New Delhi: Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday introduced a number of new features for its ride-hailing and food-aggregation services, including ‘verifying your ride’. This is similar to the one used by rival Ola Cabs, where users can verify their vehicle number through the use of a four-digit PIN.
However, the American company plans to go a step further by introducing a wireless feature, where users can automatically verify if they are in the right car without the need for PIN using ultrasound waves.
“This is a technology we are working on and will be testing it in markets in a few months,” an Uber official said at the company’s event in San Francisco on Thursday.
The company also introduced a host of safety features, including ‘on-trip reporting’, where the rider need not wait for the trip to end before reporting a safety issue in the cab, said the official quoted above.
There's also a real-time identity check for drivers using selfies and basic movements such as moving their heads or smiling.
To make its services more affordable, the company announced Eats Pass, which will provide various discounts for Uber Eats customers that make frequent orders.
It also announced Uber Pass, which provides all-in-one savings such as ride price protection and nil delivery fee on Uber Eats orders, among others, for customers in 10 cities who use rideshare, Uber Eats and, for a limited time, the company’s bikes and scooters, Uber said in a blog post.
For Uber Eats customers, the company will also introduce its ‘utensil opt-in’ programme, where restaurants will not provide utensils and cutlery made of single-use plastics, and customers will rather have to opt in for it.
For its driver, the company is introducing an earnings estimator, which will give the driver a probable forecast of monthly earnings.
Whether any of these services will be launched in India, one of Uber’s largest market outside the US, is not known yet.
Uber did not reply to an email ply seeking clarification till the time of publishing the article.
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