A Florida Uber driver allegedly solicited sex, or “a sexual favor,” from a passenger that requested a ride to work via the ride-sharing app. The passenger reportedly canceled the request after receiving the indecent proposal from the driver but made sure to report the incident to Uber.
Matthew Marston of Orlando, Florida, reportedly hailed an Uber around 3 a.m. earlier this week. His driver allegedly then messaged him before pick-up with the offer of riding for free if he performed a sexual favor.
“Hey, I’ll give you a free ride if you let me [redacted],” the driver allegedly told Marston, according to NBC 2 WESH.
“I was shocked. It felt uncomfortable,” Marston told the channel. “Of course I canceled the Uber. But I was uncomfortable calling another Uber. You know, I was thinking about calling out of work.”
Marston followed by hailing a second ride but was still issued a $5 cancellation fee for his first ride.
“It was a five dollar fee for canceling it,” Marston added. “That’s why I’ve been trying to get in contact with them [Uber].”
Uber told the channel that it had refunded Marton’s cancellation fee and that it was investigating the accused driver. They also stated that they were checking whether the propositioning party was an individual other than the driver.
“What’s been reported is completely unacceptable,” an Uber spokesperson told The Drive. “The driver’s access to the app has been removed.”
Uber regularly faces bad PR from interactions between its passengers and drivers, whom Uber argues aren’t its employees to avoid legal liability for its drivers’ occasionally criminal actions. One such high-profile incident occurred in September of 2017, when an Uber driver raped a drunk passenger, although events such as this are not exclusive to Uber. October saw a Lyft driver arrested following accusations of kidnapping and rape of a passenger.