Last sunday, a frequent Uber user in New Delhi was allegedly raped by her driver when he diverted from the original route and pulled into an abandoned parking lot.

The 27-year-old female passenger hailed an Uber, a smart phone app that calls a car to your exact location. She order her cab to take her home after having dinner at a friend’s apartment. According to CNN, she fell asleep in the car, only to wake up with the driver physically assaulting her. After, she was dropped off at her house, where she was threatened with her life to not speak of the incident.

Since she has reported her alleged rape, the famous car company has gotten a lot of heat from media and many Uber users, even sparking several protests in the streets of New Delhi. Since the attack, New Delhi has banned Uber from their city.

After officials investigated the attack, they discovered that Uber was not a licensed service in New Delhi, leaving the citizens very uneasy. Uber also admitted to not conducting background checks before hiring drivers.

In fact, before the scandal, Uber was supposedly heavily used by Indian women, according to CNN news.

Some Williston students are familiar with the Uber car service, “My experience was very casual and my driver was very nice to me,” Tara Sarper ’15 said. Sarper admits to using Uber every time she is in Singapore and used it a total of five times during her stay in London over Thanksgiving break. Sarper also stated that she was surprised when she heard about the Uber rape allegations, but she can understand how the problem is prevalent.

Harry Shea ’15 noted, “It’s a very intimate environment between the passenger and driver.” He continued, “The driver knows where to pick you up and drop you off, they also know a lot of your personal information. I can definitely see many drivers abusing their power.” Shea, like Sarper, uses Uber in Boston and New York City very frequently and has never experienced inappropriate behavior with one of his drivers.