‘Man got out of his car and followed me’: Woman reveals how late-night Uber rides left her feeling unsafe

Woman alleges unsafe encounters during late-night Uber rides. (AI-generated image)

A woman has shared back-to-back incidents from a late-night cab journey that she says left her feeling unsafe and emotionally shaken. She alleged that the incidents happened on two Uber rides in a row. Her post attracted wide attention and sparked discussion about passenger safety on such apps.

The experience was shared on Instagram by Simran Monga, who posted a detailed series of slides explaining what she went through during the two rides. She opened her post with a sharp remark, accusing the platform of repeatedly failing women passengers. She wrote, “@uberindia you have a way of making women feel unsafe!!! I’ve refrained from sharing any unpleasant service experiences on social media over the past few years, but you’ve totally asked for this one!”

According to Simran, the first ride was booked at around 9 pm from a friend’s house to her home. She said the driver arrived in “a very run-down vehicle,” adding that such poor vehicle conditions were no longer surprising.

From the moment she entered the car, she claimed the driver behaved rudely and began blaming her for possible traffic delays. She also said that he ignored repeated requests to roll up the window, despite her concerns about heavy smog.

Within minutes, the situation worsened. “After 5 mins, he started hallucinating and screamed at me for asking him to take a turn that he didn’t want to take,” she wrote, clarifying that she had been sitting quietly at the time.

She said the most frightening moment came when the driver suddenly turned off the main road into a dark by-lane. “It was pitch dark,” Simran wrote, adding that she immediately questioned why he had gone off the mapped route and asked him to return to the main road. Instead, the driver allegedly began shouting, insisting that she had told him to take that turn.

She then described a strange exchange that left her unsettled. “He then, after 2 mins of silence, held his ears and said ‘sorry, mujhe aapki shayad energy se sense hua ki aapne bola woh dusri road lo’. How bizarre?!?”

Soon after, Simran noticed another worrying sign. “His eyes shutting again and again – he was struggling to keep them open!” she wrote, adding that this made her fear for her safety. Concerned that the situation could turn dangerous, Simran quickly changed her drop location to a nearby mall. She described it as “the only well crowded place I could find nearby.” Once the car stopped, she exited immediately and moved into the mall as fast as possible.

However, the night’s ordeal did not end there.

From the mall, Simran booked another Uber to finally get home. The second driver asked her to walk around 200 metres to the main road for pickup. She refused, saying it was too dark and she did not feel safe walking alone. “I requested him to pick me up from the mall’s entrance itself. It’s too dark for me to walk over a stretch of 200m,” she wrote.

When she told the driver she would cancel the ride, he appeared almost immediately. That is when she noticed something that alarmed her. “His number plate did not match the car number on your app!!!” she wrote.

She cancelled the ride and refused to enter the vehicle. According to Simran, the driver then began pleading with her to get into the car and offered to show his Aadhaar card for verification.

What followed left her shaken. “This man got out of his car and followed me into the mall, pleading me to believe him!!” she wrote. Despite asking him to stop, the driver continued calling out her name and urging her to get into the car. “He followed me till the mall’s escalator,” she added. Simran said the driver remained parked outside the mall for nearly 10 minutes, forcing her to stay inside until she was sure he had left.

Addressing Uber directly, Simran said such incidents increase fear for women using public transport. “As a woman, there have been wayyy too many times in my life where I’ve felt unsafe in public spaces and been physically harassed, as has literally every other woman I know,” she wrote.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Simran Monga (@thehiecolady)

In an update shared in the comments, Simran said Uber contacted her about 12 hours later. “Update: Uber called me and recorded the entire situation after 12 hours. They have suspended the drivers while they investigate further and the senior management is making a note of this situation to bring about larger systemic changes into the organisation, because sooo many of you here have shared such similar experiences! Thank you for sharing, and I’m really sorry that so many of you have felt unsafe at the hands of Uber! We’ll see how soon they resolve this!”

The post triggered a wave of reactions online. Many users expressed relief that she was safe and anger over what she described. One person wrote, “Omg! Glad you’re safe !! This sounds terrible!” Another added, “Oh my gosh! This is scary. You really kept your cool and it was so smart to go to the nearest mall.”

One woman shared her own experience, writing, “I almost always book a rickshaw, my husband is always surprised why would I do that… it’s just the comfort of knowing that I do have the opportunity to jump off if things go wrong. Imagine being a woman.”

Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content shared on social media. Moneycontrol has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.