[TusharK]

Uber has introduced new features on its platform with the aim of enhancing the safety of its riders in India, especially women riders and drivers.

Audio Recording

Riders can now record audio if they feel uncomfortable or concerned about their safety during trips. The encrypted recordings are not accessible to the rider, ensuring privacy. Uber does not access the audio unless the rider chooses to submit it as part of a safety report. This feature, compliant with India’s one-party consent law, is available nationwide for riders and drivers.

Women Rider Preferred

Female drivers now have the option to choose to accept only female riders, a feature that is particularly useful during late hours. Introduced based on driver feedback, this optional feature has already enabled over 21,000 trips. It helps female earners prioritise their safety, drive for longer hours, and boost their earnings.

SOS integration

This feature ensures quick emergency assistance by allowing riders and drivers to share live location and trip details directly with police during critical situations. This feature is designed to provide immediate support when every second counts. The feature is live in Telangana. Uber has completed testing in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh and is set to roll out as the State Police greenlights the collaboration.

Riders can now customize safety features like RideCheck, Share My Trip, and Audio Recording to activate automatically.

The company is also partnering with Bangalore-based NGO Durga to sensitize drivers on appropriate conduct and promote gender equity and safety. Through this partnership, Uber will conduct virtual sessions for drivers to understand and address the safety concerns of women riders.

Link to Team-BHP news

[SolitaryRabbit]

Good initiative but thanks to unreliable services (read frequent cancellations), unkept cabs and rude drivers my family and known friends in Bangalore have stopped using all cab hailing apps and moved to local cab services who charge 200-300 more but are much better reliable and safer services. As a result new cab hailing services with newerr electric cars are able to easily capture decent market share. Due to lack of service quality Uber and Ola have lost their class and are only good for hailing at non-peak hours and surviving thanks to the mad traffic and increasing population who prefer not to driver.

[blogslogger]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Uber has introduced new features on its platform with the aim of enhancing the safety of its riders in India, especially women riders and drivers.

Audio Recording

Women Rider Preferred

SOS integration

Riders can now customize safety features like RideCheck, Share My Trip, and Audio Recording to activate automatically.

All great initiatives. I hope Uber's customer care is up to the mark. Unfortunately, all the incidents in Uber have been due to lax driver authentication and delayed response from the SOS team. Hope they fix that on priority.

[am1m]

While it's great to have new features aimed at improving passenger safety, I think it would go a long way if all the ride-hailing apps took care of driver verification and enforced penalties based on passenger ratings/feedback. A big part of the problem is because there don't seem to be any penalties for drivers, based on negative passenger feedback.

[ankan.m.blr]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Women Rider Preferred

Female drivers now have the option to choose to accept only female riders, a feature that is particularly useful during late hours. Introduced based on driver feedback, this optional feature has already enabled over 21,000 trips. It helps female earners prioritise their safety, drive for longer hours, and boost their earnings.

I would appreciate it if Uber could provide an option for female passengers (especially those travelling alone) to choose a cab driven by a female. Will be a good option for female solo travellers returning home late at night from the airport or stations or shopping malls.