Uber riders and drivers will soon have the ability to text 911 in the event of an emergency when calling is not an option.
The ride sharing giant launched a new in-app feature in more than two dozen cities in the US that lets users select a text option that populates key information such as the car make and model, license plate, current GPS location and intended destination.
After the information is sent to a dispatcher, the rider or driver can then add information explaining the emergency, and they are able to stay in communication with the operator until help arrives.
The move comes at a time when Uber has suffered many blows to its track record, as it reported nearly 6,000 cases of sexual abuse and 19 fatal physical assaults in its first safety review.
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Uber has launched a new in-app feature in more than two dozen cities in the US that lets users select a text option that populates key information such as the car make and model, license plate, current GPS location and intended destination
Andrew Hasbun, head of safety communications at Uber, said to Good Morning American: ‘We want to make people feel safe when the use Uber.’
‘We want to provide them with tools that they need to get help should something go wrong.’
The 911 assistance button sits in Uber’s Safety Toolkit, which was added in 2018 and is filled with different features to help the rider and driver feel safe while on a trip.
Both parties have had the ability to contact 911 since the roll out of the Toolkit, but the texting option is a new service that has been tested in Los Angeles, Minnesota and Indiana.
The feature lets dispatch track the trip in real-time
‘We’ve had a number of instances where it saved lives where someone who was in a compromised position and it was too dangerous to talk,’ Todd Austin, Dispatch Manager at the Los Angeles Police Department Austin told ABC News.
‘They were able to text us that information, we were able to dispatch help and lives were saved.’
According to Uber, the feature is now available wherever ‘Text to 911’ has been activated by area 911 officials, including dozens of counties and metro areas in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington State.
If a rider or driver does not feel safe, they simply selection the 911 badge in the app and hit the text option.
A SMS text message is immediately sent to the local 911 dispatcher sharing the car model, license plate, current location and destination.
The feature then prompts the user to tell the operator the reason for their message, allowing them to freely text what the issue is and why they need help.
The two are able to communicate while emergency vehicles track the car in real-time until they are able to come to the person’s aid.
The dispatcher has access to a screen that shows the cars journey via a red pin.
Officials noted that that the process of locating the rider or diver can take up to two minutes, but Uber’s new feature provides the information instantly.
The move comes at a time when Uber has suffered many blows to its track record, as it reported nearly 6,000 cases of sexual abuse and 19 fatal physical assaults in its first safety review
Good Morning America confirmed that Lyft is also working on a similar system, but they will reach out to 911 on the rider’s or driver’s behalf.
Uber, which in the past has faced criticism over safety on its platform and has been repeatedly hit with lawsuits over driver misconduct, committed to releasing a safety report in a sign of a cultural turnaround under its new CEO.
The company received 5,981 allegations of serious sexual assault in the U.S. over two years, according to safety review report from 2017 and 2018.
The claims range from unwanted touching and kissing to rape.