in May 2018.
Lyft declined to provide a representative for comment.
But in its IPO documents, Lyft says,
"The strength of our brand is a key driver of our ability
to attract and retain users
and serves as a strategic differentiator.
We believe that affinity for our brand
will continue to strengthen
as consumers increasingly gravitate towards brands
that are purpose-driven
and emphasize corporate social responsibility."
-I think Lyft did a good job of setting themselves up,
through PR, as looking like the good guy in this picture.
But now I think that Uber has come forward and said,
"Hey, we have recognized that we've made mistakes,
and we're trying to make changes."
I think the true colors of Lyft is starting to show.
-I think the outpouring of responses
I got was, like, very unexpected.
Teachers, like, colleagues, like, all types of people
who I didn't think had gone through this, like,
came forward to me and shared these stories.
They felt like this story could have impact
and, like, get Lyft to make change.
Maybe the mindset that these companies have is,
they're just trying to go against each other
and be the company that's better than the other.
But I think that needs to change to just,
like, setting a new standard, because maybe they're making
these incremental changes to get better,
but I think it's not fast enough.
-For now, there's no definitive data on how many riders
are sexually harassed by these drivers.
Both companies have promised to release transparency reports,
but neither have, as of May 2019.