ANN ARBOR—The alleged rape of a young executive by a driver with Uber in Delhi has led to the banning of the online ride-hailing service in India’s capital.

University of Michigan experts are available to discuss safety issues for women in India and what the latest incident means for the company.

Erik GordonErik Gordon is a clinical assistant professor at the Ross School of Business who focuses on entrepreneurship and technology commercialization.

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“Uber is getting lots of practice responding to crises. If it wants people to trust their lives to getting into cars with Uber drivers, it will to have to change its attitude towards its customers. It will have to prevent crises, not react to them. Its attitude of ‘drivers are independent and we are not responsible for them’ is going to destroy its ability to attract riders and its skyrocketing value on paper.”

Apoorva JadhavApoorva Jadhav is a postdoctoral fellow at U-M’s Institute for Social Research. Her research focuses on the link between socioeconomic and demographic change in India.

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“This case shows there are now even more avenues for women to feel unsafe. Women being harassed and sexually assaulted on public transport has not been new. Is this making more waves because the affluent urban woman is now under threat? I am glad we are talking about it, but it makes me wonder how fruitful and different the conversations and debates surrounding this horrid issue really will be.

“Banning Uber is definitely not the answer. It’s like putting on a tiny Band-Aid to a deep, gaping and recurring wound. It’s a convenient way for the Delhi government to say, ‘We did something,’ and pat themselves on the back. It does not address vulnerability of women in the public space. We need to tackle regulations surrounding who gets to open up a transportation service in the first place, and how these regulations need to be adapted to India where security issues may not be as apparent or even different.”

Puneet ManchandaPuneet Manchanda is a professor of marketing at the Ross School of Business. His expertise includes business in emerging markets, business in India and strategy and marketing issues.

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“Both drivers and consumers use the service because of the convenience factor, but this incident will make consumers think about the risks of using Uber (and other related services) relative to the benefit. The challenge for Uber will be to manage the fallout of all such incidents taken together (in multiple markets), especially when the cause can be attributed to their sloppiness directly (as it appears to be the case in the Delhi incident). Of course, none of this is any consolation to the victim in the Delhi case, so I hope that Uber takes full responsibility.”