- Uber made significant steps to improve safety in recent years by making safety a top priority and putting it at the heart of everything it does as a company.
- New Check Your Ride Push Notifications and In-App Banner will provide a visual reminder for riders of the Check Your Ride steps just before their car arrives.
Beirut, Lebanon – 29th July, 2019: As part of its continued commitment to safety, Uber has made significant steps to improve safety in recent years by making it a top priority and putting it at the heart of everything the company does. Today, Uber is rolling out Check Your Ride in-app reminders and push notifications to all riders across the region where it operates, just as it did in the United States in April.
Over the past few years, Uber introduced a number of safety products so that when you get inside your ride you can feel safe in the knowledge that you can share your trip with your loved ones, you know that your personal details have been anonymised, and should you need help there is a dedicated safety centre within the app to guide and support you. These features built upon and strengthened some of Uber’s core safety offerings such as 24/7 support, GPS tracking of all trips, and the fact that all drivers are background checked.
These advances in safety are important and for them to be effective it starts with the basics, getting into the right car. Using Uber safely starts with Checking Your Ride. Riders should never get in a car with a driver who claims to be with Uber but doesn’t match what is in the app. Every time a rider takes a trip with Uber, they can make sure they’re getting into the right car with the right driver by matching the license plate, car make and model, and the driver photo with what’s provided in the app.
“Last year we launched several safety features in the Middle East and North Africa region, and this is another step as part of our ongoing commitment to Safety. We want the check my ride protocol to become synonymous with Uber. This new notification feature will remind people to complete three steps to make sure they’re getting into the right car with the right driver every time, by matching the license plate, car make and model, and the driver photo with what’s provided in the app. It is another important and visual reminder of the importance we place on safety as well as how tech can make travel safer than ever before.” said Abdellatif Waked, General Manager of Uber Middle East & North Africa.
In addition to these steps, riders can also ask the driver to confirm their name. Drivers see the rider’s name in their app, and the driver’s name is displayed in the rider’s app. To safely exchange names, riders can ask, “Who are you here to pick up?” The driver may also ask riders to confirm their name (“Who’s your driver?”) for their own peace of mind.
As of this week, users will start to see notifications in the app reminding them to check their ride. This notification will become a permanent safety feature and Uber’s goal is to make checking your ride before you get in the car synonymous with using Uber as there is nothing more important to the company than the safety of the people it serves and it’s constantly working to improve.
SAFETY FEATURES IN THE APP
- Check Your Ride Push Notifications: A new push notification to remind riders of the Check Your Ride steps just before their car arrives.
- Check Your Ride In-App Banner: A clear message in the app, starting from the moment riders get matched with a driver-partner until the moment they start the trip, to remind riders how to confirm the right car. Uber will keep this reminder in place for several weeks and initiate it periodically in the future.
About Uber
Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 15 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.
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