Uber India has rolled out several safety enhancements aimed at ensuring the security of both drivers and passengers, with a particular focus on women.
According to a Business Standard report, these features include audio recording, a women rider preference option, customisable safety settings, and an SOS button.
Also Read: Anand Mahindra posts electric SUV video: ‘Don’t try without supervision’
Audio recording feature
The ‘audio recording’ feature allows both riders and drivers to record audio during the trip if they feel uncomfortable.
These recordings are encrypted, stored securely, and are inaccessible to Uber unless submitted as part of a safety report.
This is in accordance with India’s one-party consent law and is available nationwide.
Women rider preference
The ‘women rider preference’ feature allows women drivers to accept only women riders and based on feedback from women drivers, is very useful especially during late hours, enabling women drivers to feel safer.
The company claims to have completed more than 21,000 trips with this feature already.
Uber has implemented both these features, aiming to on-board more women drivers on its platform, which currently is at just 2%.
Also Read: Honda enters EV two-wheeler segment, launches Activa e, QC1 | Details
Safety preferences
The ‘safety preferences’ allow riders to customise safety settings for every trip, such as activating ‘RideCheck’, which detects irregularities like route deviations or long stops, enabling automatic audio recording, sharing trip details with trusted contacts, and so on.
SOS Integration
‘SOS Integration’ allows both riders and drivers to share their live location along with trip details with the police in emerencies for quick and direct assistance.
It has already been live in Telangana for two years and is now being piloted in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Also Read: Nvidia’s new AI tool can create sounds never heard before, could revolutionise music