Uber, a transportation network company, headquartered in San Fransisco, had assured its users in Nigeria of safety due to innovative safety tools recently put in place.
The company’s reaction was on the sideline of recent security challenges reported by its drivers and users in the country.
Francesca Uriri, Communications, West Africa/Sub-Saharan Africa told source in an interview in Lagos, South-West Nigeria that security of its users was paramount to it and that was why in October 2018, Uber introduced the safety toolkit.
The toolkit was with new innovative features to ensure the safety of its 134, 000 active riders and 9,000 drivers across the country. It was also aimed at raising the bar on safety and increase transparency, accountability and peace of mind for all users.
According to her, since launching the app, Uber had provided millions of people with technology that allows them to get a ride at the push of a button.
This had enabled riders track every trip with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and report any issues within 24 hours with a dedicated safety team.
”With the introduction of the new safety features, the company aims to double down on safety and help make the Uber community safer.
”Features that are introduced as part of the new rider and driver safety toolkit, include: Driver Emergency button where drivers can connect directly to private security response when needed through a third party supplier.
”Speed alert feature which reminds drivers to maintain a safe speed within the posted speed limits.
”Trusted Contacts – riders can now easily designate five friends or family members as trusted contacts and share their trip information which are easily customized in their trip sharing preferences,” she said.
Other features included Safety Center – a new app-housed safety information hub where riders could find information on some of the key existing safety tools in the app:
”It also includes our 24 hours-team, information on the driver and the car, trip GPS-tracking and our rating and feedback system.”
Uriri said that these new safety features will be a phased rollout, and not all riders, drivers-partners will have access to the features immediately.
Uber is available in 13 cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Abuja and Lagos and overall, the Uber network is available in over 600 cities in about 65 countries.
