Uber adds new safety feature for South Africa

Uber South Africa announced that it has begun rolling out its RideCheck safety feature for drivers and riders in South Africa.

RideCheck uses GPS and other data to automatically detect anomalies, such as an unexpected long stop, and proactively provide tools which riders can use to call assistance.

When a RideCheck is automatically initiated, both a rider and driver will receive a notification asking if everything is all right.

The recipients can let Uber know through the app that nothing is wrong, or take other actions like using the in-app emergency button or sharing their ride location with a trusted contact.

Uber said it would continue to add additional scenarios to the RideCheck safety feature.

“This safety feature brings together many of the features we have developed over the last few years such as the safety centre, in-app emergency button, and trusted contacts,” said Uber South Africa country manager Nduduzo Nyanda.

“It is a great example of how tech can make travel safer than ever before, and will support our efforts to continue to prevent incidents and help set the standard for safety while travelling from A to B.”

“While I’m proud of the progress we’ve made to enhance road safety, we know our work is never done,” Nyanda added.

Uber’s RideCheck safety feature will begin rolling out to South African users over the next month.