Updated Friday, April 7, 2017, 1 p.m. EDT: The Uber driver who went through a harrowing ride with a vile customer who threatened to accuse him of rape has uploaded a new video in which he thanked the community for supporting him and sharing the incident across social media.
The still-unidentified man said that he met with Uber officials at the company offices and explained the situation to them and shared the video again. They commended him for recording the incident, noting that this type of documentation often helps to resolve issues with customers who launch allegations against drivers.
The driver said that Uber told him it was going to give him “some amount of money,” an amount that he declined to specify. The company also gave him a lifetime supply of multiple types of phone chargers, presumably to pacify the next outrageous customer who becomes belligerent over such a small matter.
The driver addressed some of the comments made about the video, explaining that he didn’t call the cops because he was using his only phone to record the incident and didn’t feel comfortable having a gap in the documentation. He added that he made a report and that the police were investigating.
He ended the video by encouraging all ride-sharing drivers to get a dashboard camera and urging them never to get physical with clients even when they’re being belligerent.
“I got a message for every single Uber driver out there. You better invest in a fucking dashcam, bro. Because being an Uber driver is putting your life in jeopardy if you don’t have a ... dashcam,” he said. “Make sure you buy a dashcam, bro. It could save your life. It saved my life.”
Earlier:
A young Bronx, N.Y., woman who was caught on cellphone video apparently threatening to call the police and falsely accuse an Uber driver of rape wa banned from the app for life, according to a company spokesperson.
“The behavior in this video is abusive and completely unacceptable,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement, according to the New York Post.
The footage, which was uploaded online this week, appears to show the unidentified female passenger hurling slurs and curses at the male driver for several minutes.
“I’m going to start screaming out the window that you’re raping me, that you raped me,” she says.
“I will punch myself in the face and tell the cops you did it,” she adds. “You wanna play?”
The woman tells the driver, “Go back to your country” and says, “Donald Trump going to send you and your family back. Get the fuck out of my country.”
The incident all seemed to unfold, according to the Post, because the driver did not have an iPhone charger.
“If I don’t have a charger, politely ask me. I’ll politely tell you, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have a charger,’” the driver says to the woman. “But you start disrespecting me.”
The back-and-forth continues as the driver continues to record and even smiles at the camera.
“I was taking you to your destination until you started talking shit,” he says, just before the woman realizes that the footage is being recorded.
“Why are you recording me?” she yells, while punching the man’s seats. “He just hit me in my face!”
The driver says that the passenger is free to “make up whatever lies [she] wants” before the woman eventually gets out of the car.
Uber continued in its statement about the incident: “As our Community Guidelines make clear, this will not be tolerated by anyone who uses Uber. The rider’s account has been banned and Uber is looking into this incident.”
Neither the driver nor the rider has been publicly identified.
Read more at the New York Post.