Our Commitment to Safety
Written byMillions of people have come to rely on Uber for daily commutes, special nights out, and reliable transportation for their loved ones. Riders are served by the hundreds of thousands of Uber driver partners whose service reduces drunk and distracted driving, meets a critical transportation need in underserved communities and simply makes life easier.
Putting safety first for each of the one million trips we are doing every day means setting strict safety standards, then working hard to improve them every day. We are reminded by the recent tragic event in India that best-in-class safety must be a constant quest. We owe it to all our riders, driver partners and communities around the world to examine what we can do better and then do everything we can to make more progress on safety. Having recently joined Uber to lead Global Safety after building a first-of-its-kind safety program at Airbnb and before that serving in the U.S. military, it’s a mission I am passionate about.
“In November, Uber’s safety team began a global review to assess the areas where greater investment is required. As we look to 2015, we will build new safety programs and intensify others.”
We believe deeply that, alongside our driver partners, we have built a safe transportation option in 260 cities around the world. Every ride is traced by GPS, making it easy for us to work with public safety officials to ensure our communities are protected. Our technology includes a two-way rating system to help ensure only the top drivers stay on the platform and riders are also held accountable. Our app also displays a driver’s photo, license plate number, and vehicle type, so when our riders enter a car, they know with confidence it’s the right one with the right driver. And across the U.S. and in dozens of countries around the world Uber conducts thorough, multi-layered background checks that have resulted in tens-of-thousands of potential drivers being denied the opportunity to partner on the Uber platform.
But we have more work to do, and we will do it. Uber is committed to developing new technology tools that improve safety, strengthen and increase the number of cities and countries where background checks are conducted and improve communication with local officials and law enforcement.
To that end, in November, Uber’s safety team began a global review to assess the areas where greater investment is required. As we look to 2015, we will build new safety programs and intensify others. The review is still underway, but here is our current roadmap:
Executing well in these areas, acting on recommendations suggested by partners and drawing on experience gleaned by delivering 140 million rides worldwide this year will lead to a new standard in safety for transportation. Of course, no background check can predict future behavior and no technology can yet fully prevent bad actions. But our responsibility is to leverage every smart tool at our disposal to set the highest standard in safety we can. We will not shy away from this task.
We will make sure to update you on our progress, and if you have any ideas, please feel free to send them to safety@uber.com.
Thanks,
Phillip Cardenas
Head of Global Safety at Uber