New app features to improve road safety

Road safety is a critically important issue. It’s why Uber is always on the lookout for new ways — from the simple to the sophisticated — to consistently improve the Uber platform and help make our roads safer, and why we have a team of engineers dedicated to helping predict, prevent and reduce the number of crashes on the road.

It’s also why in recent weeks, we’ve been running a pilot program in cities around the world to help improve safety for riders and drivers using telematics data – technology that is already in all smartphones and is widely used across the transport industry. And we’ll be expanding those pilots in the coming weeks and months across all our Australian cities.

We care a lot about feedback from both riders and drivers, especially when it comes to safety. It’s why both drivers and riders can rate each other after each ride. If the rating is low, we ask why. It might be that a driver is unhappy about an unruly rider. Or a rider is worried that their driver was going too fast.

Using this telematics data, if a rider complains that a driver accelerated too fast or brakes too hard, for example, we are able to review that trip using data. If the feedback is accurate, then we can get in touch with the driver. And if it’s not, we could use the information to make sure a driver’s rating isn’t affected.

How will this technology be used in Australia?

As an example of how this technology works, gyrometers in smartphones can measure small movements, while GPS and accelerometers show how often a vehicle starts and stops, as well as its overall speed.

By using this technology, we hope to be able to improve the trip experience for riders and drivers, helping to make our roads safer for everyone.

Coming app features:

• Messaging in the driver app informing drivers about mounting phones on the dashboard.
• A speed display in the app that alerts drivers to the speed of your vehicle
• Personalised daily reports to drivers about how your driving compares to other drivers in your city – with suggestions on how to provide a smoother, safer ride.

Hearing from you

Drivers across Australia and New Zealand will start to see these new features in their app in the coming weeks, and we’ll be organising some roundtable discussions with groups of driver-partners in each city to talk more about the technology and get your feedback so we can share it with our engineers and safety team. For the techies among you interested in learning more about how this works behind the scenes, you can read more on our Engineering Blog.

We believe that by providing people with more choices, we can help them make better decisions; and by using new technology we can improve safety for everyone on the road. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as more of these pilots come to Australia.