Uber on Tuesday rendered an apology to a blind North Carolina woman after a driver with the ride-hailing company dropped her off at the wrong address and left her to her fate. Per WRAL, the incident in question occurred in May.
Kamille Richardson, who has been blind since birth, wanted to get a new phone at a Verizon store on Mercantile Drive in Raleigh, off Wake Forest Road. But the Uber rideshare driver who picked her up rather dropped her off at an apartment complex that was over a mile upwards from the store.
Richardson also said the driver “took off” when she informed him that he had brought her to the wrong address, adding that he told her he had to head over to the airport to pick another person up.
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At a news conference on Tuesday, Richardson’s attorney, Aviance Brown, also said that the blind woman “questioned this driver on more than one occasion if he was sure that this was in fact Verizon, [and] he reassured her multiple times that she was at Verizon. He guided her to a random apartment door, knocked on it and proceeded to take off running.”
Richardson said she wants Uber to kick the driver off its platform as she doesn’t want him to similarly abandon another customer. Brown also said that Richardson had tried to get in touch with Uber over the last two months, but the company never got back to her. Uber, however, responded to the incident in a statement to the news outlet on Tuesday.
“We apologize for Ms. Richardson’s stressful experience. We have investigated this issue, which appears to have been a result of a map error that directed the driver to an incorrect drop off location, and have addressed the map issue,” Uber said in the statement.
“Our goal is to create a platform that supports people’s ability to easily move around their communities, and we’re committed to building features, and working with experts to make the Uber platform more accessible.”
The state Department of Health and Human Services’ division of services for the blind also got in touch with Uber in the wake of the incident. A spokesperson told the news outlet that they have scheduled a meeting with the company to talk about plans to offer improved services to residents in North Carolina.
“It is our hope and expectation that Uber will be taking appropriate actions to address this matter to ensure that it never happens to another person,” DHSS representatives stated in a letter to Uber’s head of public policy, accessibility and underserved communities.
Richardson runs a consulting firm that trains businesses and corporations in inclusive practices, WRAL reported. She said her firm intends to urge Uber to organize sensitivity training and set up new technological initiatives to prevent such occurrences.
“That is one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through,” Richardson told the news outlet in May. “How could you just abandon somebody like that knowing good and well that I was not in the right spot?”
She also said that she has “always been a very independent traveler”, and ridesharing apps including Uber nearly make her feel like she owns a car. “I’ve always lived on my own. I’ve just been one who always gets things done as independently as possible with very little assistance,” she added.
Richardson also labeled the incident as “terrifying” and revealed she has since been “hesitant” when patronizing any rideshare service. “The ability to be able to move through this world freely, it’s just something I’ve always cherished and relished,” she said.
“Ever since this happened, I’ve always now been hesitant. It took me a month [after the incident] to travel using any rideshare service alone. I refuse to go by myself. And that’s never been me … but I just lost trust in the whole situation.”
