This Week: New Safety Features For Lyft, and Driver Revenge?

This week in rideshare news: Lyft has plans to add more safety features for their riders and drivers and an Uber Eats driver takes revenge on a customer after receiving a poor review.

Hey, what’s up? It’s Cecily and thank you for coming back to this week in rideshare news.

Uber and Lyft face 2 big threats to their business model after new California law

You probably have heard that AB5 was signed into law this past Wednesday and I’m sure your question is, “Are drivers going to be reclassified?” Despite the law, drivers will not be reclassified until January of next year. Uber says that they’re prepared to fight in court and has set aside $30 million along with Door Dash and Lyft to total a $90 million ballot measure to provide workers with benefits. Both Uber and Lyft fell that they have correctly categorized drivers and feel that because most drivers want a flexible schedule, that they should not be considered employees.

Now that AB5 is past, a lot of people are asking really how much will it cost and will those costs be passed on to the passengers? And the short answer is yes. And from what some people speculate, the price could be up to a $1.80 per ride for both Uber and Lyft. For example, Uber estimates riders would pay at least $7.65 for a 13 mile ride or Uber pool ride from San Francisco’s Union Square to the airport, which is 20 minutes away without traffic, which still doesn’t really sound that high to be honest. As always, this story is developing and we will have more information as it comes.

A week after 14 women filed sexual assault suits against Lyft, Lyft is announcing its smart check in feature. This feature will help predict if something has gone wrong with your trip. If there’s any delays in your arrival time, deviation from your intended route, or if you’re in a certain spot for too long, you’ll receive a push notification asking you if you’re okay and the same thing will happen for the driver as well. You’ll see things like, did you arrive safely? Just making sure you arrived at your destination and there’ll be a button that says everything’s okay. There’s also a report an issue button and a button that says get emergency assistance, which connects you to 9-1-1.

Lyft also announced a partnership with Rain. Rain is the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. Smart check in will launch this month but by this fall all Lyft drivers will be required to undergo Rain community education.

Lyft to add more safety features for riders and drivers

Currently a 9-1-1 button is in both the Lyft and Uber app. I’m happy to see that they have drivers in mind because there are plenty of drivers who have been sexually assaulted and or worse by riders and or other people. Safety has always been the issue for me. It’s not something that goes away. With every single ride that I take I always think, “Okay, how do I keep myself safe?” And that’s something that I feel that both riders and drivers should do. And then my hope is that the push notifications for drivers as well, so that we can make sure that you remain safe. And I think it’s also cool, too, if a driver doesn’t want to have that sort of thing that they can opt of it. That might be another lawsuit though.

If you’re interested in this article, the link is in the description.

Disgruntled Uber Eats driver gets revenge on customer after negative review

This story just hit the wire. I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with Okay Dude TV. He’s an Uber Eats driver that streams his rides and somehow some way he saw that he received a bad review.

I got thumbs down because I got this motherfucker’s cookie. Got his goddamn cookie. You know what? Oh my God. [inaudible 00:03:30] over this cookie. Holy shit. I’d thumbs your ass down if I didn’t get this cookie. What?

He’s on the app Twitch. Maybe Uber hasn’t caught up with him yet, but yeah. Bad reviews, guys. You give bad reviews and someone just might eat your food.

And for our final, what would you do in this case story, a lady writes, “I know this is a hot topic and I’m sorry to bring it up again, but I want to know what you all would do in this situation. I am against picking up minors, so anytime I get a ping from the high school, I dread it. I locked my doors and asked him how old he was. He said he was 18. I asked him for ID. Okay, here’s where I’m confused. I’ve never asked for an ID, but I just don’t want to take a chance. I know they lie to was all day long. He says he didn’t have an ID on him. At that point do you refuse the ride? I told him how important it is that he be truthful because I can get sued if he’s lying and we get in an accident. What do you guys do in that situation?”

I would cancel the ride. I would cancel the ride for anyone other than someone that was visibly 18 years old. It’s true, most teenagers don’t have IDs. Some do. Those that drive and that work. They are required to get an ID or a driver’s license of course. But there is no way for you to know how old that child is. He could’ve been held back. Who knows? But if he doesn’t have an ID, you can’t prove his age. And when it comes down to it, who was the person that was supposed to know? Who was person that was supposed to ask? The burden is on you. And so I wouldn’t pick them up.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

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Bye. I have my own channel and it’s Aziah’s World. It’s not Ryan’s 23.