Tabloid Correio da Manhã has full story; has spoken with eye-witnesses
UBER has reacted to yesterday’s story of an American tourist ‘abducted’ by a driver responding to call-outs, stressing it has “no record of any trip with the characteristics reported in the news”.
In a statement sent to state news agency Lusa, UBER stressed that “it has not been contacted by the authorities regarding the reported case” and guarantees that not only does it have no records of any trip that fits the story, it has not “received any contact on this topic through the application or customer support.
“UBER has always cooperated promptly in any investigation and has a highly differentiated response to incident resolution and relations with authorities,” reads the statement from the platform which claims to have “a Public Safety Team, composed of former law enforcement officers and specialists, who establish and maintain partnerships with local authorities and work closely with them,” available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
All this being said, it does appear that this incident happened: Correio da Manhã was ‘on the ground’ yesterday, speaking to eye-witnesses, and has learnt that the reason UBER may not have any knowledge of the passenger’s ordeal is because drivers “illegally share” their TVDE licences (TVDE standing for passenger transport via electronic platforms in unmarked vehicles).
“The PSP was called, and took the details of the driver, the make and model of the car, its licence plate and the driver’s name that appears on the app – which may not correspond to the driver (in question), because licences are illegally shared”, writes the paper.
If this is the case, safeguards cited by UBER in its statement would stand for very little. For example, the company states that “all drivers meet legal requirements, being properly licensed, holding the appropriate residence permit, if applicable, and without any criminal record.
“Drivers’ identities are verified rigorously and regularly, either by checking a vast array of documentation or through pioneering facial recognition technology”.
But if these drivers are then ‘sharing’ their licences, the rigor and technological wizardry will be pointless.
As it is, the 53-year-old American who suffered mounting panic as she was driven far from her intended destination, has given a full statement to police and is understood to be due to leave the country to return to America tomorrow.
CM has given a detailed run-down of what happened: the woman had been ‘out for the night’ with friends staying at a different hotel to her’s in the capital. They called an UBER when they left the bar they had been in, and this took them first to Marques de Pombal, where two of the friends were staying. The third woman then asked the driver to drop her at her hotel in Belém, and this is where, for no reason apparent he became angry – telling the woman that she would remain in the car while he drove 80 kms.
This was not to be the case. The driver reportedly drove ‘very aggressively’ over the April 25 bridge towards the Margem Sul (that is, in completely the wrong direction for Belém), leaving the A2 motorway for Almada.
Passing a restaurant (McDonalds) in Feijó, (roughly 11 kms from the centre of Lisbon) he reportedly “ordered the woman to get out of the car”.
Traumatised, the woman raised the attention of staff still in the restaurant (bearing in mind these were the early hours of Monday morning).
PSP police quickly called in PJ (criminal investigation) counterparts, and the woman eventually called a taxi in order to be taken to her hotel, says CM – adding that the penalty for this kind of abduction can run to three years behind bars.
Source material: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
