Ever gone out at night, had a few too many cocktails and then worried about the safety of your rideshare if you were riding alone? Uber is rolling out a new feature, Safety Preferences, that lets you feel more relaxed about this situation. You customize your safety preferences to automatically turn on within the app, so that when you crawl into that car, you have more confidence that you are protected.
One of the preferences you can set in advance is a PIN verification code that ensures you get into the correct vehicle during late-night drives (or any time that you set). That means that you’ll get a unique-to-the-trip four-digit code that you’ll need to give the driver. The driver enters the PIN into the app so that the trip can start.
Another precaution is that any time you are dropped off or picked up within 54 yards of a bar or restaurant, you can set up a Share My Trip alert that automatically goes to someone you trust that you’ve selected. They’ll receive information on where you are being picked up and what your destination is.
You can also choose RideCheck, which means Uber itself will check in with you if the ride goes off track—for instance, if the driver deviates from the regular course, if a crash is detected, or if the ride has stopped for longer than, say, a red light or a traffic delay. Uber will then reach out to you through the app to ask if you’re okay or if you want help.
Sometimes, you may start to feel uncomfortable about your conversation with the driver. You can ask the app to automatically audio record any ride so that if something doesn’t feel right, you can elect to share the recorded conversation with Uber after the ride has ended. And even if you haven’t selected this as an automatic feature, you can record while a ride is in progress by tapping the blue shield to open your Safety Toolkit in the app, and then pressing the record audio button. In the rare circumstance that something goes wrong, the encrypted recording will be shared with Uber.
Each of these safeguards can be easily set up. Within your account tab, scroll down to tap Settings and then choose Safety Preferences. If a ride is already underway, tap the blue shield that says Safety Toolkit and then follow instructions to set up your safety preferences.
And then...go out and enjoy your night!