The ride-hailing app inDrive is upgrading its safety toolkit with some useful new features aimed at protecting both riders and drivers. The updates, announced this week, expand inDrive’s existing Safety Center to allow more emergency contacts, make it easier to share ride information with authorities, and improve in-app communication between riders and drivers.
One of the key new additions lets inDrive’s support team reach out to up to five “trusted contacts” in case of an emergency situation where the user is unresponsive. Previously, the app only allowed designating one emergency contact. The support staff can now view these listed contacts, but can’t edit them, providing an extra layer of security.
The Safety Center itself has been redesigned to be more prominent within the app’s interface. It also now displays all the pertinent info for requesting police or ambulance assistance with a single button press should an incident occur during a ride.
InDrive is also piloting some new communication features like photo sharing and automatic chat translation to help riders and drivers clarify things like pickup locations more easily, even if they don’t speak the same language. The company says these chat functions keep personal data protected by containing them within the inDrive app.
These safety upgrades build on inDrive’s existing security measures like driver verification, real-time ride sharing with contacts, rating systems for riders/drivers to selectively accept fares, and full transparency around final destinations before accepting a trip.
“We’re absolutely focused on protecting the safety of our driver-partners and users,” said Vincent Lilane, inDrive’s South Africa business development rep. “Our company is growing rapidly, so constantly improving is critical.”
The updated inDrive app with the new Safety Center is now available for Android and iOS devices. Existing users can download the update through their respective app stores.
