Uber has launched a new feature in Australia dubbed ‘Uber for teens’ that will get high schoolers from A to B, with their parent’s consent, of course.
This feature has only been rolled out in three states, ACT, Tasmania and South Australia to support busy Aussie families.
Explaining the reasoning behind the new feature, the company said, “Uber for teens will give parents added flexibility on the go, without compromising on safety and with parental controls.”
Uber for teens has already launched in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, and apparently has been a roaring success.
To access this service, parents and guardians can invite their teens (aged 13-17) to create a specialised Uber account under their family profile, allowing teens to request their own rides under real-time parental supervision.
For those concerned about their child riding alone in the back of an Uber, the ride-share giant said only highly rated driver-partners who have completed hundreds of trips will be eligible to give rides to teens.
Those five-star drivers will also need to hold a valid Working with Children Check or Working with Vulnerable Person Registration (depending on the state) keeping safety at the forefront of every trip completed.
Teen riders and their parents are given access to a wide range of built-in safety features that cannot be turned off by the teen rider, their parent or guardian, or the driver-partner.
These include a 4-digit PIN verification when they enter their ride-share vehicle, parents and guardians can call the driver whenever; through RideCheck, the car will be able to be GPS tracked and will know when the car has gone off course and parents can live track the ride too.
Another interesting feature is audio recording, so whenever a teenager enters the ride, recording will be automatically enabled for the entire teen trip while keeping privacy protected, according to Uber.
To ensure both privacy and safety are protected the recording will be encrypted and stored on the user’s device, and can only be accessed by Uber’s support team.
In addition to the safety features, Uber said teen riders are required to complete an in-app safety onboarding process and agree to applicable terms and conditions, which incorporate Uber’s Community Guidelines before requesting their first ride, equipping them with information on how to stay safe during their trip.
Driver-partners will also be equipped with useful resources and education modules on how to provide safe transportation for teens.
No word on when this will expand to the rest of the country but if it pops off in Tasmania, SA and the ACT expect the ability to avoid school drop-off in the next couple of months.
More information on the new Uber for Teens feature can be found here.