Ever had a bad experience from a driver on Uber, but felt that you couldn’t appropriately place those comments in your review? Well, Uber has released a new feature that will allow riders to discretely report instances of poor driving behaviour by their drivers, that may not warrant an emergency but should be dealt with anyway.
The company has been working hard on releasing several safety features that allow riders to report emergencies or press a panic button and get immediate assistance, but nothing that deals with the less serious, but still concerning behaviours – like a driver texting while driving, braking harshly or perhaps making an inappropriate comment. Its new updates to its safety toolkit though are designed to address this and allow riders to communicate these sorts of events to Uber anonymously, without jeopardising the relationship between driver and rider. It also allows riders the opportunity to provide the feedback when it is top of their mind and not just at the end of their trip when their mind is likely focused on their destination activity.
By eliminating barriers to reporting safety issues, our goal is to encourage more reporting which will ultimately help make the app safer for everyone
Uber had initially designed for its feedback system to encourage the proper behaviour by both drivers and passengers, but over time it appears as if the public nature of this feedback has perhaps prevented people from using it effectively and it is hoped that this anonymous system might be better utilised by riders and lead to an overall better experience for their millions of customers.
The feature is being rolled out to the US and Canada markets before it will be released worldwide. I can definitely see value in this across the globe, especially for women. I have no issues telling a driver to get off their phone, watch their speed or refrain from making inappropriate comments. Things which should be commonplace for drivers, but sadly, are still not.
Last Updated: February 20, 2020
