Uber has announced new measures to enhance both rider and driver partner safety. The ride hailing company is integrating the app backend with Delhi Police’s ‘Himmat app. This would enable Delhi Police Headquarters to receive the real-time location of a driver or a rider so that they can assign a police station to provide potentially life-saving assistance to them, in case of an emergency.
In Delhi, when an Uber driver or rider uses Uber’s in-app emergency button and if the driver/rider so wishes, Uber can now share their real-time location and other trip details with the Delhi Police Control Room for immediate support.
Shri. Amulya Patnaik, Commissioner of Police, Delhi Police said in a prepared statement, “This new integration with enhanced location services and travel information will help save lives. We welcome the use of technology that enables Delhi Police to react more quickly and efficiently during an emergency. With conscious efforts like QR Card distribution among driver partners, we are happy that private partners like Uber are working with us directly in making Delhi safer for all our residents and visitors.”
This is how this new integration will work:
- To get riders/drivers the help they need in an emergency situation, a user can access the emergency feature in the safety toolkit to talk to Police.
- As an additional measure, a safety expert from the Uber Safety Response Team will call the user and inquire if they want to share real-time location link and a few other details with Delhi Police Control Room.
- If the rider consents, the following details will be shared with the Delhi Police headquarters,
1. Name
2. Contact number
3. Emergency contact number
4. Live link of the current GPS location of the driver
5. Car Details
6. Driver Details - Uber’s Safety Response Team will feed the live location link to the Himmat app back-end and share it to help you get assistance.
Uber and Delhi Police will be extending their partnership to expand QR Cards to more drivers on the Uber app along with possible integration of emergency number 112 to the Uber app.
Uber and Delhi Police distributed over 1,000 Himmat QR Verification Cards to driver partners. Once a rider scans the QR Card, they can access driver partners’ details and vehicle information in the Himmat app, and can report their journey directly to the Delhi Police via the Himmat app.
