Speaker 1: Uber wants to get serious about safety. I'm Rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech Daily. Uber just announced a
Speaker 1: bunch of new initiatives to help make their rides safer.
Speaker 1: Now talk about a technology that has changed our world.
Speaker 1: I will never forget my first Uber ride. It was
Speaker 1: March fifth, twenty twelve. Well, I didn't remember the date,
Speaker 1: but I did remember I had my receipt in my email,
Speaker 1: so I checked it out. I was headed to a
Speaker 1: tech party in Santa Monica. I was living in West
Speaker 1: LA and they were sending a new service to pick
Speaker 1: me up. It was called Uber. I'd never heard of
Speaker 1: it before, but it was a black town car that
Speaker 1: was going to drive me to the party with kind
Speaker 1: of like a chauffeur. Now, I'd lived in New York
Speaker 1: City before that, so I knew what a black town
Speaker 1: car service was like. But they were prohibitively expensive, so
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that this new service was going to
Speaker 1: make that available to everyone. Now a lot has changed
Speaker 1: since then. They added cheaper versions of the service like
Speaker 1: Uber X and a bunch of others. But a fun
Speaker 1: little fact for you. Back when Uber started, they actually
Speaker 1: used to round down your total fare to make it
Speaker 1: an even number like a flat ray. So my twenty
Speaker 1: three dollars and eighty three cent fare, which was my
Speaker 1: first one, became twenty three dollars flat just wanted to
Speaker 1: reminist for a second. Now, let me tell you about
Speaker 1: the changes coming to Uber all dealing with safety for starters.
Speaker 1: Uber's making a lot of these safety features much easier
Speaker 1: to find, especially during your ride, especially when you're on
Speaker 1: that ride screen. So you can now set up to
Speaker 1: five friends or family members as trusted contacts, and you're
Speaker 1: going to be prompted to share your ride information with
Speaker 1: them automatically at the start of every ride, so you
Speaker 1: don't really have to think much about this now if
Speaker 1: you don't need to do that. If you think that's
Speaker 1: too much, There's also an option to only get the
Speaker 1: prompt to share during nighttime rides, and of course all
Speaker 1: the sharing is opt in. Uber's also adding some nine
Speaker 1: to one to one functionality right into their app, so
Speaker 1: if you need help during a ride, there will be
Speaker 1: a one touch emergency button that will get you help,
Speaker 1: that will connect you to nine one one. Uber's also
Speaker 1: going to do a better job of showing your real
Speaker 1: time location on a map on your screen on your phone,
Speaker 1: so you know exactly where you are, and they're also
Speaker 1: going to give it to you as an address, so
Speaker 1: you can easily relay where you are to an emergency operator,
Speaker 1: even if you're in an unfamiliar place. Drivers are going
Speaker 1: to get those same features as passengers in case they
Speaker 1: need help because it is a two way street. Uber
Speaker 1: is also testing a feature that shares your location and
Speaker 1: trip information automatically with nine one one operators. Now, this
Speaker 1: is kind of tricky to do because it takes a
Speaker 1: lot of integration with all the different systems nationwide, but
Speaker 1: they're doing a pilot right now with this in Denver,
Speaker 1: and the company says that up to ten thousand lives
Speaker 1: could be saved each year if responders get to a
Speaker 1: nine one one caller just one minute faster. That's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Here's another big one I think a lot of Uber
Speaker 1: passengers will appreciate when it comes to background checks on drivers.
Speaker 1: Uber is going to now start doing a recheck of
Speaker 1: drivers every year, both criminal and DMV rechecks of their drivers.
Speaker 1: Plus they're going to use some new technology that sort
Speaker 1: of proactively notify Uber if one of their drivers is
Speaker 1: involved in a new offense. This will include pending duy charges.
Speaker 1: They're going to search public records for that. And I
Speaker 1: think this is pretty smart because there is technology out
Speaker 1: there to kind of tell Uber about this stuff. Now
Speaker 1: they're being much more proactive about collecting it. Uber started
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and nine, and really getting around
Speaker 1: has never been the same. It has changed so many lives,
Speaker 1: so many workflows, and I personally have used it all
Speaker 1: over the world. I mean, I remember using it in Japan.
Speaker 1: Couldn't even speak to the driver, but I was able
Speaker 1: to fire up the app, figure out where my hotel
Speaker 1: was and get home. We used it in China. Had
Speaker 1: a little more trouble there because I used it one
Speaker 1: way and I ended up not being able to get
Speaker 1: back in Uber because the driver tried calling me to
Speaker 1: coordinate some details and I could not speak the language,
Speaker 1: so that didn't work out. But I did use it
Speaker 1: in many cities, or I have used it in many
Speaker 1: cities across the nation. It's pretty amazing when you know
Speaker 1: you can land in a city and get an Uber
Speaker 1: pretty much anywhere you need to go. I've taken it
Speaker 1: to work super early when my car's in the shop.
Speaker 1: It is really unbelievable. And hopefully these safety improvements will
Speaker 1: make the platform even more trustworthy moving forward. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening to the podcast. If you like what
Speaker 1: I'm doing here, please rate and review it in the
Speaker 1: iTunes store or in the Apple Podcasts app. That way
Speaker 1: more people discover it. I'm Rich Jamai. You can always
Speaker 1: find links to everything I mentioned here on my website.
Speaker 1: Just go to richon tech dot tv. I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you real soon.