A Melbourne Uber passenger found herself caught up directly between an ugly road dispute as a taxi driver forced her car door open and spat in her face.

25-year-old insurance worker Nellie was filming when she was targeted by the Silver Top taxi driver who launched a tirade of horrific verbal abuse at her.

View photos Horrific attack: Taxi driver filmed verbally assaulting Uber passenger. Photo: YouTube More

The South Yarra woman told Yahoo7 she planned to lay charges over the alleged assault that was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.

However she was told by police it would be difficult to pursue the matter in court as Uber was illegal in Melbourne.

Nellie claimed the taxi driver’s aggression was unprovoked and was only in response to seeing an Uber GPS in the victim's car.

The incident happened on Nicholson St about 8.30pm Wednesday night.

View photos Nellie was in the Uber when she was verbally assaulted and spat on by the taxi driver. More

Nellie can be heard in the video telling the cab driver that it wasn’t OK for him to speak to her like he was.

This only seemed to anger the man further, who got out of his car in the middle of the road.

Footage shows the cab driver open the Uber car door and spit in her face.

Nellie told Yahoo7 she had used Uber for over a year after a bad experience with a taxi driver where she was ‘abducted’.

“I vowed to never used them again as a taxi driver wouldn’t let me out of his car when I was trying to pick up my boyfriend,” she said.

“I asked if he could pick him up from around the corner and he kept driving… he basically abducted me for 100m. That was the turning point for me,” she said.

Since then she said she uses Uber atleast twice a week.

Uber is currently illegal in Victoria, it has been legalised in NSW and ACT.

It’s not the first time a war between taxi drivers and Uber cars have spilled out on to Australian roads.

In October a Brisbane Uber driver was severely bashed by believed to be ‘off-duty’ taxi drivers.

Uber recently announced a number of improved safety standards to protect both drivers and passengers on the road.



