Uber always seems to be embroiled in some sort of controversy. Whether it‘s illegal drivers or questionable investors – it seems that wherever Uber goes, controversy is sure to follow.
Last year, the multi-billion dollar taxi company found themselves in some serious hot water in India, when a woman accused an Uber driver of abducting and raping her. Now naturally, these are super serious allegations and one that should definitely not be taken lightly.
And clearly Uber didn‘t. The company is now stepping up their security measures by introducing an in-app panic (or SOS) button that will alert local authorities when an emergency arises while you are on your Uber trip.
The new SOS-button will appear in the right hand corner of the app and when tapped, will prompt users to call the police. Users will then have to confirm whether or not they want to call the police and if so, the app will contact the authorities immediately.
In addition to the SOS-button, another new safety feature will allow users to send live, real-time GPS info as well as the Uber driver‘s details, vehicle model and registration to five of the user‘s contacts. This feature is called “˜Send Status‘ and will replace the current “˜Share My ETA‘ feature.
The company has also said that they are doing more thorough and in-depth background checks on all of their drivers.
The new safety features will be rolled out in India first, with an international roll-out set to be on the cards.
I would be the first person to support these new features for South African Uber users, especially in light of what happened to a very close friend of mine recently.
After catching an Uber late on a Saturday night, my (female) friend had somewhat of a traumatic event during her Uber ride. The driver was asked to pull over by police and, upon realizing that he will actually have to pull over, he shoved his (Uber) cellphone under his seat and told my friend to tell the police he is “œa friend dropping them off.“
Naturally, she didn‘t, and told everything to the police, who then proceeded to arrest the “˜driver‘ on the spot. They also discovered various cellphones in his car and concluded that he was not a real Uber driver.
Thus, an SOS-button would have been perfect in a situation like this.
We as Uber users need to be vigilant at all times, but Uber also needs to ensure that their drivers are trustworthy.
The new updated Uber app with SOS-button et al is currently available for Android (in India) with an iOS version expected to arrive soon.
Source: Engadget
